sheet metal welders...WTF am I doing wrong

why is that a question....

 

This thread is hillarious.

Thanks guys..

Oh, by the way, I may just have learnt a thing or two.

 

You spell it your way in your country...... Eh? Mandatory trade? You mean EVERYONE in Alberta is a weldor? Who does the wood working there?

 

Woodworkors, cabinet makors, carpentors, and whittlors?

 

Spelled the same everywhere, take a look at the AWS for reference.

http://www.aws.org/certification/CW/QC7-93.pdf

A mandatory trade means that anyone working in the trade in any capacity as a welder must be ticketed. That means mandatory apprenticeship enrollment and training towards the Journeyman certification.

 

The HAMB is great. Technical advice and drama all in one place! I have had some problems with my Lincoln welder as well and never knew about changing the polarity when I switched it over for gas. Bought it used and never had a manual. I did always wonder why I could weld better with other peoples machines than I could with mine. Thanks for the information, just changed the polarity on my welder and can't wait to give it a try. Glad I read this thread.

 

Here's my stir seeing that I haven't posted for a while


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
<!-- /tagline --><!-- subtitle -->
<TABLE style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em; WIDTH: 22em; FONT-SIZE: 88%" class=infobox><CAPTION style="FONT-SIZE: 125%; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Welder</CAPTION><TBODY><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" colSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" colSpan=2>Welder making boilers for a ship, Combustion Engineering Company. Chattanooga, Tennessee</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" colSpan=2>Occupation</TH></TR><TR><TH>Names</TH><TD>Weldor</TD></TR><TR><TH>Type</TH><TD>Vocation</TD></TR><TR><TH>Activity sectors</TH><TD>Construction</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
A welder (also weldor, which term distinguishes the tradesman from the equipment used to make welds) is a tradesman who specializes in welding materials together.

 

Great thread to read, does this make all of us Hot Roddors?

 

^ The thread certainly makes several of us complainors, that's for sure.

 

LOL well I learned a few things and laughed a good bit too. Love the HAMB.

 

need a beer .

 

It's aweful big wire for this welder, and this purpose. Wire size, gas can mess with your ability to successfully weld. Especially if you are inexperienced, as the OP obviously is. You don't use a stick welder for 16/18/20 gauge either.

 

I'm not a welder by trade but I have had several MIG welders and all of them instructed me to change the polarity of the leads when switching from flux cored wire to solid wire and gas. I also use .023 wire when welding in floors and patch panels.

 

I bought a Lincoln 100 weld pak probably 15 years ago and welded up my frame on my Hotrod. I used gas and .030 wire. I could actually have burn through with the setting on high.
Since then I upgraded to the 180 220 volt Lincoln. Since welding alot heavier stuff.
I kept the 100 weld pak for sheetmetal work but to tell you the truth, I haven't plugged it in since buying the 180. The 135 SP should be able to handle anything on a car. Oh and I had 4 years of welding school 30 years ago. All we did was Oxy/ acetylene and arc. Things have changed alot since then as far as equipment but fusing metal together is still the same. Penetration, penetration, penetration!!!

 

Learned a ton from this thread and I'm about to tackle the floor pans on my 55 wagon so I really appreciate the info. Gotta say though, all this penetration talk has me excited.........

 

Now that wall-mart sells welder's. I'm a fabricator too!

 

I can't belive this has gone to four pages, with most of it filled with crap.

I'm going back out to weld with my too big of wire now

Thanks for evryone that put in some good info though

 

Everybody has to start somewhere... even if it is at Wal-Mart.

 

Just sayin, if you don't know about the polarity change, maybe you shouldn't make it harder on yourself. Never said it couldn't be done. Just a little harder to control. turn it up to 11 and burn.

 

.035 is oftly big I would'nt say .030 is!!

 

crap on the bottom of floorpan coming into the weld puddle and or zinc coating on old metal

 

10 years guess i cant say i have ever used a small welder with flux core wire never had to so never ran int this problem but i have ran them on gas and thats about it

 

put a couple pop rivets in the floor connecting the new metal to the old metal and ground clamp on the old metal side.it sounds like you grounded the new metal when you say the bead looks fine but when you drag over to the old side it gets bad indicating a loss of ground to the old side.also what kind of shielding gas are you using and flow rate.any of those small 110 welders should weld 16 ga.sheet with no problem.

 

the polarity was your issue dude! for the guys using tri-mix unless your doing food grade stainless your wasting lots of money on gas because that shit is expensive. when did walmart selling welders?

 

I'm not a welder by trade, but I do know you have to change polarity when going from flux core to 75 - 25 gas wire feed. Also my ground for my garage breaker was'nt good. Had to put a new 4" rod in the ground for the breaker panel.

 

I'm just adding fuel to the fire for laughs. He already got good advice and figured it out. How many more will respond to this thread?!?

 

I'll respond again??

 

There are two things in life where penetration is really important.....and one of them is welding

 

I'M not a welder by trade, but when switching from flux core wire to solid core wire with 75-25 gas you do have to change the polarity in you welder. Been there, done that, just like the directions on the welder door says. I also put a 4' rod in the ground for a ground close to my breaker box by the garage.

 

hahaha now thats funny!