Stack-O-dimes with a MIG???

A pulser would make it more easily, but basically you would achieve that look by whipping the puddle - a weave that is forwards and backwards rather than side to side.

Is there a trick to getting that nice stack-O-dimes look with a MIG? I can get some nice smooth looking welds, but even when weaving I don't get that SOD look. Can you do it with a mig?? I'm using a Hobart 135 on a 20 amp circuit.

Thanks

Thanks, Mike....I didn't realize the stress issue with that look. Just for the record...how do you achieve that look? Is it done by allowing the puddle to freeze before moving on? Kinda looks like that.

The truckers locally just love that pattern on their aluminum truck boxes. I have talked to aluminum welders that have moved from marine to truck boxes and they are instructed to do their vertical by pulling the trigger on and off as they go vertically up. It doesn't make for the best weld but it is shur purdy. Randy

A pulser would make it more easily, but basically you would achieve that look by whipping the puddle - a weave that is forwards and backwards rather than side to side.

-- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Mike Graham | Metalworker, rustic, part-time zealot. mike 'at' @metalmangler.com | | Caledon, Ontario, Canada

Mike is correct. There are some weldors who use that technique on non-critical work, but penetration is much more important than looks. Worry about good welds and not Tig wannabe welds.

Just came in from playing with my Tig. I sort of got the look by traveling back and forth instead of side to side with the torch on some .062 tube and running about 60 amps (1/16 2% lanthanated tungsten) Not the prettiest looking weld, but the general look was there. I'm more interested in penetration and quality, but I wanted to experiment.

Thanks

Ya...I broke out my HTP Invertig and played on some .062 tubing and kinda got the look....just something I wanted to play with...

Just welded a pivot tab onto my bro-in-law's 1969 Cobra driver's seat...used he mig and got pretty, smooth, good welds....looks a lot better than the factory welds....

Oh thank you all!! I have been fretting this since I began to learn tig. I have been getting better at producing the SOD (I guess we have an acronym for it now) look but have lamented not being able to get it in the absolutely classic pattern with great consistency yet. I have been hankering to sell my 180SD for the never, pulsed version, but that will cost. (I began the process of acquiring the new machine the other day by 'mentioning' to my SO that "pulsed TIG is really superior." (For a weekend hobbyist who, today made a bar-b-que grill for his daughter and son-in-law, a pulsed tig machine is hardly a necessity! Lust often trumps logic, though. A sustained subtitle campaign will bring me the machine, so long as I keep making stuff she or the kids/grandkids want or could use.))

In my effort to get the SOD look I have actually got a lot better at manipulating the torch and filler rod. I figured out that the way one makes the puddle _and_ coordinates feeding the filler has a lot to do with the look of the final weld.

I still, however, lust mightily for the new Miller 180 SD. Maybe a pulsed inverter. Oooh.

I hear ya, Brother....Took me a while to justify buying that HTP Invertig 200, but now the wife has all kinds of trinkets and garden thingies that she would have normally bought at some crap, errrrrrrr...I mean craft show!!

I have seen some of the craft show stuff, and most of it looks like it was welded by Ronnie Milsap. Then you look at the price tag and spit out your soft drink. Some people like the rough stuff. Gorilla welds and gobby paint. Go figger.

Steve

Yup....even the woodworking stuff is usually crappy. They get $150 for a pine doll cradle put together with crown staples. I build 'em out of oak and use only pegs for fasteners..they weigh a ton, but should last for 200 years