I am "trying" to weld on my new full 1/4 panel. I am terrible. I have a hard time penetrating and getting the metals to fuse. Lately, when I try there is popping an dthe weld looks cold and I can break it off with from teh metal with a set of needel nose plyers! I did lay down a bead before. I try and follow hte puddle. Also, one tiem the mig wire was feeding out and melting but was just pileign on top of the metal I was trying to weld like it came out of a tube of toothpaste!. No "zzt zzt zzt zzt" sound at all. CO2 tank is good. I hold the gud directly abve teh weld area. What am I doing wrong? Could a bad ground have this effect? It is a 220v welder and I am using .035 wire. It has 5-6 heat settings. Thanks.

try read this.....
http://www.chevelles.com/forum/Forum3/HTML/007134.html


Good stuff

take some old sheet medal and just practice welding on that. Also try adjusting your heat and wire speed settings. it sounds like you might be to cold. If you had a bad ground you wouldnt be doing any welding at all. if you adjust the heat you will probably have to adjust the wire speed, It is best to do this on scrap metal so you dont mess up our quarters. I use a millermatic 250 and have the heat set on 16.1 not shure what wire speed is at.

I had the same problem when I first tried it.

For me it was a combination of two things.

First, my hand wasn't stable. I had to rest my wrist on something to stabilize my welding hand so I wouldn't constantly lift and lower my hand.

Second, I wasn't moving the gun. I was trying to feed wire on a single point.

Once I learned to stabilize my hand and move it in tiny ovals, things started coming together.

I'm not a very good welder, but I get a little better every time.

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My Web Site (http://www.landry-family.com) (updated 01-04-03)

"Long Live Freedom!"

Chad Landry
TC Member #643
ACES Member #4556
'68 El Camino

As already mentioned, you need to practice. Maybe you could take an adult education welding class at a local trade school?

Also, .035 wire is too big for sheet metal I believe. You want to use .023 or .024 max. Otherwise, if set up correctly you'll generate too much heat and warp the panel or in your case, not enough and you don't get penetration.

First use .023 wire,the wire your using is to thick for sheetmetal.Also you said c02 gas.You should be using 'migmix' or 'argomix' as its sometomes called,thats argon and co2 mixed.PRACTICE on scrap sheetmetal adjust the heat setting,wirespeed and gas setting until you get the zzzt sound and a nice bead with good penetration.Until you get that,dont even think of going near that new quarter.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but installing a quarter panel is not the place you want to try to learn and Mig weld. It takes many, many hours of practical welding to get good enough to tackle even small patch repair jobs, much less tackling a large project like a full quarter panel replacement. If your welding isn't perfect, you can easily ruin a good/expensive sheetmetal part.

Go to a junk yard and get some junk body parts to practice on. Learn what your doing wrong and why...practice a ton and then practice some more before you attempt to weld anything on your car.

Laying a sample bead is pretty simple to learn, but welding out of position under a car and making a clean solid weld is a whole different ball game. You need practical experience to learn how and why a weld reacts like it does/will. Not only learning the proper techniques, but also learning how your machine settings affect the final weld are all crucial aspects of your weld quality.

BTW, for sheetmetal, use a .023 solid wire and 75/25 mix shield gas.

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Malibu Motorsports (http://www.malibumotorsports.cjb.net)
414 ci bbc, pump gas, 3500 lbs
10.66 @ 125 1/4 mile
6.74 @ 101 1/8 mile
1.47 60' on 9" tire

[This message has been edited by 10secBu (edited 01-15-2003).]

Take some of the old quarter panel, da it to bare metal, cut some pieces out of it and pratice welding on that first. Turn up the heat til you start burning through and start backing off the heat til it starts working.

All these comments were good but not one of you hotdogs mentioned about how clean the area should be to help his weld penetrate.
Remove all paint, grease, and any residue, and make sure your getting a good ground.
Also make sure your 2 peices of metal are contacting each other.

By all means don't practice on the new 1/4..
Don't rush it. Learn elsewhere first, just like the others mentioned.
A welders book will help too. They have some really good info, even for the person who thinks he can weld.

Good luck.
RandyB..

Just practice.I practiced for 2-3 hours a night before I backhalfed my car.It turned out real nice.Just practice on any junk metal you can find.And take notes of differant settings for differant metals.Read everything you can find on welding,and then practice some more.And don't get discouraged when people say it's a job for a profesional,remember they started somewhere before they got real good.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RandyB:
All these comments were good but not one of you hotdogs mentioned about how clean the area should be to help his weld penetrate.
Remove all paint, grease, and any residue, and make sure your getting a good ground.
Also make sure your 2 peices of metal are contacting each other.

By all means don't practice on the new 1/4..
Don't rush it. Learn elsewhere first, just like the others mentioned.
A welders book will help too. They have some really good info, even for the person who thinks he can weld.

Good luck.
RandyB..<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good points about cleaning the metal and the reference book. I have two of them and I'm constantly referring back to them.

You should also clean each weld after you stop so when you start welding from that point you'll have clean metal to weld to. Your starting point over another weld won't stick properly unless you clean the residue off.

BTW, I'm more of a "sausage" than a "hot dog". http://www.chevelles.com/forum/wink.gif

------------------
My Web Site (http://www.landry-family.com) (updated 01-04-03)

"Long Live Freedom!"

Chad Landry
TC Member #643
ACES Member #4556
'68 El Camino

[This message has been edited by cjlandry (edited 01-17-2003).]

I am in the middle of a trunk pan and two full quarters too. I have had this same problem when putting on the new gas tanks support. My big problems were not having clean metal, I started drilling holes throught the metal and partially into the base, then start arc in them middle of the hole and work out. You could also have issues with your choice of wire, should tend to the small diameter for this work, also, is your pressure regular set properly?