Welded up some repair patches on an exhaust manifold the other day. Once I got a layer down into the original metal I fit the patches in with no issues. Doesn't look like I was welding clean, virgin metal, but I couldn't have done it with my standard arc welder. Practice makes perfect! :lol:
- Thread starter Bret4207
- Start date
Part Time Pete
Well-known Member
- Location
- Leatherstocking Region NY
Maybe there's hope for me yet Brett - I've stick welded all my life - I finally got a mig, and I can't get it to weld worth a hoot. I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong - I'll just have to keep trying I guess..
Pete
Pete
I started out stick welding when I was around 16. Brought a welder form some magazine for $19.95 and what a piece of junk it was but it did sort of weld. Fast forward to years latter I learned more from a navy hull teck and then a pipe line welder. I learned tig at Tracker Marine when I worked there and learned Mig by the seat of my pants at a dock company,. I applied for a job there and had never done mig welding but impressed them with my weld so I got hired. I have a mig unit but never use it. It is a flux core unit which I do not like.
Oliver 500 Wa
Member
If you're not using a shield gas, it's not MIG welding. Flux cored wire is technically called FCAW welding. Since one machine can usually do both processes, they do get blurred together under the MIG name though. Especially so when there is a hybrid process, often referred to as dual-shield, that uses gas with a flux cored wire.
The ability for one machine to do both processes sometimes causes beginners to have trouble if they do not set the machine properly for the process. With MIG (using gas) your wire is positive and the work is negative. With FCAW (Flux core) the wire is negative and the work is positive. Most small wire machines have a terminal block inside the door to swap polarity.
If you are having trouble getting a good weld, check to make sure your polarity is set correctly for the process you are using.
The ability for one machine to do both processes sometimes causes beginners to have trouble if they do not set the machine properly for the process. With MIG (using gas) your wire is positive and the work is negative. With FCAW (Flux core) the wire is negative and the work is positive. Most small wire machines have a terminal block inside the door to swap polarity.
If you are having trouble getting a good weld, check to make sure your polarity is set correctly for the process you are using.
Stan in Oly, WA
Well-known Member
Bret; This is what I consider one of the best videos teaching GMAW. I used to try to watch it at least once before every new class where I had to teach wire feed welding. I've also watched it many times for my own benefit. He covers all the technical stuff at a good clip, but it's easy enough to run it back to watch a part again if you need to. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't find it a waste of your time.
Stan
Good MIG welding video
Stan
Good MIG welding video
Part Time Pete
Well-known Member
- Location
- Leatherstocking Region NY
Thanks Oliver - I'll check that out
Pete
Pete
Mule Meat
Well-known Member
Here's you a video of my 4 year old Nephew getting in a little MIG welding practice. Got him started about a month ago when he started hanging around the shop.. This is about his fourth time of actually doing it by his self with very little help.
He would weld all day long if you let him.. Just think being four years old.. He will be teaching the teacher by the time he is old enough to take welding in high school..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8bYFLqRCXM&feature=youtu.be
Let him get used to starting and stopping the gun a little longer. Then I'll start him running beads down a piece of small angle iron..
Anyone successfully welding used cast iron exhust manifolds using Gas Metal Arc Welding,should be making u-tubes instead of watching them. Most of us just make more cracks in cast iron while attempting to weld it. I don't even try any longer but braze instead,,,sorta. How did you preheat before/during welding and cool after weld was made? What kind of wire and gas were you using?
Back in the first week of last December I picked up a MIG gun for the very first time, after about 5-6 hours of practice I took the company test and passed. Been MIG welding parts for motor homes together 40
hours a week since then. Back when I was in School that MIG stuff was almost like a black art, we heard about it but it was pretty much limited to commercial production facilities and was just starting to
creep into body shops. It's gotten were I think I prefer it over stick or gas welding.
hours a week since then. Back when I was in School that MIG stuff was almost like a black art, we heard about it but it was pretty much limited to commercial production facilities and was just starting to
creep into body shops. It's gotten were I think I prefer it over stick or gas welding.
showcrop
Well-known Member
I have been wanting to learn to weld for over thirty years. I got my Lincoln tombstone around 1988, and have done a lot of welding, mainly on my farm equipment, since then. Some fifteen years ago I got a Lincoln 110, and I have spent many hours welding with that. A lot of it was butt welds on 20 gauge steel on my antique car. I still intend to learn someday.
I don't know that it was cast iron, acted like cast steel judging by the grinder sparks. A 48 Cockshutt manifold to be exact. I was using .023 solid wire and C02/Argon, I forget the mix, 75/25? No pre-heating. Just hit the rust with a grinder and stitch welded so as not to burn through. Had to play a bit to get some penetration w/o burn through. I'm not claiming it's perfect, but the exhaust goes up the stack now and not out the sides.
Stan in Oly, WA
Well-known Member
Bret; The trouble with welding mild steel to cast iron, or cast iron to cast iron with steel wire is that as the weld cools, the steel contracts more than the cast iron. This frequently leads to cracking at the joint of the two different metals. It isn't necessarily something you're going to see while you're doing the job or immediately afterwards. Also, sometimes, apparently it works. That young man named Lanse who makes welding videos on YouTube under the name ChuckE2009 once welded the cast iron body of a broken bench vise back together with 7018 because it was something he had salvaged and he didn't need it, so he had nothing to lose. It seemed to work.
75/25 is Argon/CO2, in that order.
Stan
75/25 is Argon/CO2, in that order.
Stan
Texasmark1
Well-known Member
I too am a MIG newby and lover, self teaching as time passes. Recently I did a weld as you describe and although it looked good and smooth, nice liquid pool between surfaces, after cooling when I whacked it with a hammer to test what looked to be a good joint, there was separation between the casting and the MIG puddle....looked like the casting material separated at the weld.
I've arc welded cast before. Actually a large casting, took 3 days IIRC. Pre heated with a 3 burner camp stove for 4 hours, welded with some sort of Ni-Rod (I forget the designation) and peened and peened and peened. Still hasn't cracked that I can see after 15 years or so. I understand what you're saying, but like I said, this didn't act like cast and I had nothing to lose.
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