Welding equipment

[legotech7]

Thanks banditwolf, I'll lower the voltage a bit ( my welder only has 4 setting )
its set on 3 now. The settings are from the label that's inside the machine and for the thickness of the material, that's how I set it.

But I will try your advise and see how it goes.......

[legotech7]

Did some practice welds on some thin metal doubled up on the welds. These are two pieces over lapping each other. Used a #2 setting for the voltage and a 5 speed setting for the wire speed. Ground the welds down, gave it a tinsel strength test with a 5 pound hammer. Folded it over ( should have took some pics ) and straighten out again. It didn't come apart. The welds held up pretty good. but the welds aren't pretty. Did this on my 135 Mig from Northern Tool, gasless flux core. Gonna try it with the argon c02 mix soon. Maybe the welds will look better.

Gotta practice some more.... Please feel free to comment, Thanks.....

[catarinoforlife]

can anyone tell me if this is a good deal?

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/tls/3036869428.html looking to replace the tranny front mount as well as do repair panel work.

Can someone also recommend what size wire and type wire we should use as well as any settings to be aware of? This will be our first time welding and we want to practice using the same settings and equipment before we hit up that torsion housing.

[MMW]

I did not read through this whole thread but thought I would post a comment on machines. I am a welder by trade & have 30 years in the industry. Mainly sheet, plate fabrication & repair work. Not a lot of body work. For those of you looking for welding machines I would recommend Miller, Lincoln or Hobart. No the box store Lincolns as they are different than the dealer machines. They all have support & parts availability for years to come. The cheaper machines you can buy usually have no part availibility in a few years & it is hard to find a service center to repair them.

A great source of welding info is at millerwelds.com. I am not affiliated with Miller but am on their forum. I found this area of the Samba since I joined the Porsche 356 forum here.
_________________
Mic
1959 356 coupe
Missing the original engine 72488
Update - third pc. found!
Now just need the case halves.
1965 fenderless beetle

[legotech7]

Did some practice spot welds on two pieces of sheetmetal. The settings on my welder were #3 for voltage and 4-5 for wire speed. Drilled a 5/16 hole on one side of the sheetmetal; thought 3/8 was way to big a hole, and puddled away. I tried to to get a nice puddle in the holes. Didn't look to bad. Check the other side. I think I got good penetration. Need to practice a bit more for when I start doing my pans and heater channels. Cleaned them up a bit.All comments welcome. Oh, notice the bottom weld beads and a little burn thru on the edges. Used .030 flux core wire. I think with the gas I'll do a bit better, Like I said, still practicing.....

[krusher]

[krusher]

[Endicott jb]

[krusher]

I decided at work today to do a few test welds as examples for people to learn from.

My welder at work is a 190amp (with plain CO2 gas, which make the welder need to be on the next amps setting up than if i was using argo mix)

The welder goes from 1 to 8 on the power and I use 3 to 7 for vw welding (you can see labeled on the test pieces which setting i have used.0

The top is a butt weld, we cam see in the setting 5 spot welds that at the edge on the spot it has fallen/burnt away slightly, so i switched down a setting for better welds, then are some examples of the spot welds joined together.

Line 2 is an example of welds through a punched hole 5 was a little cold/lack on penetration through to the second piece of metal 6 and 7 are both fine. the the far right there was one more which i have ground off, with a flap wheel it would completely disappear.

The bottom line is a joggled over lapped joint, first example of a single spot weld, then using the trigger on/off technique some joined spots, then finally a continuous run (run was done right to left)

the back for some penetration shots

And some close ups.

This welding is not perfect and I am not certified, but I hope it will give you some examples to try to copy to get the setting on your welder right.
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(06:31:07) RoachGhia: "i drink dick way too fast"

[legotech7]

Good deal krusher, they look like good welds to me and is what I'm striving for. Just need some practice to start my bug project. Those welds seem sufficient for the task at hand.

Thanks for the pics and detail, good info. as always.......

