Blahman240

me and my friend just bought a mig welder, we are total noobs, we've been playin with it trying to learn, but its not easy. At first he was just burning holes in the pipe, then we started to get it a little bit. But its still very sloppy and not easy to weld things together. I mean sure tack welding is easy... but say I had to weld a pipe to another. How would I make a clean weld? HELL, even a weld that would hold! Slow zig zags?

What are we doing wrong? Any tips or advice?

Minor Threat

Clean. Turn up the heat, slow down the wire. It's 90% prep work, 10% welding.

Blahman240

What kinda prep work?

btw its a non-gas welder.

Minor Threat

Grind it/sand it till it's bare metal is best. If it's dirty, it won't weld well.

I can lay nice beads with a fluxwelder, but I sandblast the parts clean first, then wash them, then weld them. And fitment has to be near perfect.

90dx

You want the cleanest surface possible to weld.If you have a flapper wheel for the angle grinder it works great.Just grab some old pipe to practice on and play around until you find the right mix of heat&speed.
Here is a link to download the Haynes welding manual whiich has some usefull tips etc.http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3286331

MikeJ-2009

If it's a non gas welder, than put it off to the side until you can get a gas one. Flux core is bullshit.

Welding= F1 racing
Flux core= riding a powerwheels practicing to run the race (F1= welding)

Minor Threat

Fluxcore = HMT

Ravage70

anybody can gas weld
fluxcore is skill, that ---- is all over the place
its like trying to tame a mature monkey

Blahman240

Really? So gas is easier? Cause we could take it back and get a gas welder.

crx90rcr

yea im getting the hang of the welder at my school but we dont have flux core or sheilding gass but i can still make a bead lol and ive been welding 5 days for 50 mins each day