OK. It looks AWFUL. JUST AWFUL. But thes pieces are really and fully attached. Even actually fused like real welding in a few spots. I'm gonna keep practicing a little before I attempt car stuff, I think.
For a cheapie HF wire feed (not mig), it seems to work OK. Who has some good welding tips? I saw something on the almighty internet that indicated there might be primer of some kind? When do ya use this? What do I need to look out for? It's kinda fun. The biggest challenge is starting "in the dark". How easy is it to burn 914 sheet metal up? This is only a two setting unit- high or low. So far I've been using just low.

So here is my sculpture.
Now I really need a good cut-off tool....

It's a start!

The Harbor Freight auto darkening helmets are helpful, or halogen lights illuminating your work piece so you can 'see' with your helmet down.

Now try to fuse or fill in a whole when you can fill lets say 10 1/4" wholes we will give you promission to weld on your car.

Its flux core wire right? For mild steel I think E71T1 is the one to use for flux core .035 in dia.

If you want to learn how to weld, get two plates and but them together flat. Allow for a 1/8" gap between the two plates you will be welding. Fasten them down at the top and bottom with clamps or even a weld tack. The trick is to bridge the gap and burn completely through the metal which should be about 1/8" thick. You need to run just enough heat as to not burn through but still need to weave back and forth from one side to the other and filling the gap with weld wire. When welding, you should see a small puddle of moulten metal which you need to keep wet and stretch it from one end of the plates to the end. If done correctly, it will look like flowing water, about 1/4" wide and slightly convex to almost flat. Just do little even circles in the moulten puddle and it will be perfect. The wire should not bounce as you are doing this but melt smoothly so keep your wire speed in ballance with the heat setting you use.

Thanks folks. The auto darkening helmet sounds like a must have. The E71T1 wire is prolly NOT Harbor Freight spec, right? I will work on filling holes and bridging gaps. Is it possible to get a decent bond upside down? Like on the bottom of a car on jackstands? I'm not even gonna address the potential for horrid burns, just will it work?

So far all of the welding that I have done on my car has been flux core, as I was too cheap to go out and get a gas bottle for my welder. Welding sheet metal is HARD with flux core. You will burn through it, especially while you are learning.

As I understand it, if you clamp copper to the back of the metal that you are welding, it acts as a heat sink and and really helps burn through. Also, the weld is not supposed to stick to the copper.

Of course I learned this after I was done with just about all of my sheet metal welding.

Butt welding looks nicer, but is much harder. when ever possible I just cut the patch slightly larger and welded the over lap. That _always_ worked much nicer and gave me a stronger weld the first time. Course, for body work, that might not be possible.

Zach

yes you can weld upside down, burns are a bitch, but they make coats to helps.

BJH

just my 02: don't go near your car with that thing. use it for mending fence or fixing a plow or something. even if you could get two pieces to fuse with it (without burning holes everywhere), do you want all that splatter all over your car?

AFTER I got it, I started reading up a little more. I would have preferred MIG, but dis is whut I got. I now realize that a mig joint is not only cleaner, it is stronger, too. Well, for the $, it can be a learner. Dr Evil still has my trans, so I get a while to see if I can make this work OK.

If you are going to try to weld body parts with an arc welder you are really going to struggle.......It's hard enough with a good MIG. For best results, no rust, oil, residue, NOTHING! Clean, freshly ground metal will make life much easier.

Get a welding book.

It helps to pre-heat the work piece. Try it in your oven. 350 deg or so. That'll help.

Flux core will help too. But a purge gas is still best.

When you get into the high-end stuff (like your car.) They've proven that sunlight helps in some way.

EDIT:And take lots of time with the prep work. Make sure everything is very clean. Use a metal-prep solution after wirebrushing it clean.

And DON'T get a crappy auto-darkening helmet from Harbor Freight. They suck. They are POS. They're response time is really poor, so you get bad burn-in after a few time off-on.When it comes to your eyesight, get the best. Get oone with a faster response time, or get a traditional helmet (because it'll ALWAYS be on when you're using the torch.)