[MayorMcCheese]

I switched from flux core to MIG today (man tanks are expensive) and I cannot believe the difference. Same machine same recommended settings. I could do almost nothing with fluxcore but even my first MIG weld looked great.
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wv2yb0252gg092706

[hill]

[legotech7]

Well finally got gas fro my welder. What a big difference! My welds are much cleaner and my passes look almost pro. Some times I have a problem seeing where I'm welding so I added some external lighting and that seemed to help a lot. So I think I'm going to get a Mig light to attach to the welding tip. Anyone have any comments on the Mig lights? My eye sight is not that great and my garage ids dimly lit. So I think the extra light would help.

Anything to get this project underway........

[Altema]

Quick question: I've been out of the loop since trading my huge Craftsman arc welder for car parts years ago, and need to do some minor repairs on my son's car, and possibly minor sheetmetal work on our Ghia (battery area). Are the Harbor Freight flux core welders useless for sheetmetal?

Paul

[Mike Fisher]

Read legotech7's post above and you can see that gas shielding/using solid wire is essential for good results. They are not that much more expensive anyway. Hobart 140 is real popular.
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69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
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two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[Endicott jb]

Personally i wouldn't waste my time or money on a hf flux cored welder. Get a decent gas welder. As posted before, Hobarts, millers, and Lincolns are good welders and worth the money. I think the local ranch store near me sells Hobarts for about $300 and up. I bought my Lincoln 140 set up for about 500 and i love it. Very user friendly. Tanks are expensive but flux cored can cost more. I think here flux cored is 3x the price of solid wire.
_________________
Josh

OORAH!!
1965 vw beetle(Mayble)
1968 vw beetle(Caroline)
1974 VW Panel Bus
2003 Dodge 2500 5.9 Cummins(Katey)

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Don't drink and post
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When life throws you curveballs switch to boomerangs.

[Altema]

Thanks for the info, I suspected as much.

Paul

[Spitty1974]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has any experience with a Longevity welder?

I was all set to buy the Hobart handler 140. I am looking to do some light duty welding to my bus and have read good things about the Hobart 140.

That said, when I was watching some welding videos on Youtube, I ran across a video for Longevity welders. Specifically a video on the Longevity 140.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTcg74W7PFA

Now, I'm maybe thinking about buying the Longevity, but not sure of the quality.

I like the Hobart 140 because I have read good things about it, especially for a novice like me. It is in the $500-600 range price wise. Easy to adjust, is not 220, high quality, all selling points for me. Also, I think with the Hobart 140, you can weld thicker metal than with the Longevity.

The Longevity is a bit cheaper, but I'm just unsure of the quality.

One thing that struck me about the Longevity was that I could also pick up the handgun and still be under the cost of the Hobart. This was a selling point of the video I posted above......But unsure of the quality in reality.

Although, I do not need to weld any aluminum on my bus, I thought having an option for the spool gun may come in handy down the road if I decide to take on more projects that require welding.

In the video the guy mentions that you can add a gun to the Hobart 140 but it is very pricey. Has anyone added the spool gun to the Hobart 140? Is it really super expensive, or is it reasonable?

Thank you for taking the time to respond and share some advice and knowledge. I am a welding rookie and just looking for a decent welder that I can grow into.

Spitty

[MMW]

I would buy the Hobart. If something ever happens to it they have good support & parts availability. Plus you would be buying a machine that has great reviews & has proven itself to be reliable & long lasting. Any of the name brand welders also hold their value so if you ever want to sell you will get most of your money back.
_________________
Mic
1959 356 coupe
Missing the original engine 72488
Update - third pc. found!
Now just need the case halves.
1965 fenderless beetle

[1967250s]

Okay ,not much experience at mig welding myself( I have a campbell hausfeld Mig, but here are a few tips.
1. Welding thin metal-vw- do small spots about 2 inches apart, and not a continuous run, warps are avoided this way, large flat areas especially need this method
2. welding edges-- get a copper or aluminum backing plate-called a spoon- it holds up the metal, you can use it with clamps to hold the metal sheet together, and cools the surrounding metal. -starting at the edge- just do a small spot- stop, let it cool, then more small spots. Also use to back weld holes and butt joints.
3. Clean the weld area, much easier to do decent job. get down to clean metal.
4. practice on similiar size/thickness metal first, then practice some more
5. Look at as many youtube welding videos as you can then look at them again, there are also lots of vids on welding vdubs and doing bodywork, tons of great advice out there >free!
6. get the best equipment you can, you can always sell it at a better price than cheap garbage