Welder Thoughts?

[Turtlesprings]

Remember...ventilation is your friend.

 

[yoderjac]

Remember...ventilation is your friend.

Good point. I had other doors open and it was windy out so there was plenty of air circulation. It was just the door next to the welder that I had to close most of the way to see.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm done with the welding portion of my sprayer repair/upgrade:




I added a tray on the back to hold the gas can for the po-boy foamer and added a bracket on the front to hold the air compressor that drives it. I spray painted the raw metal to reduce rust. I'll put all the pieces back together tomorrow after the paint dries.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I got it all put back together this morning. One small glitch. I drilled a hole in the gas can used as a foamer and tried to epoxy a PVC clean-out to make filling it easier. Unfortunately, the PVC slipped and was not centered over the hole when it dried. I had to fill the gap with epoxy. The only thing left to do is to connect one hose underneath. The hose clamp disintegrated when I took it off and I need to get a new on. Here are the finished pics:





Thaks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Things are moving along but my welding sucks. Yesterday, I stopped at an Iron Works shop and they sold me a box of scraps to practice with for $10. The thinnest stuff in the box was 1/4".

I assessed the old drawing table that I planned to be the core of my welding cart/table project. It is 22 gauge and had some threaded adjustable legs on it. They were caps that slid over the end of the legs so it was easy to pop them off. The problem was that the corners of the legs were cut vertically so the caps could be slid over the bottom of the legs. I was concerned about stability.

So, my first task was a challenge. I cut some 1/4" steel and made boxes around the cut part of the legs. When I went to weld them, I realized I could not set the welder high enough for 1/4" on 120v. I had to install the new outlet I previously purchased for a 240 circuit. That went smoothly, but when I checked the panel, the breaker was only 20 amp and the welder is 30 amp, so I had to make a couple trips to Lowes. Eventually I found the double pole breaker to fit my box.

Welding the 1/4" to the 22 gauge without burning through was a difficult. I welded the 1/4" and dragged the pool over to touch the 22" gauge. My welds were ugly but effective enough. There was lots of grinder work afterwards.

After dealing with an inspector at my new retirement property barn this morning, I headed to Metal Supermarket to pick up the rest of the project metal I'll need for the cart/table.

I'm mounting the drawing table on 2 1"x3" rectangular tube that will extend behind the desk for the tanks. I place the desk on them, squared everything up, and welded the 1/8" thick rectangular tube to the 1/4" supports I had welded around the legs. I tried to use the same technique for thick to thin. Again, my welds were ugly but adequate. I then turned everything upside down and welded some locking casters to the bottom of the rectangular tube.

I righted it again and double checked and everything is level. My next task was to work on building a rack above the desktop. I'm using 1 1/4" angle iron for that. I got two of the verticals attached, but it was quite problematic. Because the desk is 22 gauge sheet metal, there are overlaps where the parts fit together. This creates gaps when I clamp the angle iron to it. So, in addition to welding 1/j8" to 22 gauge, I've got gaps to deal with. I've got 2 more verticals to attach, but that will need to wait until tomorrow.

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow to make the description above more understandable.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Here is the picture I promised:



I made a little more progress today. I forgot to order the square tubes for the table legs. The table top rectangular tubes are just sitting on the supports, not welded yet. I need to get the legs so I can remove the supports and use a drill press so that is the next step. The supports are just sitting on 2x4s for now. When not in use, the table should fold up against the cart. The desk drawer makes for a convenient storage place for welding supplies. The welder will sit on top. The rack above provides more storage. I still need to weld in the base for the tanks on the back (facing you).

Hopefully the picture makes the previous post more intelligible.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I found some time to get a little more work done on the cart/table. Here is a pic with the table folded down.




Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bill Loser]

thats some nice work yoder.
Question from a welding newbie, what does the gas do for your welds? I have a wire feed without gas and it seems to work fine , but its pretty much all I've ever used.

 

[yoderjac]

thats some nice work yoder.
Question from a welding newbie, what does the gas do for your welds? I have a wire feed without gas and it seems to work fine , but its pretty much all I've ever used.

Well, I'm a newbie, so others my have more info, but here is what I found. First, I have not tried to weld with flux core wire yet, so I can't compare gas to that. A few years back, I was visiting relatives that had a welder. My nephew, who was fairly new to welding, kind of showed me what to do and let me give it a try. My welds were not pretty, but they were very functional. That was mig welding with gas. When I got my welder, the first thing I did was to practice a bit. My welds not only looked like crap, they were very porous. There was excessive spatter when I welded. It looked like I lost a lot of ground in my welding ability between when I had the first lesson and when I got my own welder. I got an idiot proof welder that has automatic setup, so I was pretty sure the setting were not so far off to be causing the issue. I scratched my head for a bit. I then started working on fixing my sprayer (scroll up for details). Welds were like crap. Finally I figured out what happened. I moved the tank and had to disconnect it from the welder. When I reconnected it, I forgot to turn on the gas. So, I was mig welding without flux core wire and no gas. Once I turned the gas back on, my welds got significantly better. They were no longer porous and there was virtually no spatter.

