January 30th, 2005 
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Mig welding machines can be broken up into four basics main parts or areas that are very critical to the successful operation of the machine.
The first area I will talk about is the power supply. The power supply on any mig welding machine is a key area in which controls many variables. Some of the “made to a price” mig welding machines are very basic in their functions and abilities. Take for example a small 110Volt or 220volt hobby or DIY type welding machine.
A lot of these machines will be made to run at very low maximum amperage outputs. They will have lower duty cycles and often used aluminium windings in the power sources.
Now lets take a comparative look at a tough industrial high workload mig welding machine like an OTC Daihen XD400 or XD500.
First thing you will notice is the sheer size of this machines power supply compared to that of a smaller hobby welder. The maximum power output will be much higher and this machine will run day and night in a production environment hassle and trouble free. The duty cycle will be much longer and there will also be a better current output from the machine which means you will have far superior weld beads.
The second area is the welding torch, or the mig welding gun. Once again on the lower end of the scale, the welding guns that are supplied with the cheapie mig welders are usually proprietary to that particular brand of welding machine. The mig torch welding consumables will not be as “mainstream” and the quality of the actual welding torch can be of much lesser quality and durability, which will lead to failures and lots of swearing and cursing.
Mainstream mig welding guns will offer higher duty cycles, many more consumable options, longer service life and a wider availability of spare parts and consumables. Also these industrial trade quality mig welding guns will be more comfortable to use which means less user fatigue, they will have smoother feeding resulting in far superior welds and if you are in business the reliability of these torches will save you money.
The third most important aspect of any mig welding machine is the mig welding wire. The mig welding wire is absolutely critical in the mig welding process. Selecting a quality mig welding wire is often very hard to do. Unfortunately people buy mig wire on price and usually price only.
Sadly though cheap things aren’t good, and good things aren’t cheap. This is very true with mig welding wire. The cheap wires will have bad copper coatings, sometimes even being sold with rust on the wire itself. The wire diameter tolerances will not be consistent which will result in irregular wire feeding, which will then result in burn backs, which will then result in having to replace contact tips which cost money and then you loose the production time as workers are walking around fixing welding machine feed problems all day.
The fourth and last critical area on a mig welding machine is the earth clamp or ground clamp.
You have to remember that when you are welding, you are simply creating an electrical circuit. And for that circuit to complete you must have a good earth connection. This can be solved by having an earth clamp that has clean contact faces. Over time little arcs will form on the welding ground clamp which will hinder its operation.
Then if you put the earth clamp onto rust steel or painted steel it will be even harder for the mig welding machine to complete the welding circuit. Resulting in the person welding getting angry because his mig welder isn’t working properly.
For further reading please visit
http://www.learn-how-to-weld.com/mig-welding-basics-1.html
Cheers,
Peter Apalais
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Learn the basics of shielded arc welding from an arc welding expert in this free DIY video. Expert: Malcolm MacDonald Bio: Malcolm MacDonald graduated from Connestoga College in 1968 from the Fitter Welding Program. He currently teaches a welding apprenticeship program. Filmmaker: Melissa Schenk
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How do you pick the correct welding shade for different types of welding?For MIG and Flux core welding, do you need a differently rated shade. We have a # 10, and don't know how to tell when we could need a darker shade like a 12 for example. Somewhere we read about looking at a bare light bulb to see if you can see the outline of it as an indicator of needing a darker shade. We are just learning about welding and would like to know when an auto darkening system is better and how to pick a good one.
thanks
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the metal isnt dirty enough to affect it. I certified with metal that looked like that
nice weld
You'll probably need a formal internship or apprenticeship. Especially in this economy, there's no shortage of experienced workers.
My suggestion is that you take one of those 6 week welding courses at the local college.
You just don't start by reading a book.
Now i have an office job, but i have been a welder fitter for 20 years.
Make sure the first thing you buy is a fire extinguisher
The fabrication of hull of large ships is normally done by panels assembled into blocks then the blocks are assembled into sections of the vessel and finally the sections are joined to form the hull.
First, panels consisting of plates and stiffeners are made. In the fabrication of the panels submerged arc welding is most suitable since most of the welding are made on flat surfaces and these can be done using automatic welding machines. Several of these machines can be run by a single operator
.For the assembly of the blocks however, most of the welding operations are done manually because automatic welding machines may no longer be suitable.
Manual arc welding is also used in the assembly of the blocks to form a section of the vessel and also for welding the sections of the hull together.
Dont hold….!!!!
Have you guys seen “You Can’t Weld This!”? It’s pretty funny… The guys over at WeldingMart com had it made! Do a youtube search for it
Do not use welding glass. It does not protect camera lens at all.
Go to a store and buy appropriate filter even a bigger one and attach it to your camera.
you may want to do a search on that (google). That may give u the help u need. Good luck!
you use what is most comfortable you need to be able to see the puddle of molten metal to make sure you have good penetration and a decent looking bead I prefer a glass #10 and a glass cover plate how ever I'm thinking of buying a self darkening helmet as the price has come down to around $ 50 the auto darkening system has been on the market for about 15-20 years my brother bought one when they first came out and paid about $ 275 but the novelty wore off for him you can get a auto darkening from http://www.harbor freight.com Do not look at the light with out a welding lens as you will burn your eyes out!
Hahaha I work at a Sawmill If the welders where I work cleaned all the metal before they welded they wouldnt be welding very much! I see them blast the metal quikly with a torch and then weld away!
18v with 260 wire… I think you should use less wire, more like 190-210. But that’s just me. Weld would look flatter. Have a nice d@y! =)
making a triangle is a good technique
I would like to see that weld cut open and sent to a lab for testing. HE DID NOT EVEN CLEAN THE METAL. Dirty welds have poor penetrations and are set up to fail. People, if you are too lazy to clean the metal, don’t weld.
welding is a physically demanding job, regardless of the type, most of the time you are sitting or standing for long periods of time, but it is also a great trade to have, if your asking about strength, it depends on the job, if you are production welding then you do not need to be very strong, but if you are a welder-fitter you would need alot of strength, because you would be handling material by hand and it can get pretty heavy, basically its up to you to know what type of welding you want to get into, and if you feel that it would be right for you in a physical sense. hope that helps with your question, good luck.
get an arc welder that has at least 200 amps dc
a name brand such as lincoln miller etc
practice with the 6013
switch to 7018 for higher strength
mig welds are strong but brittle they will break without warning if overloaded
and yes i know a lot of shops use the mig on everything
but if they see what i see all of the time they wouldn,t
arc welds will usually start cracking before they fail
on the lighter metals you are talking about the mig would be ok or if you plan to do any aluminum welding
but if you want to go to heavier metal later the arc welder is better
most of my welding is done on 3/4 inch or thicker metal
i will use my mig if it is nonstructural
if you think what i say about a mig is not true try fillet welds on 1/4 inch plate then bend them
very nice hand still
The WPS is the specific directions instructing the welder in how to execute the weld. It would specify method (mig, co2, stick, submerged arc, etc.), material for the base metal and the filler metal, directions of travel, position of the weld (horizontal, vertical, angular, etc), voltage, and similar variables.
Any WPS must be qualified to demonstrate that it produces the weld characteristics that are desired. It then becomes the recipe so to speak for each welder to follow.
A WPS is typically written by a person experienced in welding.