Firstgens.com

I have been learning to mig weld for a little while now, and since I can’t be the only guy learning or wanting to learn, I thought I would post up the journey so far.
Some time ago I bought a Lincoln Handy mig, not very expensive, a brand name and it will weld up to 1/8”. Plenty for what I plan to do. You will need to rent/buy a tank for the shielding gas. You can get them in different sizes but expect at least $100 or so for a small one that is filled with the CO2/Argon mix. The welder came with a crappy hand held shield I found useless, so I bought a regular flip down helmet, and found in use the lens was way too dark for mig, so I bought a new lens. It was better but still not what I wanted, so I got an inexpensive auto darkening helmet (about $70) better yet, but with what I know now I would have just spent the cash on one with the bigger viewing area and a lens that is lighter when not activated. It’s tough to see exactly where to put the tip with a cheap one until you strike the arc, the better helmet is almost like looking through dark shooting glasses and much easier to see your starting point. Until I can afford that I got a cheap soapstone marking stick on a friends advice. It’s white, easier to see and does not contaminate the weld.
Having to bring the work to the tank & welder was a drag, so I got a small welding cart that holds the machine, tanks and has a shelf for the gear. IE: gloves, apron, wire cutters, cleaning brush etc. Now I could bring the cart to the work.
Steel is not cheap so keep your eyes peeled for scrap in the trash while practicing. You’ll need something to cut it up, an air powered cutoff wheel works well, and something to clean it up for welding, like an air-powered sander. Hand tools will work but take a lot longer.
My garage is separate from my house and the power came from old cloth covered 14 ga, wires in about a 70’ run. The lights would dim every time a struck an arc, and my welds where pretty bad. I ran all new electric out to the garage and power was no longer a problem, depending on my adjustments I could blow holes in the metal now, but my welds were still ugly. I kept reading and searching and asking questions and learned that the metal has to be really clean. I’m talking bare metal or bare metal with a coat of weld through primer. The welds were again better but still ugly. I invited a friend over (thanks Tom) to see what my problem was. He ran a bead and it was ugly as well. He determined that I had no gas at the nozzle. Piece by piece we checked things until we found the hose running into the cable was kinked inside the machine. We fixed that and he ran off some nice beads. Then I ran my first nice beads as well. I’m going to practice a little more and start on my welding table soon. I learned quickly that welding on a wood surface like a board will set the wood on fire amazingly quick.

My first project was to build a cart. Probably about 10 years ago.

I still pretty much suck at it, though. Not enough practice and a cheapo auto darkening helmet.

No problem Don! Glad we figured it out so you can get on with practicing. I expect after a few weeks you'll be ready to build a full tube chassis like we saw up at Schwartz Performance

As long as your willing to drive for the first test run

Started to build my cart today. So I took some soapstone and marked the middle.

Then clamped some angle iron for a fence.

The first cut off wheel was wide and taking a long time, so I went to a narrower disk on a higher speed tool. It still took about an hour and a half with breaks. none the less when I flipped them back to back there was a difference in the cuts.

About 20 minutes with the electric grinder and they are even.

After a couple of passes with the mig and a little grinding, not too bad. Not pretty but strong enough.

Thanks to Tim ( he has not joined yet, ) for the wheels. Hopefully the welds get better as I get more practice. I would have used the torch to cut the metal but I have no experience with that and did not want to end up "en fuego"

Lookin good Don!

Technically I probably need a larger wire & tip for that thick plate. But I'll just layer the beads for now. I figured I'll do the first beads where they will never be seen and hopefully by the time I'm welding on top they will look better.

Vee notch that thicker material and multiple passes and you'll be fine. The plating on those wheels make them hard to weld and effect the apperance also. I bring that regulator out next time I'm gonna see you, it will fit a Lincoln but won't fit mine.

All 4 wheels are on. The cheap helmet is agravating, I am tempted to do unrepairable violence to it. A really pretty bead 1/16 from were it should be is a drag. I'm making progress & getting good penetration but still not very pretty. Over all for a first project it is OK. Feel free to offer constructive criticism, I won't get better without it.

By the way Jeff, thanks, that would be cool.