weld - steel 10mm thk - GMAW spray transfer

Hello all Thanks for support and encouragement over the decades. Latest weld - first "heavy" thickness in this job. Is 10mm leg-length ("z10"). On 10mm thickness steel plate. Is a critical weld.

The shielding gas, Ar-12.5%CO2-2%O2, is and does everything I want it to. Including "clean" spray transfer welding condition.

-------------------------------------- Nice! Do you think MIG is better / worse / just different from 7018 for jobs like that? I weld outdoors.

Indoors, not vertical welding - good MIG wins by a long way. This weld seen in the pic. on the webpage is exactly "it". With spray arc you get plenty of fusion, etc.

Outdoors, has to be stick / 7018 typically. Only weather-proof process. Is nice, but is slower.

...

Jim, everyone

Reality for most - first response is from "industrial" situation with

Second response from anyone working in a shed, in your yard, etc. Hi everyone {wave} ! NOTHING beats the fusion power per Amp of a 7018 rod. You can weld any thickness (no upper limit) of steel from a wall-socket electric power supply with 7018. Certainly in the UK with 13A from a

So you have to keep running welds until you build up the weld size you need. But you can get there with what you have.

So I offer another completely different response. Which is equally true.

Makes me wish there was a thumbs up button. I appreciate you providing alternatives to welders most of us can't afford.

You may under evaluate the garden shed welder a little though. A lot of us are running a little more than that. Most guys who are half serious garden shed (more likely carriage house(garage)) welders are running a

Sure there are plenty of little 150/180 amp machines out there for light gage work (I have one of those as well), but there are plenty of home shop guys running a little more than that.

While I won't do anything but proper setup on the welding table to do it with the 212 in straight MIG welding the application table says it will run 3/8 mild steel. I won't show my welds because my fragile ego couldn't take the criticism, but I've welded 1/4 and 3/8 wall box tube to solid steel round bar. The convenience hitch (moves my gooseneck and tow trailers around the property) I use on the back off the little tractor (snaps into the quick hitch) is made with such welds. I wouldn't have made it outdoors or in vertical or overhead positions, but it has stood the test of time.

If I have to weld outdoors and in awkward positions I tend to run flux core gasless wire instead. That's what I keep in the little WeldMark (Hobart) machine.

My first (arc) welder was a little Lincoln tombstone that I struggled with. I have since learned it was likely as much the machine as it was me, but I still tend to shy away from stick, even though I now have decent 200 amp AC/DC machine (my TIG power supply) that should run it better than that old AC cracker box.

Makes me wish there was a thumbs up button. I appreciate you providing alternatives to welders most of us can't afford.

You may under evaluate the garden shed welder a little though. A lot of us are running a little more than that. Most guys who are half serious garden shed (more likely carriage house(garage)) welders are running a

------------------------ I have a weatherproof 240V/50A outlet for welding in the driveway and could pull 200A from the panel, which was sized for electric heat.

Is there a difference in how the structure should be designed for stick vs spray MIG? For instance should the welded subassemblies be of limited size and have means provided to lift and rotate them to level the joints?

This book describes constructing the 300 ton deck house for a naval destroyer upside down for easier welding, then scribing and cutting its bottom edge to fit the deck.

Jim - You'd more avoid positional welding with solid-wire GMAW. You'd want to turn the work much more than with "stick" (SMAW) where vertical-up welds are very doable. Different prep. angles? You'd have to ask someone more streetwise than me...

I'd be laying-down (* 270 29.5) ;; 7965.0

I wanted to speak with people who have a machine they plug in in a shed, probably from an "extension lead" from the house.

Happy times everyone.

Rich Smith

Jim - You'd more avoid positional welding with solid-wire GMAW. You'd want to turn the work much more than with "stick" (SMAW) where vertical-up welds are very doable. Different prep. angles? You'd have to ask someone more streetwise than me...

--------------------------------- Almost my only use for my little MIG has been patching rust holes in fenders, which I usually want to remain vertical. The exception was plug welds in spotweld cutter holes to attach a replacement radiator support.

In night school I practiced vertical up with solid wire MIG on their big Miller. I could do it but no one would hire me to.

Vertical MIG is a skill. I can do it with FCAW (and overhead) marginally, but not so much with GMAW. I pretty much leave GMAW to welding table assembly work. Its pretty, and needs little or no cleanup, but when an assembly starts getting unweildy and I can no longer put it in the easy position I often switch to FCAW.

