Thread: Stick welder questions

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I think I actually had those terms (diamond plate, fish plate, and boxing plates) pretty well sorted out. I am waiting for my dad to get me all the steel that I will need. I am still practicing about every night until I get the steel, then I am going to "have at" the frame and see how it goes.
CHAZ

Originally Posted by hoof

I think I actually had those terms (diamond plate, fish plate, and boxing plates) pretty well sorted out. I am waiting for my dad to get me all the steel that I will need. I am still practicing about every night until I get the steel, then I am going to "have at" the frame and see how it goes.
CHAZ

.....LOL, ok then I WAS the one who was confussed!!! Hey it's good to laugh at yourself, isn't it??? Yeah after reading back through the posts I GOT confussed so I guess I just figured everyone was! Hey your doing a good job, keep practing.... ;0 Bill

Well I found out that grinding an angle on the boxing plates is a bad idea. I was doing one up (on practice scrap) and I melted right through it. Grinding the angle on the boxing plate itself made the metal thin and allowed me to burn through. I might put just a little bevel on the leading edge when I am cleaning up the steel, but I am not going to angle it all the way across the width.

I am starting to feel more confident about the quality (strength) of the welds I am making. I should be getting the steel I need for boxing plates in the next few days, I think I will start on the frame when I get it. Wish me luck.

CHAZ

Another suggestion, on which I can't hardly believe anyone else has touched on: Get yourself an auto-dark helmet, with adjustable controls. Don't get it unless you can adjust the dark and sensitivity.

A personal problem I have with welding is that I just can't SEE what is going on. The 'standard' tint is too dam dark! Having the adjustable dark control is just the cat's meow! I can adjust it till I can SEE what I am doing. Also, it is just TOO NICE to not have to flip the hood up and down. I recently got a very nice one for the paltry price of $80 ( but I think the shop was cutting their mark-up to get our buisiness ).

I'm not surprised as to your discovery regarding the beveling of the edges. That is a trick best saved for material 1/4" or more.

The 'standard' tint is too dam dark!


Theres a reason there that dark, a #10 shade is standard for doing steel, if you do aluminum with that you will burn your eyes, dont skimp when it comes to your eyes, you can never replace them, also buy a good welding resperator the fumes are horrible on your lungs

I got a really cheap harbor freight auto darkening helmet, and it works great! I only paid $40 and figured it wouldn't work very well but I have been pleasantly surprised. I hae been trying to run it around 10-11 for the shade, I had it down lower than that one time and I saw some spots after that so I figured it was too low.
Thanks,
CHAZ

I've been using my Sons autodarkening helmet, and never realized there was this adjustment you guys are talking about. I have been having the problem of not being able to see where I was welding, so maybe I have to adjust the darkness. I was attributing it to my eyes getting worse, and mentioned it to him, that once I start the weld I lose my place and get off track. He thought it was because I was looking right at the arc, but what you are saying makes sense. I was actually considering setting up a spotlight on the workpiece to illuminate the work, but I am going to try turning the darkness down a little first.

Thanks for the tip.


Don

Thats what im saying, dont skimp , was the 100$ savings worth a lifetime of vision? buy a quality hood, its a one time investment, think about it, is 300$ alot when you consider once your eyes go bad youll spend $150-500 every 2 years for the rest of your life for glasses

Yep, I agree. His is one of the Millers with the flames on it and all that jazz, and I knew there were other knobs inside of it, but just never thought of trying to adjust anything. I have learned to automatically push the restart button each time I pick it back up because the darned thing shuts off automatically after a few minutes, and I have flashed myself a few times until I wised up.

Don

I have one of those auto dark lense sheilds from harbor freight,works just fine & never had a flash from it ,I bought it to just try it out & found out for the price its a hellavu deal.
I know several ironworkers,pipefitters & boilermakers who use them at work all the time now because if you drop & break it you didnt lose much money compared to a 300.00 miller speedglass
I have the miller speedglass i use for xray welds on boiler tubes,nuclear power plant welding etc & TIG welding but have found the cheapy works just as good
All types of lenses & sheilds & safety glasses have to meet the OSHA Z81 standard before being offered to the public for sale & the HF sheild meets these standards,it is a 1/25000 millisecond change,the miller speedglass is a 1/16000 millisecond
One thing i dont suggest wasting your money on is the sheild lense that look like a mirrored gold or chrome,I know from experience if its scratched the SLIGHTEST bit you will get weld flash & the thing is you dont even know youve lost the protection from it because the scratch can be so slight you dont even see it unless looking very closely
Always wear at least a pair of clear lense safety glasses behind your sheild,you wouldnt think it gives any protection from the UV rays but it does,very slight but it does
When im welding in the outside in the sunlight of day i use a lighter lense & wear dark safety glasses behind it just for the fact when were on the jobsite we have to wear safety glasses 100% of the time
On the adjustments on an auto always remember if what you are welding at the time if the puddle looks like a big bright light its not dark enough,the proper darkness is when you can actualy see the ripples in the weld puddle itself
Another thing to consider is a cheater lense,its like a pair of reading glasses behind the weld lense,as we all get older we need reading glasses to read a newspaper or book,this also apllies when welding,if you dont see the puddle & it seems to be just big glob of blurry light.maybe you should try a cheater lense,can get them at any weld supplier

.....you know I've never even tried an auto darkening helmet. I know when I put a #10 lens in my regular helmet that it gives me #10 protection. I also know that if I put a #9 lens in that I've got #9 lens protection. But w/ an auto darkening helmet how do you know exactly what you have??? I've never even looked at them closely, I know nothing about them. As Classickustoms stated in his previous post, you just adjust until you see the ripples in the weld, do you do this with all of the auto helmets or do some of them have actual settings with numbers on them??? Thanks, Bill

mine is a miller, its an older one ,but it is like a standard hood it only has one setting,#9, which sucks, cause i cant weld aluminum, i have to change out to a standard lens

I have used the auto darkening helmets in the past.I have also read over and over that they are not fast enough to block the initial flash on start up. So know I stay with the old style dark lense.

someone mentioned putting a spotlight on the work: this actually is GREAT. I don't have an auto dark helmet at the house, so when I am Migg-ing something delicate, I put the 500W halogen very close to the work, then I can just make out what I am doing before I strike the spark. Also helps me to see the work as I progress. Not as good as an autodark, but my what a difference it makes!

..... Thanks for the replys everyone, if I get one I'll remember to close my eyes when I strike my arc. I need to get a welder, my ex sold my old one , in actuality my BRAND NEW old one {double ....}.... So when I get a welder I'll also get the auto dark hood. Anyway
Ut oh, you use a darker lens for Aluminum??? How much darker??? Or should I say; What shade lens do you use??? I did a lot of shop welding in the late 70's, used a #9 shade cuz I could see better with it & I never switched to anything darker for aluminum. Now I never did aluminum all day long, day after day or anything like that, mostly small repair jobs but I just used whatever lens was in my hood.....