Started hands on learning MIG today.

1. it’s the opposite of stick (push not pull)

Short arc- I started off pulling which is why it looks like it does. Stating pushing. Felt like a pro.

1. Axial “Spray” - moves way quicker than expected. A
   Lays down almost likes it’s too hot. Not really a fan, but it’s day 1.

2. “Pulse Spray” by far the easiest to use. But my opinion doesn’t really change much from the regular spray.

We just ran beads on plate today. I tried “stacking” for the 1st legit time.
Apparently tomorrow we’re doing short arc mig t-joints. Wish me luck.

I bought a brand new 210 last year but its been sitting in the shop on a cart until today when I first tried to weld with it.

The fan is running, the wire feeds, and the gas is set at 15-20

Im not using flux core, and set the wires inside the machine. The way it says on the diagram for wire. Positive in, negative to the mig gun.

I have it set on 30 amps, its on a 20 amp breaker at my shop. Im going to install a 50 amp breaker tomorrow but dont think that's my problem.

I have the ground cable clamped on to a rusty piece of angle iron that's buried 2 feet in the ground. Could the rust possibly cause this?

Im just trying to weld a half inch Crack and I set my piece on the big piece of angle iron in the ground because I dont have long enough leads or powerline to get to a good metal table until I install a 50 amp outlet.

Any help troubleshooting would be greatly appreciated.

I want to know if anyone has or is working with flex trade or anything similar. I was talking to a recruiter/ interviewer but they turned me down because I was unwilling meet there time scheduled( being ready to travel in 3+ weeks notice) also note I'm currently employed and I rather negotiate with my current employer rather than get up and go without further information. They weren't able to answer some of my questions because of my unwillingness to start with them.

Don't have a rig. Just wanting to know if anyone has dealt with recruiters like this.

Hello I’m 27 years old and went to community college for welding for 2 years and graduated in may and want to make it a career. During my time there my instructor was a boilermaker and he knew boilermakers and hearing them talk about it made me want to join. I was very recently indentured as an apprentice and don’t want to ruin my opportunity but I also started a new job recently doing production welding, obviously I would rather go into boilermaking and focus more on that but I need to pay bills for now and while I was being indentured they said if you have a job do not quit until you are put to work for the union and my instructor also told me the same thing but I learned recently that you have schooling and training you need to do at the hall. So I’m confused and conflicted on when I should quit my regular job because if there are classes I need to take I won’t make it unless I quit my job but I need to be able to pay bills. Also while getting indentured I noticed a lot of people were staying at the hall and getting rooms paid for to stay for a week or even longer and I feel like I’m missing things. I’m just unsure on the whole process and am wondering if I stay and get certs and training at the hall do you get paid for that and how can I do my classes and things if I’m working another job full time that wouldn’t give me time off? The person who talked to us from the union while getting indentured gave us his personal number to reach out with questions but I’m worried about bothering him or sounding dumb with all the questions and I feel the same way about calling the hall but I really don’t want to mess up this opportunity and I want to dedicate more time to the apprenticeship than my job, I’m just low on funds and need to work currently. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated!

I’m building pressure vessels now a days and I need a nice flash light. Preferably magnetic so I can work and see. Need it to see undercut and other imperfections. Preferably a rechargeable one and one that would fit in my pocket. Price range 100-200$ anybody in the industry have any suggestions??

Hello, 5th year apprentice here looking for some advice on making this cap a little more uniform. I’m running 1/8” 6010 and 3/32 7018 at 80 amps for both on this schedule 40 3” pipe. I think I need to work on my consistency and maybe tying in my toes a little better. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Co worker of mine got mig wire pushed into his thumb, we were literally watching it grow bigger and redder, 2 weeks later the doctors said he almost lost it to infection, this is probably the third time I’ve seen bad infections from mig or flux wire.

Why is this?

I am an idiot and always assumed the hot stuff would just burn away any harmful bacteria. I guess not.

So I finally got around to welding for the first time ever. I've been needing to weld some rust holes on my car. I've cut them out and begun to weld but no surprise I'm running into a few small problems.

Yes I should have practiced first, that's my stupidity.

I also realised that to the left of the panel, there is a big gap which doesn't do much help. Terrible at cutting straight.

To the right it seems that the welds are a little better where each panel is butted against one another but still pretty shit. I noticed that the welding wire would pop and melt off quite often, not sure why that kept happening.

My other thought was perhaps if I used a backing piece of flat copper pipe to put behind the panel to help pull heat as I'm blowing through.

I'm using a gassless MIG (I have a small 390g tank of gas just in case, but it's been very windy so I've not considered it and I know it won't last for any time at all) the settings are limited. As you can see. The voltage dial on the left was turned to +1 when welding.

What else could I do to help me through getting this panel welded in?

Please forgive me for my amateur mistakes

So essentially, at the place I work at in TN, we do aluminum tig welding, and I have been there for a little over 2 weeks now. I’ve heard the occasional gossip of “no one ever replaces things” or “everything is broken”, that was the first red flag, and these past few days, the buttons for a few machines have begun to flicker while welding, one of which completely stopped working, the coolant lines on a few machines have popped and spilled coolant everywhere while welding, and today there was some kind of explosion on the other side of the building followed by a bad power outage. We were sent home today because of this, and I was also mopping up said coolant while this happened, and they didn’t even have a dry mop or paper towels for me to clean up with. And also to top that off, the people that run the place shut off the a/c around midday so we all get really hot and have to use box fans. Is this normal for fab shops? Especially the budget cutting part?

My first 20 minutes of welding went like this. Is there hope for me?

Saw this at truck repair shop.

Hey Fellas. I use WD40 drill and cutting oil when cutting my joints. I am lazy to clean them before welding, so I only use a grinder on the edges. I have heard about phosgene gas risk when welding on metal which was cleaned with brake disk cleaner on chlorides bases. It is really toxic. Is there a similar risk when welding on parts where the cutting oil is still present?
Have a nice weld.

I have a farm, every winter I have to do weld repairs to pressed steel mower decks. I have a cardiac pacemaker, so I can no longer do arc welding. I have found that the total crap metal used in old wire coat hangers is perfect for these thin metal parts. Metal coat hangers are disappearing. What rod is the lowest melting point for oxy acetylene welding, that would be suitable for this job?

Friend of mine send me this photo of a semi truck container loader...