MIG welding newbie - First attempt

[SirTainleyBarking]

All good advice.
For practice when I first got a mig, the missus nipped down the breakers and basically said, I want a wing, not too concerned about condition, needs to fit in the boot of an Audi 100, the old man is practicing welding....

She drove out of there with a shoddy wing off a Mk1 Metro. (This was a good few years ago)

Taught me the importance of getting paint off and getting the metal CLEAN. That means rust free and making sure there is no underseal / clag / paint there either
Also being a single skinned panel you could check for weld penetration as well.

The actual welding IMHO is the shortest bit of the repair. The prepping, shaping and finessing of patches and sections is the bit that takes the time.

The main thing of course is practice x lots.
When I have to do welding and its been a while, the results at first do sometimes look like a strafing run by seagulls on ex lax. It tidies up after a few goes.

[megadethmaniac]

Practise lots and a big bottle of gas...

If you want a cheap bottle of gas 2 options rent free or contract and if its the latter then join vokeszone and get on their BOC deal

[marknotgeorge]

I second the Volkszone deal. It's proper welding gas, unlike CO2 pub gas, so makes it easier to get a good weld. They're the Y size bottle, which'll last a hobbyist ages. I'm only on my second because I left the gas valve open and it leaked slowly over time.

Visit mig-welding.co.uk too, it's an excellent resource. I'd suggest going down your local steel stockholders or metal fabricating place with a brown beer token or two, and getting hold of some offcuts. This way you can practice your technique on decent steel without having to worry about rust.

Finally, if it ain't shiny, you can't weld to it. Mig welders really don't like rust, paint and other contaminants. Having said that, you can get weld-though primers, which are useful to protect areas that will be hidden once you've welded, such as the flange on a sill. The best I've found is Bilt-Hamber Etchweld.

Have fun!

[jpsh120]

Cheers guys. I collected the welder this morning but not had chance to have a go as I need to get some gas. My mate has given me a large empty cylinder and there is a welding supplies place round the corner from my office so I will get some on Monday.

[rich.]

good luck!

[megadethmaniac]

went to my local steel stockholder let them know what I was aiming to do and what I was after and I was taken out into the workshop and they let me have their offcuts for nowt. The guy was happy when i offerred up £5. He suggested rather than go through the office next time "just come into the workshop and find someone. Guess he knows that when I am happy with what I have dome thatI`ll be coming back for sheets of 1mm.

[jpsh120]

Hi guys, thought I would give you a quick update. I had my first attempt last night at some test welds and it went OK. I think the machine needs a bit more setting up and I also think from what I can understand reading ‘how to’ guides that maybe I didn’t have enough gas flowing.

I ended up buying some Co2 purely down to cost, question is, would it be worth getting some of this instead;

http://www.hobbyweld.co.uk/default.php?page=35

[Luxobarge]

Hi,

The Argon CO2 mix is excellent for welding, and will get you better results, the Argon makes it much easier to achieve that "bacon frying" smooth sound when welding. However, the nature of Argon gas is that it's difficult to compress, so the manufacturers can't get so much in a bottle, so you'll find it runs out much quicker than pure CO2 which is very compress-able, so a given sized bottle will last quite a bit longer than the sames physical size of Argon.

So, Argon is better/easier but works out quite a bit more expensive in my experience. Mind you, that doesn't stop me using it, I use it for all the tricky bits of welding, but you might be better off using CO2 for practicing.

HTH

[arceye]

I use the Hobbyweld 5, its the only non contract gas I've been able to get with being up in wilds and I have to go 120 miles to get that. I find it pretty good value, there are a few suppliers that do a similar mix of gas so it might be worth a price comparison if you have a wider choice than me.

Using a proper mix you will get a cleaner, smoother and I find slightly hotter weld than with straight Co2, as Luxo says it does seem to run out quicker than Co2 of a comparable size bottle, I used pub gas for years and that was always good value but you have to make sure it is the pure Co2 stuff, some contain nitrogen which is no good. Depends what you want but I'm deffo happy with the hobbyweld stuff. Either way I'd reccomend you steer clear of disposable Co2 bottles as they cost a fortune compared to the other options.

[jpsh120]

Cheers guys, sounds like co2 will be OK for now, maybe if I progress to more visible welds the argon mix could be worthwhile.

I paid £20 for the co2 refill from a welding suppliers 2 mins from my office, the closest hobbyweld stockist is only 10 mins drive so not a problem either. I'm not sure how the cylinder sizes compare, mine is approx 3ft tall, don't know about the hobbyweld cylinder??