Welding Tips and Tricks

I did have several issues blowing through the be bedrails. When setting amps do you base it off of rod size, material size or both? I know experience plays the biggest roll but I have none with stick. Mig is much easier in material sizes. Just a matter of changing volts and/or wire speed. The first time I blew through I panicked and tried some ridiculous moves to correct and fill it. My best move turned out to be stopping, let it cool a second and start back over. What started out the size of bb ended up the size of a nickel.

301 wrote:I did have several issues blowing through the be bedrails. When setting amps do you base it off of rod size, material size or both? I know experience plays the biggest roll but I have none with stick. Mig is much easier in material sizes. Just a matter of changing volts and/or wire speed. The first time I blew through I panicked and tried some ridiculous moves to correct and fill it. My best move turned out to be stopping, let it cool a second and start back over. What started out the size of bb ended up the size of a nickel.

It's both, with stick. The rod can will (usually) give you a recommended range of amperages for the size of rod (If not, you can get the recs from the mfgr.s website), and you select from that range based on material thickness/size. Most rods can be operated outside the recommended ranges, too, but requires a bit more experience to make it do what you want. Usually, if you find you need to go below, or much above, it's time for the next size rod.

Steve

301 wrote:I did have several issues blowing through the be bedrails. When setting amps do you base it off of rod size, material size or both? I know experience plays the biggest roll but I have none with stick. Mig is much easier in material sizes. Just a matter of changing volts and/or wire speed. The first time I blew through I panicked and tried some ridiculous moves to correct and fill it. My best move turned out to be stopping, let it cool a second and start back over. What started out the size of bb ended up the size of a nickel.

One important rule of thumb, don't use a rod thicker than the metal.

Good tips on rod/amp selection. The windmill was really more of an accidental creation between my wife's thinking out loud and me looking for things to just stick together. Now my mother-n-law wants one. With the extra advice from veterans here I'll need to go pick up multiple rod sizes and numbers. Probably should go ahead and pick up some argon and tig consumables too. The things I have to do to keep them happy is rough I guess.
I'm glad I finally registered here. It's been very helpful for me but it feels a bit one sided since I don't have much to offer. Once I have plenty of time with this machine maybe an ameture review will be helpful to someone looking at one.
Thanks again for the helpful hints and advice. Don't worry. I'm sure there will be many more questions

Chris

MinnesotaDave wrote:

301 wrote:I did have several issues blowing through the be bedrails. When setting amps do you base it off of rod size, material size or both? I know experience plays the biggest roll but I have none with stick. Mig is much easier in material sizes. Just a matter of changing volts and/or wire speed. The first time I blew through I panicked and tried some ridiculous moves to correct and fill it. My best move turned out to be stopping, let it cool a second and start back over. What started out the size of bb ended up the size of a nickel.

One important rule of thumb, don't use a rod thicker than the metal.

Same size as the material alright? Say 1/8" 6013 on 1/8" plate?

[quote="301"]Remember the important thing here is not how great or creative this is. The important thing is I'm king for the day and saved at least $30 from her buying something from a craft store.[/


That looks pretty neat, like it wants to fly or something. The smile she had most likely made it worth the fun you had making it

Farmwelding wrote:

MinnesotaDave wrote:

301 wrote:I did have several issues blowing through the be bedrails. When setting amps do you base it off of rod size, material size or both? I know experience plays the biggest roll but I have none with stick. Mig is much easier in material sizes. Just a matter of changing volts and/or wire speed. The first time I blew through I panicked and tried some ridiculous moves to correct and fill it. My best move turned out to be stopping, let it cool a second and start back over. What started out the size of bb ended up the size of a nickel.

One important rule of thumb, don't use a rod thicker than the metal.

Same size as the material alright? Say 1/8" 6013 on 1/8" plate?

I do use 1/8" rod on 1/8" material sometimes. But it's easy to overheat that way.

Drop down to 3/32" is a good choice in my opinion.

Your in the trap now man, going to be making all kinds of stuff for the family now

Here's what I recommend you do, pick up a 5 lb container of 7018 3/32 and 1/8" and you can get 6011 as well.

For what you are doing, 7018 will be the most used one and is also the rod I use the most, I don't stick weld very often any of the things I build, or at least rarely, I am almost exclusively Tigging stainless or aluminum.

Any steel will take 7018, for lighter, thinner stuff, 6011 will come in handy as its a fast freeze type rod so its easier to prevent burn through.

But that's really all you need to swing your stinger.

Fabbing on the other hand, plenty of room to grow your toolbox and knick knacks there .

Stick welding is a great thing to learn. Sort of like getting A gun, and then getting a box each of 30.06, .45 auto, .357 mag and a bunch of .22 to plink with, it will shoot them all. Each shoots different though, for different purposes, all that matters is hitting the target.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Sorry so late getting back but my schedule lately has been super tight. Without much welding experience and not much to offer I'm more of a lurker/learner anyway. The only welding I do at work is aluminum mig. I bought a tig/stick to start learning tig but haven't had time to get gas. All suppliers are closed on weekends and haven't had enough time after work to get there before they close.
Thanks again