I can't vouch for this with personal experience, but when I was looking for a welder, I did a lot of research and watched a lot of video. As I understand it, using flux core wire you get more spatter but there is enough protection in the wire to get a good weld. They don't look as nice and they have slag. The shielding gas (I'm using 75/25) forms a protection around the weld so there is very little spatter or slag. The downside to using gas is that it is ineffective if there is enough breeze to disperse the gas before it can shield the weld. Flux core does not have that issue. So, typically one would do flux core if welding outside and gas if you are welding inside or on a very calm day.

Perhaps others can offer more insight.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bill Loser]

Thanks yoder. Thats kinda what i thought, but was always afraid to ask.lol

 

[crowskee]

You can use gas with flux wire. Flux penetrates better so you can weld thicker metal with it. A mig does not like dirty metal, clean everything you weld and attach the ground to with a flap grinding disc. Even if it looks clean hit it with the grinder anyway.
The cart looks good by the way.

 

[yoderjac]

You can use gas with flux wire. Flux penetrates better so you can weld thicker metal with it. A mig does not like dirty metal, clean everything you weld and attach the ground to with a flap grinding disc. Even if it looks clean hit it with the grinder anyway.
The cart looks good by the way.

Thanks....a grinder covers a lot of sins

By the way, that is one of the reasons I got the particular welder that I did. From what I could tell from watching videos and such, mig is the easiest to learn with gas or flux core. I figured mig with gas would be a good choice for and small fabrication I do or for small equipment repairs that I can do in the barn. If I add a spool gun, I can also do aluminum. The mechanical manipulation of the gun seems the same regardless of gas or flux core, so any skills I develop with gas should apply for larger equipment that I have to weld outside. The welder also does stick. I think that stick will handle as thick of metal as the welder can handle, but it will require some new skills. And if I really want to get into it, I can add a TIG kit to the welder. It is also pretty idiot proof for me starting out. You select the process and it guides you through the setup so I don't connect things wrong. You then select the wire and metal thickness and it selects the wire speed and voltage. You can, of course, fine tune these or go into manual mode and do things the way you want. Since I probably won't weld on a regular basis, it should keep me from making mistakes even after I develop some skills.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Bill Loser]

one more dumb one, whats mig and tig ? Mine is a wire fees with flux core and no gas, is that mig?

 

[yoderjac]

one more dumb one, whats mig and tig ? Mine is a wire fees with flux core and no gas, is that mig?

Here is my understanding. MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. I think there are two types of Flux Core wire, gas shielded and self shielded. So if your welder does not take gas, I'm not sure if it is technically MIG. Most MIG welders can use self shielded flux core wire, so I'm guessing if you are using it that way, it is not really MIG welding. TIG stands for Tungsten Inert Gas. I have not looked into it much, so I'll stop talking about it there.

My welder is a Miller 215 which is a multi-process welder. They list it as MIG/Flux Core, DC TIG, and DC Stick. It can not do AC TIG or DC Pulsed TIG. From your description, it sounds like you have a Flux Core only welder.

Hope that helps,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I finished the welding cart/table today. I'll probably paint the cart part (not the table) but I want to use it for a while to see if I need to make any adjustments. Here it is:



Rear view features. Note multiple connection points for the chain so It can hold various cylinder sizes. You can see the rod holding cable hung on the upper right vertical. It also has a 25 foot extension cord for energizing angle grinders, work light, and stuff.



Table side view. Previous pics in the thread show the table setup. This pic shows it folded. Two power strips connect to the extension cord for energizing tools. Upper left you can see the hook for storing the mig gun cable. Upper rack holds angle grinders. Work light is above that.



Front view. You can see the wooden shelf on the bottom rails. Welder sits on table top.



Storage side - Support rack for 25' 240V welder extension cord. Drawer holds welding supplies. Clap storage on top rack.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[crowskee]

That's one hell of a welding cart

 

[Bill Loser]

looks great Jack. Make one for me!

 

[yoderjac]

Thanks! I had lots of issues trying to weld where the metals were different thicknesses. I tried to stay on the thicker metal and just drag the pool to touch the thinner metal, but I did get burn through from time to time. I'm having difficulty manipulating the mig gun as I would like. It is certainly a skill that will take time to develop.

Thanks,

jack

 

[Bill Loser]

I hear ya .I'm making a new maple syrup evaporator for this season and am having a hell of a time welding the pieces.
Im using a barrel and a half welded together. The weld looks like a screen door!

 

[Turtlesprings]

Well done Jack