VIDEO: How to Improve an Inconsistent Weld
1K views
Jan 25, 2024
VIDEO: How to Improve an Inconsistent Weld
View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video I want to explain a problematic weld that I call the inconsistent weld
0:05
That's not a product of a poorly adjusted welder. Not usually. It's more an issue of hand-eye coordination and not getting things right
0:16
So there are a few parameters you need to keep in mind. One is gun angle. I like to go at about a 45 degree angle like this
0:25
Now there are also two ways you can move the welding gun. You can kind of drag it along like this or you can push it along
0:34
I prefer the dragging along method and it's probably easiest for you as a beginner to go with that route too
0:41
Because the visibility is a little bit better. You can see the puddle better
0:47
You can see where you've been better. I find it just works a little easier
0:52
Now 45 degree angle, that's one parameter. And the other parameter is the distance
0:57
So you don't want to get too close. You don't want to get too far away
1:02
And you also need to move the gun in a consistent and straight line
1:08
So when I say straight line, that doesn't preclude the fact that I'm moving the gun back and forth to make a wider bead
1:17
But the overall pattern is a straight line. If you're all over the place, well your weld bead is going to be all over the place too
1:23
So really it's a function of learning to be a consistent welder as a function of practice and the right kind of practice
1:34
To help you practice correctly though, let's go and take a look. I'm going to fire things up and I'm going to make some mistakes on purpose so you can see what I'm talking about
1:43
So here I am striking the arc and I'm doing a kind of normal weld for the first little while
1:48
But now I'm pulling back and you can see the problem setting in
1:54
We don't really have any penetration to speak of. Now I'm going closer, closer, closer and whoops, we got a problem here
2:02
So that mistake there, getting too close, not only made for a bad weld, but it actually caused a problem that I'm kind of glad it happened so I can show it to you
2:11
The wire got fused to the tip. So that basically shut us down
2:17
It's not as bad as it looks. I hope it's not as bad as it looks because usually you can kind of break that off
2:35
There we go. We should be fine now. That tip's still in reasonable condition
2:44
So I'm going to continue with the bad welding demonstration. I'm just going to show you, I didn't quite get to showing you an incorrect angle and what that looks like
2:56
So we'll do that now. So I've struck the arc and now I'm going to draw back the angle, shallow angle
3:06
And you can see that this is now affecting penetration. I'm going straight up and down here, getting better penetration, but now the weld bead is narrow and just overall quite inconsistent as you can see
3:21
Come and take a look here at the inconsistent weld. This is the one you just saw being laid down
3:27
You can see where the angle changed, the distance changed, and it's just a kind of an ugly looking weld
3:35
Penetration is not bad actually. I mean you'd want it better for a weld that counts
3:41
But really this is the problem of not being good enough yet with hand-eye coordination
3:49
And the solution is just practice of the right kind