# Welding Tips



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Ag.com with 10 tips that could help advance your welding skills.

Regards, Mike

http://www.agriculture.com/machinery/tools/welding/10-tips-that-c-advce-your-welding_245-ar29782


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Great tips! Thanks

Ralph


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Couple of points that are implied in the article but not said. On Spray Transfer, you can't get there with more than 20% CO2 with the Argon. The 10%/90% is a good compromise but at higher amps you need less CO2. You also need to be using .045 wire.

If you are going to MIG aluminum, save yourself A LOT of grief and invest in a spool gun. Yes, they are expensive, but aluminum wire is just like wet spaghetti and it doesn't push well no matter what kind of liner you have.

Don't buy cheap welding wire....Yes, you can weld with Horrible Freight wire, but you'll really see and feel the difference with decent stuff and it's not that much more. I prefer Lincoln or ESAB and use ER70-S6 most of the time. Blow out your liner on a regular basis, especially if you're using copper coated MIG wire.

Have good ventilation! Stainless steel is nasty to weld and metal fume fever is not a joke.

Use the 80/20 rule....spend 80% of your time preparing the metal and 20% welding and cleaning. If you reverse the ratio you'll likely end up with an ugly weld that won't stay stuck.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Mike120 said:


> Don't buy cheap welding wire....Yes, you can weld with Horrible Freight wire, but you'll really see and feel the difference with decent stuff and it's not that much more. I prefer Lincoln or ESAB and use ER70-S6 most of the time. Blow out your liner on a regular basis, especially if you're using copper coated MIG wire.


What's your thoughts on Prax airs brand of wire? When I was building the log splitter I bought a small roll of .045 for spray transfer. Without warning I would have porosity problems. Stop blow the bad out with the gouging tip on the plasma cutter and try again, might continue then would stop and weld fine for awhile. New steel, removed mill scale with a needle scaler, even started cleaning the metal with mineral spirits as I thought maybe somebody had gotten some grease or oil on it. Never found a definitive solution other than it would come and go randomly. Obviously can't be my welding skills or prep work so I finally blamed the wire.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

We used to use *Lacquer Thinner on any metal that we needed to be perfectly clean. Usually when welding hydrulic cylinders or hydrulic combine reversers. could not have any porosity or we would have a leak when we pressure tested the weld. Also sometimes when using thick wire the welding tip and what not gets too hot and seems to leak out some of the sheilding gas so you get porosity, so just dont weld for long periods of time and let things cool of. Used to happen to me all the time when I was welding the rolls for roller mills together.*


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## NewBerlinBaler (May 30, 2011)

Not everyone works as a welder in their off-farm job and some of us simply don't have any skill in this particular trade. If you're in this category (like me) or you just have a smaller farm operation, here's some useful advice:

Find a local welder that you know does good work. These guys weld every day & all day and usually have the latest computer-controlled equipment. I'm lucky, a shop just up the road fabricates pallet forks and bale spears. He also does welding. If I bring something over, he'll work on it while I wait and only charges a few dollars. If the item is large, I'll hitch up the flat bed to get it there. After I hit it with aerosol paint, his repairs look like they were done at the factory.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I'm certainly not an expert on welding wire brands, I've just experienced enough bad rolls of cheap stuff that the economics of paying a little more for good stuff was painfully obvious. I really prefer the ESAB OK Aristorod 12.50 (ER70s-6) but you can only get it in the big rolls. It's not copper coated like the Lincoln or a lot of others, so you don't have to blow out the liner as much. Some of the studies I've seen tell some real horror stories on wire consistency, so I've just gotten real picky on what I use. As a general rule, if I have an ugly/bad weld it's not the equipment or the consumables fault.......it's my fault and I can do something about that.

Porosity is typically caused by contamination or issues with the shielding gas. One very common issue is that the hose between the bottle/flow-meter and the welding machine stores a lot of gas at pressure which blasts out when you pull the trigger. This causes turbulent flow in the shielding gas and allows air in until the flow finally stabilizes. The longer the hose, the more it stores. An opening in the root weld will allow it to suck air in. Wind, along with improper shielding gas settings (high or low), kinked hoses, bad regulators, etc.

The shielding gas should also be cooling the tip, but if it overheats you could run your wire with a little longer stickout with a little higher volts and lower amps...If your machine gives you that control. The machines I deal with on construction sites, fab shops, and ship yards are a whole lot better than what I have in my shop.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

If I'm doing a big project that I know I can burn up a 45 lb roll on I'll buy a new spool of plain wire for the job. Especially on anything that has to be air or liquid tight, like outdoor wood boilers for example.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

mlappin said:


> If I'm doing a big project that I know I can burn up a 45 lb roll on I'll buy a new spool of plain wire for the job. Especially on anything that has to be air or liquid tight, like outdoor wood boilers for example.


Completely agree, but I only have one machine that will take the big rolls. I stick with the mid-size rolls so I can swap between machines if I need to.


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