You should have learned to weld upside down underwater. They would have hired you to do that.

No where in the heck did I put my big heavy die grinder?

Happy times everyone.

Rich Smith

-------------------------------- I could if I had a shed in the front yard, but the town won't let me, so I hang fire-treated curtains from stepladders and weld in the driveway. I have a stick/TIG Lincoln Square Wave and long 50A extension cord that became useless when I repurposed the back yard to firewood storage (NO sparks).

They didn't complain about the sawmill operations I ran twice in the front yard, because the downed trees were too big to move elsewhere. This is a neighborhood where nearly half the houses have heavy construction equipment parked outside.

You should have learned to weld upside down underwater. They would have hired you to do that.

--------------------- I worked with an engineer and former diver and saw what the conditions had done to his brain. He told me stories of the Andrea Doria project, such as who a shark ate just after they appeared in the film.

Practicing these crafts reminded me of how much I liked my day job, quietly sitting at a lab bench creating exotic electronic gizmos or programs on demand, such as a portable Rubidium atomic clock I called the world's biggest, fastest wristwatch. Surprisingly for an Air Force project it wasn't the most expensive. It was for receiving secret messages from far out in space. I can't say more.

I spent today running laptops on solar power, refining the 2024 updates to a spreadsheet I created to figure my taxes. For the last few years it has matched my accountant sister's H&R Block results.

Well , I'm one of those "shed" people ... but my power feed to the shop is 2/0 aluminum fed by a 100A breaker . I do sometimes use a ~15 foot 8ga extension cord for the 220V Lincoln WeldPak 175 or the 50A plasma cutter . I haven't done any vertical up with this machine , last time I did it was with the 110V Weldpak 100 using .035 flux core . The work was a bush hog mower deck top of 2 layers of 11 ga steel(IIRC) , it was adequate to the task . Welds weren't pretty but that was about 3 years ago and if there were any problems I'd have gotten a call - the job was to replace fatigue cracked top deck plates where the gearbox mounts . Neither welder is a pro grade machine , the 100 is a basic hobbyist unit IMO and the 175 is a bit more serious but not quite pro grade . For stick I have the usual 225A AC Lincoln tombstone and an Everlast EX250 TIG/stick machine . The TIG machine will do AC and DC up to 250 amps . I've never used it for stick . I suck at stick welding . Anything under 1/4"/6mm gets done with the MIG , over that it depends on the material - I'm a better TIG welder than stick , and I ain't that good at TIG .

Bob gets there first - pretty vertical-up MIG isn't easy. I got asked to do them even as the agency temp. because although not pretty they were vertical-up and it was obvious you could trust your life on them.

BTW MIG vertical-up - initial set by getting a good bead-on-plate weld on 3mm plate / thick sheet "on the flat" - see correct bead formation and heat patina on the rear face - then you will be very close to the correct condition for v-up MIG on thick plate.

Straight to v-up on thk plt with unknown MIG machien with no Amps and Volts revealed is too many variables... 2 steps 3mm plt on-flat then try v-up and fine-tune is much more controlled and keeps things "tighter-in" on a planned path.

I'll come to you if I want a practical "take" on something. Best wishes,

Bob gets there first - pretty vertical-up MIG isn't easy. I got asked to do them even as the agency temp. because although not pretty they were vertical-up and it was obvious you could trust your life on them.

BTW MIG vertical-up - initial set by getting a good bead-on-plate weld on 3mm plate / thick sheet "on the flat" - see correct bead formation and heat patina on the rear face - then you will be very close to the correct condition for v-up MIG on thick plate.

Straight to v-up on thk plt with unknown MIG machien with no Amps and Volts revealed is too many variables... 2 steps 3mm plt on-flat then try v-up and fine-tune is much more controlled and keeps things "tighter-in" on a planned path.

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What I learned from that MIG exercise was to provide lifting capability in my welding setup to make repositioning easier. The platform lifter works pretty well, it's compact and the platform can hoist work slung below it and raise or lower for work suspended from above by a temporary jib crane or a tripod.

They are also called stackers. Mine cost $10 plus some repair work. A lever chain hoist substitutes for the hydraulic cylinder and can be operated from all around, unlike the foot pump. Mainly it raises the carburetors etc of outdoor equipment to convenient sitting or standing height. The platform on some drops to the floor, between the feet. Mine doesn't but I can still muscle a snowblower onto it.