For anyone that works out there as a union pipe welder for the databases how’s it going for you? Do you like it? All I’m hearing is about how easy and laidback it is and that most of the time they’re just killing time and not even working is this true?

(this is my 3rd and 4th smaw vertical welds i know those are shit these are my first vertical mig welds though

Heya, sorry to bother you guys woth this but id like to ask are there any custom welding masks like this that are certified and safe ?

Just started learning how to weld, have a small project in mind that would require about 26 feet of 14ga 2x2 square tubing. Local place quoted me about $100 for three ten foot lengths. Does that sound about right?

It's used for cutting metal and comes in glass jar be heat resistant. The entire jar is intended to withstand a lot of heat. They sell for about 80 cents/gram. Higher bulks actually have higher cost per gram than smaller ones. But at minimum it's 60 cents/gram, 2x the other product. It has sodium nitrite in the formula. The contents is never intended to be removed.

My boss has asked me to get this stuff but I went to a shop and am unsure what it is

Hi! I need my car to pass inspection and i have holes in the floor that need welding. As there were only four faults on the car i want to fix it. Body shops outside of insurance are an absolute money pit here so i thought i would teach myself to weld. It’s a mercedes c200 diesel.

The hole by the jack point(?) is not visible during an inspection, but i would prefer to fix it now. Main issue is the holes along the pinch weld.

I have welded some small stuff on projects before and i am proficient with soldering and brazing if that has any merit here. Therefore, i am looking for advice: How should i go about fixing this? What kind of machine should i look for? Am i delusional for thinking this is plausible?

My current though process is this:
- I get everything as clean as i can with a wire wheel, rust remover, and a wash, get as much rust as i can out.
- Cut around the holes to where the thickness of the floor is uniform, clean thick metal with no paint.
- Cut shapes in new sheet metal and tack
- Weld from tack to tack?
- Rust protection + paint
- Win?
If this is in breach of the automotive frame repair rule i will remove my post.

Finally back to welding after 3 weeks of drawings and blueprints.

We’re on vertical and overhead MiG now. (Sec. 6)

I feel like I can get a pretty decent bead on flat and horizontal (last 3 photos), but when it comes to vertical 1-5 I’m struggling. Every time I show my instructor it’s always something different about the weld that he doesn’t like. I’ve played with various settings and 2 different machines. At this point I know it’s gotta be something with my technique, as I used another students machine that graded a perfect weld. What’s your go to movement or technique for vertical (uphill) ?

Info:
Machines: LE Flextech & MP360
Settings: tried multiple from 225-260WFS & 17-19.5v
Flex 240 & 17.5 seemed to be best
360 245 & 19 worked best.
Material: 1/4 inch base. .035 filler

Is there supposed to be a rubber o-ring in this groove? I don’t recall ever seeing one, but if so that could explain our random and sporadic porosity.

Anyone know where to find a welder for small projects in the Charlotte area?

I’m at a college in Catalunya, my Spanish and Catalan isn’t the strongest. Any advice/praise etc in English would be greatly welcomed. 6013, 76A-85A to experiment with different ampage.

Been with company A for around 6 months, making 25/hr doing fabrication work. A few weeks ago, the supervisor left for company B and
offered me a weld test there. I passed the test and got offered a position starting at 30/hr, hooray! Biggest issue is company B is about an hour drive from home, hour 30 drive back in rush hour traffic. While company A is only 20-30 mins there and back.

This wasnt an issue at the time, since the pay gap between the two jobs made the decision a no-brainer. So, I gave my two weeks notice.

However, yesterday our boss called me into his office, expressed my value to the company and offered to match the 30/hr rate from company B.

The thing about company B is that there seems to be more opportunity for growth, since its a new shop. And the work they do really seems to be at a higher level of skill. I feel as I'll learn a lot more with company B.

So if both places are paying the same, my choices are between company A, which is much closer, with flexible hours and where im already comfortable. Or company B, with greater opportunities for growth, but long travel times and extra gas bills to come with.

What would yall pick in my situation?

Ik I suck guys I’m have only about 20hours of practice .. 7018 1/8 and 3/32

Today, on my 14th day of welding, I passed my AWS 3F (MIG) Certification test. Super proud of myself for sticking with it and giving my best effort. Big moment for me. Will definitely be hard days on a job, but I feel good about the future.

Local 18 sheet metal training center

little rough for sure, these are my first plates. E6010, 85 amps, quarter inch carbon steel.

I'm trying to weld these 14" aluminum rings together and when I get to the end of the weld it just blows out. I'm guessing the heat inside the pipe is pushing the air out and blowing away my puddle and gas. I tried welding all but the last 1/4 inch, letting it cool a couple hours and going back to finish but it didn't help. I was able to get one done by drilling a small hole elsewhere to let the air out, but then I couldn't close the drill hole. Anybody slove this problem before?

Hey experts,

I am definitely not a welding pro and have mostly just clumsily slapped pieces of metal together out of necessity in the past.

For that, I bought a cheap welder similar to this one:

Joom Product Link

(Don't mind the current price; I bought a rebranded version of this standard Chinese import a few years ago for around 100€).

Now I had to fix something and noticed that it’s "somehow" not working anymore, though I'm not entirely sure why.

When I try to weld, the electrode strikes fine at first, but instead of forming a proper arc to the workpiece, it looks like a sort of fireball or plasma ball forms right around the tip of the electrode. The flux coating sparks violently in all directions, and the tip of the electrode just melts into a little ball.

Honestly, the whole thing ends up looking and acting just like a sparkler.

It doesn't really matter if I hold the electrode very close to the workpiece or further away (well, too close causes a short circuit, too far and the arc breaks, of course).

For reference, I am using 1.5 mm electrodes. Normally, I used to weld around 60-80 A. However, right now it makes no difference whether I set it to 50 A, 80 A, or 120 A - the issue stays exactly the same.

Is my welder broken, or am I missing something obvious?

Hey guys I’ve been learning some tig stainless for a couple weeks now and just looking for some pointers / tips
My foreman was suggesting I lay the wire and weave it and that’s been super fun to learn and obviously still working on my heat control lol
I’ve only done mig before this and I’m a first year apprentice so any advice is appreciated!