For mig welders, amperage range of various wires, along with metal thickness,, not real technical
http://www.welding-advisers.com/PRACTICAL_WELDING_LETTER-PracticalWeldingLett...For stick welding,
http://www.welding-advisers.com/SMA-welding-tips.htmlFor mig welding,
http://www.welding-advisers.com/Mig-welding-tips.htmlThe first link above, the first article listed after the introduction, read the part on determining wire speed, how to determine it, and wire speed as it relates to amperage and the thickness of metal.
When mig welding it is very important to determine these parameters for your welder. Yes, to use a mig welder you are going to have to do a little mathematics.
I posted the other two articles, mainly, as an introduction to slope and inductance,,,(droop) in welding slang. Circuit boards in both mig and inverter based welders pretty much take care of this automatically in small welders,,,
In the old days, mig welders where very expensive, they ran best on one wire size, changing wire sizes on old mig welders caused a lot of problems at the weld (mostly splatter) due to their inability to monitor and adjust for slope. Oh, there were a lot of shop made hacks for this,,some probably not to well thought out..,.,.,.,
Okay, back to welding practice
mig welding,,most welding will be push the weld, on thin steels, 16 gauge and less, straight in and maybe even some pulling. The forementioned is not set in stone. It depends on the welding machine, the wire size, the thickness of the steel.. It takes some time to figure out.
stick welding,, mostly drag the weld,,straight in on overhead works well. Again, not set in stone.
Gap, the distance between the two pieces to be welded, also determines whether one pushes or pulls. A large gap, pull,,,a small gap, push....or straight in,
Mig welders, spend about 5 minutes forming small puddles 1/4 wide.
Stick welders, do the same.
mig welders, push your weld, stick welders, pull your weld.
Strike an arc with a 60ll, form a puddle about 3/8 ths of an inch wide for stick and slowly start a weld,, what you are looking to do here is keep that puddle uniformly wide as you slowly advance, rock solid stance, both hands on the gun.
As you are advancing, you may have to momemtarily pause, or speed up a little, (may have to even back up a little) just work on keeping that puddle as close to 3/8 of an inch wide as you can. Keep a good arc length at the same time.
Mig welders, do the same, only make your bead a 1/4 inch wide. Try to find the sweet spot, where the distance between the nozzle and the steel provides the smoothest sound and the least splatter.
Space all the welds so that there is about a 1/2 an inch of unwelded space between them. For the stick welders, this will make cleaning the plate a lot easier.
When you have done this to the point that the welds look good, no undercut at the edges, a visually good tie in of the weld at the edges, you are ready to start practice on butt welds.
The lincoln book has pictures of welds, to fast, to slow, to hot, to cold, just right.
The just right picture, look at the swirls, they are somewhat uniformally oval, that particular shape in the oval, that is how you determine when your weld is not to fast/slow, or hot/cold.
Do this for an hour for a few evenings, space it out. You are training your body also. It takes some practice for your body to learn too.
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