When i tested on scrap metal i had nice flat welds and good penatration on both peices of metal, when i started on the truck it started out good then i started getting puddles and it took some grinding to knock them down. so i don't know where i went wrong.
I started tring to fine tune the welder but then i burned through in a couple places . So i grind everything smooth and start over and again i start good then puddles. I have mig with shielding gas and .023 solid wire, guess i will just have to keep practicing but any tips is welcome.
Got the patch welded in but it got a little frustrating so i took a break, i want this to be enjoyable, not apita. This is my first try on body work so i will try to keep that in mind also.
Craftsman,
As a bodyman and heavy equipment mechanic by birth, I have welded a ton.
My best advice to you follows, beyond that it just takes practice.
1 - Make sure everything is clean and fits tight, I use a width of a penny as a good guideline for butt welding gap. Be sure that there is no undercoating or galvanize to off-gas from behind as well. Think of how a mig welder uses gas to shield, anything that gets hot and "off gases" will interfere with a good weld, thats why it needs to be clean
2 - My biggest advice to beginners is "Always weld with 2 hands"......to which they say "whatever" until they try it. You will be amazed how much better this makes you immediately
3 - Make sure you are using a light enough colored shield and have your face right in where you can see the arc. You have to watch where your arc flows. With a Mig I use a #9, but watch going to light you can hurt yourself. However, if you are trying to weld without looking right at the arc, you need to start looking
Hope this helps
71 F-100 SB 4x4, 461 FE, Edelbrock Pro-flo 4, 4 speed, 4 inch softride lift, all poly bushings, integral PS, most mods installed since the 80's
70 Mustang Sportsroof 489 FE, EFI, TKO-600 5 speed, 4.11s Engine building by-appointment only--30+ years, specializing in strong street pump gas FEs
Thanks for the tips. I will try them.
I was having trouble keeping the wire out a 1/4" from the end of the tip. How close should the end of the hose be to the weld for the gas to be effective?
I did have the side i was welding ground shinny and clean but didn't on the inside, could this have been part of the problem?
Thanks again
Here are a couple of other things, they may also apply
Dont let your torch hose kink or even have a slightly sharp loop, the wire will come out choppy and a non consistent speed.
The ground can kink its only electricity, but you want the torch line as straight as you can all the way from the welder. Think about the welder having to "push a wire through a cable" cables love to pull, but pushing is harder
As far as where the wire sits in relation to the tip, I'd worry less about that and more on what you see at the arc, 1/4 inch is good enough more or less, but more importantly you dont want to stick the end of the wire in the tip and you dont want to push too much wire into the weld and cool it down, thats where the practice comes in more than the setup
As far as a dirty inside of the panel, you dont have to grind the inside of the panel, but if there is something that smokes on the backside, to some extent it will get in the weld, depending on what the material is, will depend on how much it affects it. So the bottom line, every little detail along the way adds to the complication, and what a more experinced guy may be able to make up with a little torch movement, you may need to eliminate the issue all together
As far as temp versus wire speed.
What I tend to do on light stuff is listen for the start of the weld, if you get a clean sizzle like eggs frying, the weld is burning in, your temp is close.
Then I push up wire speed until it is coming too fast into the arc and/or pushing back on the torch as I weld.
Remember, less wire speed = more heat, more wire speed takes away heat, so for the most part, once you get heat close, you tweak wire speed for your comfort
Now with that being said, to butt weld sheet metal, even the best of us wont do a continuous bead
I'll do a zap-sizzle about 1/4 inch long, then go to a cool spot, do it again further up, and get the whole panel solid, then I'll grind and clean it all up and go back and try to fill in the spaces until it can handle some continuous heat.
It usually takes a few tack, short weld, and grind cycles to create a heat sink that will let you just weld up the gap, until you build a few bridges across the gap, the heat is very hard to manage
Heavy stuff is different of course, but with sheet metal its all heat and off-gas management.
Heavy stuff you add heat and let it burn in LOL but your sheetmetal will shrivel and burn if you do that
Good luck, you'll get there
71 F-100 SB 4x4, 461 FE, Edelbrock Pro-flo 4, 4 speed, 4 inch softride lift, all poly bushings, integral PS, most mods installed since the 80's
70 Mustang Sportsroof 489 FE, EFI, TKO-600 5 speed, 4.11s Engine building by-appointment only--30+ years, specializing in strong street pump gas FEs
That said I also use the tip distance to control the heat while in the weld since my welder only has four heat settings. Sometimes it doesn't want to weld clean on the lowest, but wants to blow out on the second so I run the tip a little farther away so it dissipates some heat and it welds much better.
Like most things, practice with some junk until it welds nice and go from there.
Thanks a lot, i will be getting plenty of practice, and i will get some more scrap metal to practice on.
I appreciate the time you guys took to giving these tips
Craftsman ,
Having any luck with your welding?
I just read this post, and after welding everything from 1" to .105 plate.
Pipe, angle, and most every other shape in between, i agree with everything afore mentioned.
The one most important thing to remember, is practice. The more you learn your welder, the more different materials and settings you try, the more you will learn about your abilities, and the better welder you will become.
Welding is a art form, it takes a touch, a knowledge not only of your welder, but your material. Learning to listen to your welding, can sometimes be more of a benefit than actually seeing it.
(It took me three weeks, at two weld attempts a day, to weld one inch plate, with 100% penetration) It wasn't until i "listened to it", that i got it right.
Good luck.
Two-bit
Living life full throttle on the North Coast of America!!!
I have also been welding since I was a boy, everything from coffe cans to 4" thick dozer blades, stick, TIG, MIG, dual shield, gas and carbon arc cutting.
The biggest thing to know as you start learning to weld is that it isn't just point and shoot. You have to learn how to react to how the arc sounds, how it looks and learn how to control your muscles and move your body in new ways.
Practice, practice, practice. I've taught people to weld that have laid immaculate beads in 5 minutes and seen others take years to figure it out. Having a good teacher goes a long way to really becoming a good welder.
As a beginner, one of the biggest pitfalls and potential setbacks is setting up the machine. An experienced welder can not only adjust the machine to perfect without thinking, but can also usually compensate with screwed up settings to still lay nice welds. Making sure everything is set right and playing around with different heat and feeds will help you get a feel for how they effect the process.
For me personally, seeing the arc is the last thing I worry about. My eyesight sucks to begin with so most everything I do under a helmet is by sound and feel.
I recommend people first learn to weld with stick. You get a much better feel for how the process works with stick. Plus, there's not many things cooler than a perfect vertical multi-pass 6011 weld.
Well, i fill like i am getting a little better,i did have a day or two to work on it but for the most part i haven't really had a lot of time to work on it. The time i did work on it the welding process went better,
i was tring to learn the welder and try some of the tips i have received. One thing i found that was my problem is the metal i welding was fine on the front side but pitted bad on the backside, which means there wasn't enough metal there to weld, so i cut it out untill i got thicker metal with no pitting. That is when the welding went better, but i still need that practice. I seem to be haveing trouble seeing the wire penatrating both metals, i'm in where i can see the arc but i don't really know if i'm stopping to soon or what, i'm afraid if i keep it on there to long i am going to burn through.
I took a stick welding class a few years ago and it sure is different, i didn't have any trouble seeing the 2 metals being penatrated, but with the mig i am. Maybe it's because of the larger rod with the stick. Thanks for the additional tips.
so i don't know where i went wrong. 
. So i grind everything smooth and start over and again i start good then puddles. I have mig with shielding gas and .023 solid wire, guess i will just have to keep practicing but any tips is welcome.
less warpage and burn through/over heating.