Welding technique

[southerly95]

After some practice I have have welded a patch on my daughter's inner rear wing, it seems to have stuck ok as I can't lever it off! The difficulty I have is that I can't see how close I am to the work when the welder is live. It seems to be better the closer I am to the work as the sizzling gets quieter with better flow.

Same for everyone I guess but it seems as though the hood is almost touching the work. Is this correct or do I have settings wrong? Also I can only do short stretches as can't see where I'm going!

Tips/suggestions welcome, regards, John

[MarkyB]

What sort of welding mask are you using?

Top tip is get an automatic one.

[bmcecosse]

Yes - you NEED an auto darkening helmet - and no the hood should not be that close to the work. You should be able to clearly see the wire as you weld - hood about 1/2" to 3/4" away from the metal. I suspect you need faster wire feed and more amps. But without that helmet -it's not easy to do without risking burning your eyes.

[katy]

It sounds like you have too dark of a lens in your helmet. You should have about a #9, or #10 at the most. Any higher # lens will be too dark for MIG welding. Too light a lens will be hard on your eyes.
HTH

[chickenjohn]

The Mig nozzle should be about 1cm / 1/2 " in old money, away from the work piece. But you should really learn to weld properly and acquire other skills before starting work on a classic car.

Restoring a car is a lot more involved than just getting the Mig torch nozzle distance right! The best thing you can do is enrol on a night school restoration course where you will learn to weld, paint and all the techniques needed to restore a car.

You also need to ensure the welder is set up correctly, and cut and shape your patch to enable removal of all the rust. Then scribe the outline of the patch onto the car, and cut the rust out accurately to enable a nice clean butt weld to clean metal of the car. Grind the welds down and paint and seam seal both sides of the repair to prevent rust re-curring.

[southerly95]

Thanks for replies, I'm using the welder at the link below set to minimum, mid power setting 2 and wire speed 5:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ig-welders

Also using this head gear but have forgotten to reduce the setting from max (duh):
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... s--goggles

I am also working at night using a halogen floodlight so the headgear keeps going black depending on the position I'm in and usually as I'm about to start welding!

PS we don't have car resto training and facilities within a hundred miles so would have to consider a weekend course to improve.

[bmcecosse]

Practice makes perfect !

[chickenjohn]

Thanks for replies, I'm using the welder at the link below set to minimum, mid power setting 2 and wire speed 5:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ig-welders

Also using this head gear but have forgotten to reduce the setting from max (duh):
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... s--goggles

I am also working at night using a halogen floodlight so the headgear keeps going black depending on the position I'm in and usually as I'm about to start welding!

PS we don't have car resto training and facilities within a hundred miles so would have to consider a weekend course to improve.

That is a good welder. Looks like you have the settings about right, 2min for thinner stuff (inner wings etc), 2 max for thicker- chassis/ sills etc). I Have a simmilar welder to yours- a Clarke 150TE. They are just about the best bet for a budget welder. If you can afford it, try using Argoshield as this makes the weld easier and neater than pure CO2 (although I use CO2 at home).

As for distance, I'm ~60 miles from the nearest college course. It is worth the traveling to get the training. Invaluable, really to learn the proper way of restoring from guys who know what they are doing.

As for lighting- this is one of my bug bears too. I've found the hand held strip light workshop inspection lamps are the best for welding/ grinding on a car. I use a couple of these set either side of the workpiece- bright enough to see, but not so bright they set off the auto-darkening helmet.

[1mustard]

If you are not totally happy with your welding, get some sheet metal or old off cuts and practice on a bench, try different angles, settings, wire speed, gas flow etc you will eventually get it how you want it and you can tell by the crackle if its a good weld, not enough penetration will leave you with ''bird mess'' welds too much and you will be blowing holes in it.
As for a mask a hand held one is perfectly good just make sure you have the correct lense i have used these for years in the trade and never had one problem, clearly the auto darkening helmet which is fixed on your head is better as you can use both hands, which is ideal when just starting, like the others say practice makes perfect!, good luck!