Interesting that you say that. I checked the specs on a HF auto darkening helmet, and the response time was almost twice as fast as some of the premium name brand helmets. Yeah, I too was surprised.

Andys

The HF helmut is $50. I took a welding class at the local JC for $70 one semester and used their equipment, welding rods and ran up their electric bill. It was mostly arc welding but I learned a lot. I got a mig welder shortly after and it was a simple transition.

If you are using wire feed (not MIG) then you should be using flux core wire.

Flux wire will never make as pretty welds as MIG will, but you should be able to make some acceptable welds after some practice.

I hope you have some good gloves, a good helmet, some welding protective clothing, and a BUNCH of patience. A good grinder and a wire brush will help as well.

Try to keep your welding surface as clean as possible it will keep the brown crap to a minimum.

Another tip is to obtain a piece of 1/4" thick brass. It can be small 2" X 4" X 1/4" or so. You can use this as a backing plate to fill small holes and to bridge gaps. The weld will not stick well to the brass and will support your puddle until it solidifies.

The easiest way to learn is to get a bunch of scrap (the thicker material is easier to do than sheet metal) 10ga or 3/16" and weld them on a table. weld them at 90 degree angles, butt weld them, lap weld them, and try to break them.

Go to the library and find a book (Welders Handbook comes to mind).

Best of luck to you and keep working at it.

I used one for a long time and I still have it for my backup helmet. I never experienced any issues with it other than the head strap breaking. I never got any burn-in, and I used it A LOT! For a hobby welder, I think it's perfect.

Either go with a quality auto darkening or a quality standard helmet. I actually liked the standard "Huntsman" helmet alot- was fun to flip up and down. Proto31 loaned me a used one complaining that he couldn't see a damn thing and was welding sideways when he was trying to weld vertical. So I took out the 1/2" thick prescription bifocles from the PO behind the safety glass and my welds were better then his. Betcha could find a cheap standard brandname helmet on ebay.



P.S. MIG is the sheit. I was an amateur- having had one ten minute welding lesson 9 years ago, then present day ten minutes of practice on sheet metal- then onto my hell hole and suspension console and floors. It all turned out awsome with mig... and easy like Proto's sister.

Try welding with no gap. Gaps are for thicker materials in order to get good penetration. Set the welder to its hottest setting and do short bursts...zap, ,wait....zap again. You want a flat hot weld. Look at the back side of the weld. It should look like a weld, not two pieces glued together. Flux core welders are a poor choice for sheet metal but they will work.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

One should always practice welding on the wifes car first!

The HF unit I have is great! Not one complaint! I think it depends on what they're selling at the time. Most of their stuff is cheap, I agree, but the helmet I bought is not.

If ya can't see for shit when welding ya might want to look into the magnifing glass piece .I weld much better when I can see LOL ok a little better

Looks good, dude.

Come borrow my welding helmet, if you want.

Is your welder a rental?

And by good... I mean for a first try. You may NOT come weld on my cars...

Seriously... come by. Bring some clean workgloves. Hardwood floor installation sucks ass.

I agree with Rusty. Not bad for a 1st time adventure with the welder.
See, in your photo, even the wire stands tall and salutes. That's a joke.
Have to share this link with all of you:
http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/FreeEdIDX.asp
scroll down until you see welding and click. It will teach you to weld even better than Rusty or me. It is a free education site.
Want to get directly to the welding school, click here:
http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/BldgConst/W...elding01_v2.asp
Remember, don't weld on your 914 to practice. Most body shops around have scrap metal of various sizes they will gladly give all you want. BTDT.
Good luck.

Mike Cooley

Edit: Once you click a subject sub frame, to get to the next part return to front page link and click the next sub frame part of the subject. Beats me why you have to do that, but remember, it is free and is quality too..

WOW. Great site, Mike. Thanky much.