New to welding, looking for advice, here are some samples Options

[terrymason]

So I spent about 3 hours today with my welder, the first time I've seriously tried welding, and have made progress, but I'm still trying to get it right. I was hoping that you guys could look at some samples of my work, and give me some pointers.

My welder only has a Low and High heat selector, and adjustable wire control. I bought a "how to weld" tape off ebay, and that did give me some help.

I'm trying to weld 20 gauge to another larger peice of 20 gauge, and I just tear up the smaller peice without really penetrating the larger one.

my welder:
(IMG:http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7029/picture0014ul.th.jpg)

front
(IMG:http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1342/picture0039wt.th.jpg)

and back
(IMG:http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9079/picture0066rh.th.jpg)

What do you guys think I'm doing wrong? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[terrymason]

If you look at the front of the L shaped peice (hard to tell from the photos), there are big bites taken out of the smaller peice of metal whereever I try to weld. Is that simply because I'm using a pretty thin metal?

I guess I'm wondering if those are normal looking welds, and if the smaller piece of metal should look so chewed up where my welds are.

Thanks for the input.