I think I'm finally getting the hang of this welding thing. Thought I'd post up a couple of pics and get any feedback you all have to fine tune my technique, as I'm trying to get to the point that I'm comfortable welding stuff (like suspension) that has safety implications. Apologies for the crappy cell phone pics, our real camera died. I'm welding an axle off a full size 9" to my old Subaru flywheel to make a stand for my bench grinder. The flange is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3/8" or 7/16". Wire feed was set to 455 and voltage was at 23 on Hobart .035 ER70S-6 wire . Any advice?

Looks pretty good, but I am far from an expert. It's hard to tell if you got good penetration from the pics, but I don't see any deformation where the weld metal meets the stock pieces.

What technique are you using? I like drawing "C"s across the joint between the pieces and pushing the puddle. Gives welds that look more rounded like this:


Yours have a point down the seam. Not saying it's wrong, that's for the experts, but just different than mine. The thing I struggle with most, aside from adjusting the welder, is patience. I really have to slow myself down and make good passes.

I tend to run small loops for the pattern. I think I had the gun layed over too far, which made the v shape in the pattern. I'm hoping to build a welding table in the near future which should improve the welds. This was done on the floor.

I'm no expert either........I used to weld for a living but that was only for a couple years and it was about 25 years ago. I learned from my old man who was an AWS certified instructor and board member. I worked in a fab shop that made rock crusher support structures which of course use thick steel for the main weldments but also thin guage stuff for guards, etc. So we had different welders set up for each kind of welding. This actually slowed down my learning as it didn't force me to improve my ability to quickly adjust for the job at hand.

Plus I stayed at a Holiday Inn last week.

With welding it's all about proper settings and staying in practice. Technique and proficiency can overcome poorly set or running equipment.

Justin looks to be running ever so slightly too hot and using more of a < stroke as opposed to a C stroke as JD mentioned. My guess is that since it is slightly too hot you were compensating by going a little too fast.

Having said that, they look way better than some welds I recently did for landshark.

Good work !

It looks pretty good but it does look a little hot (appears to be some undercut on the flange) and a little fast in speed. Also it does look like you laid the gun over a little too much. You typically only want the gun around 10* off of perpendicular. One last bit; it appears as though you focused the puddle more at the axle flange than the flywheel. You could probably leave your settings where they are and focus your puddle more on the flywheel to get the desired weld. It is easier to penetrate the flange as it is the edge, which is a little thinner, than it is to penetrate the flywheel in the middle of it.

Those are all more fine tuning observations, overall it looks like it will hold for you! Good job!

Looks pretty good. What really matters is penetration which is hard to tell with mig. Can u see anything on the bottom. It looks a little cold up top. I'm guessing the top is thicker and u worked ur puddle up. The best way to know if a mig weld is good is to flip it over and looked at the penetration. You won't see to much due to the thickness though. Also cleaning up the surface before you weld makes a world of difference. Practice makes perfect.