120-volt Mig welder w/ Flux core-SS.

Just thought I'd pass along this picture I found on a welding forum. Fillet weld, (2F) on 1/4 inch plate with a 120-volt Mig welder with flux core-SS. Now that is pitiful if you ask me! :shock:

I'm assuming they cut the piece "in half" (or something to that extent) from the look of the picture.. Yea.. does not look good at all.

I been taking welding classes at the local CC since January, tonight was the first I did any MIG welding with their welders. At the first, it was quite clumsy, and I'm still having a touch trouble getting it dialed in just right, but after running it for a couple hours tonight, I truly don't know how I ever did much of anything with my 110 flux core wire welder. (of course, tack tin over rust holes and fix expansion chambers on the snowmobile is about all it ever did)

I am mildly disappointed though.. I took a cast iron "manifold" part in off my tractor tonight to get the instructor's take on how to go about fixing.. He recommended to preheat and TIG it.. to which I asked him to show me how to TIG so I can practice and get it fixed.. He told me NO.. and said he'll doctor it up for me tomorrow, to come get it on Friday.. Kinda disappointed me, but if he does it, it'll likely hold up better LOL. Guess I'll have to wait till I get through the MIG assignments to learn TIG.

The whole bad thing about school is ya get to play with the "modern" and "good" stuff.. When I have to do stuff at home, I get to play with "obsolete" and "junk".. Just not as much fun at home!

Brad

I took a broken cast iron fire extinguisher bracket off of our fire truck in to the C.C. welding class for repair. I built a furnace out of fire brick, preheated it with a couple rosebuds, welded it with a torch, cooled it slowly in a container of hot airslaked lime, and the following week the instructor proudly held it up for the class to see my beautiful work. After class I took it out to the car, and when I dropped it in the back floorboard, it fell in half.

I never mentioned that little detail to the instructer. Figgered it would break his heart.

Paul

PJH,

I got a laugh out of that one. It reminds me of my dad back in the fifties. He took a broken cast sprocket to a welder to weld it up. He hauled it home on the floor ahead of the back seat. He heard some clinking noises on the way home and it was in pieces again when he went to pick it up. )

In a fit of desperation I picked up a 110 Mig at Harbor Freight last summer.
The hitch on my haybine had split and was sagging bad.
Jacked it up ground the paint off and welded it up. Made it through the whole season and is still holding.
Any welder will make a bad weld if you don't watch what you're doing.

Ford tractor had a drop test for backhoe buckets after welding. They would drop them from a 12 foot height onto the floor and see what happened. Often when a new welder came on the weld failed the drop test and the bucket would fall apart at the welded joints. The weld looked good but had very little penetration.

A friend of mine had a big heavy brass western style belt buckle that the hinge had broken off, and asked me if I would braze it back on for him.

When I put the torch on it, the buckle suddenly sagged and a little stream of molten silver metal ran from one side of it.

Apparently, it was some sort of pot metal covered with a thin coating of brass. Even though it was disappointing we still got a good laugh out of it.

I could never get a flux-core to even look good, much less BE good. Neighbor had one- I had done MIG welding and could do OK, but the flux-core was a total fiasco- for me and him both.

I'm sure he didn't want to try to teach you TIG outside of class because its pretty touchy, and would take a long time to get you to where you could do a cast manifold without screwing it up- easier to just do it himself (or teach you in a class where he's getting paid to do it).

Mike (WA) personally I think flux core-SS is easy! My point to this thread was the power of the machine. I can't even begin to tell you how many 1-inch plate bend tests I've taken over the years, and never failed one. But not a one of those tests were done with 120-volt machine! :roll:

Here is some flux core-SS

Flat



Vertical


Overhead.

That almost looks like 7018 welds from a high end machine, especially the vertical up weave.

Not enough heat.They need to do a lot of adjusting and get better penetration,if they even can with flux core wire.A better weldor might have made a better weld even with a 120 volt welder.About the only way I think you can weld something like that with a 120 volt welder is turned up all the way and weld it uphill.
I would like to see a comparison of a weld done flat with 120 volt welder and one done uphill.Adjusted as good as they can get it for both welds.

Flux-core I wouldn't call it a high end machine. It's a 220-volt single phase machine. With 200-amps capacity at 100% duty cycle.