kablammyman

I recently bought a Lincoln electric wire feed welder to weld my charge pipes together.
(35-88 amp output range and welds up to 1/8 In. steel. The unit plugs into 115V, 20 amp outlet )

After some practice pieces, I was ready to try it on the actual pipes I wanted to use. The pipe is mild steel 2" pipes. Everything seemed fine at first, and the welds seem to be complete. When driving the car, I noticed I wasn’t getting much boost. I knew of maybe 1 or 2 pinhole leaks in a few trouble spots, but I figured I should get more boost.

After I got tired of little to no boost, I pressure tested each pipe, and I noticed that there were tiny leaks all over at each weld! I was wondering if I should grind down the welds, and try again, or must I upgrade the welder to a true MIG (with the gas kit Lincoln electric sells) to get air tight welds? Or is it that I just need more practice? Any advice to a n00b welder?

thanx.

Smith-02

y helo thar fluxcore! button up your pipe seams, gas welding bridges gaps whereas fluxcore makes them a mile wide.

neuspeedescort

yep a mig is what you need. even then small holes may come about. but simply run water thru the pipes and it will tell you where little holes may be. or you can look at them from the inside witha flash light on the outside. the light will shine thru.


NEUMAN

sikcrx89

if you have pinhole leakes go get you some jb quick and go over eacn weld with moderate amounts and you should be good

Turblow

I got no leaks with my fluxcored welder

I stepped up and bought a Smiley today though

BigWheeze

Practice. to get better welds on stuff crank the volts up a little turn your amps(wire) down a little and spot weld it over laping. Makes a flat weld and if done right a fairly strong one (70000 PSI).

kablammyman

Cool, thanx for the advice guys.

I was thinking of JB weld the lil pinhole leaks too.

Oh, I used both the water and light test to find the holes in the pipes...that’s why I thought I had good welds. I guess there are some leaks that aren’t obvious, so the air finds a path to escape.

I guess I'm going to buy the gas kit a lil sooner than expected...but I'll practice in the meantime with out gas.

Any more tips?

Turblow

Just got over your welds twice and make a fat puddle is call you can do

JBweld industrial tub for $30 will be your best ------- friend with fluxcore

BigWheeze

hehe seting the machine up correctly and an angle grinder with a wire wheel. I set it roughly D and 5.5.

using .035 Lincoln INNERSHIELD NR-211-MP Or CORESHIELD8 or CORESHIELD11 can give you a better weld, less splater and the slag comes off with ease.