I've got gas!

[Sshire]

About a year ago, I bought a 110v Hobart MIG. Unboxed it , watched instructional videos, and proceeded to weld a piece of CRS to the top of my brand new portable welding table.
A few days later I ran into my Cardiologist at the local coffee shop. He's fascinated by my engines.* I told him about my new MIG. Looooong pause. So he proceeds to give me a 10 minute lecture about how to setup and use the MIG so that it "probably" won't cause a momentary shutdown of my pacemaker. He had just been to a conference and one of the lectures was about pacemakers and various "industrial" equipment.
So, it sat in the corner. My feeling was that it just wasn't worth it. I stopped by Airgas to get some silver solder and was telling one of the counter guys my MIG story. Long story short, he bought my MIG and I left with a Harris welding and cutting setup, oxygen, acetylene, rods, etc.

Wait, I'm actually getting to the question here.

As I do with most things:
I've read the gas sections of The Welder's handbook, Audels Pocket Welding Guide is on the nightstand, every Harris, Victor and Smith YouTube video has been viewed multiple times, as has WeldingTipsAndTricks. Regulators and torch are in place, pressure and bubble leak tests done.

I have a bunch of practice steel from the scrapyard. Gloves, goggles, cap, FR jacket and fire extinguisher are in position.

WHAT DID I MISS? Should I just grab a piece of steel and weld?

 

[ShopShoe]

Sshire,

I self-taught myself gas welding and brazing years ago to work on restoring cars. My first practice sessions are pretty much as you envision.

A few observations:

"Thin" is harder to weld. You can melt a lot of the workpiece trying to get to where you are welding.

"Thick" means you will be making a lot of heat and using gas like crazy. Everything will get hot and you will find it hard to keep it up to the welding temperature at the same time.

You will need to pay attention to all of the instructional media you have when it talks about heat distortion of the work and learn to plan and compensate for that: Expect to make "banana" pieces.

It will take lots of practice to make good welds: In my case I learned gas welding and moved to AC stick welding and MIG welding later and found those much easier and quicker, although with their own problems.

Because of the heat and danger of fuel and oxygen gases, I hope you have a good fireproof work area and heat shielding. My garage/shop does not allow enough room for me to feel safe, so I only fire up the torch outside.

More safety: If you have others who check on your safety in the shop, instruct them on the new dangers and have them be aware of how to turn off the cylinders in case they have to. (I have my Acetylene cylinder wrench hanging on the wall near the tanks and my wife knows what it is and how to use it.) Do you have backflow/flashback preventers on your torch?

You may find that practice will lead you to purchase different tips based on what you want to weld. Experienced welders can adjust everything more easily to do a wider range of work, but as an occasional welder I don't consider it cheating to fit the tool to the job more closely.

Other than that, have at it. You seem to have well-learned everything else you do and before long you will probably be turning out new projects that incorporate quality welded features.

Others chime in here....

Good Luck

--ShopShoe

 

[Tin Falcon]

Should I just grab a piece of steel and weld?

that would be the next step. Put two plates together and melt a little hole fill hole with filler rod then melt a little hole next to the first and fill that the one repeat til you have a weld bead . Easy stuff. The trick is to make all them little puddle the same size and evenly spaced and even amounts on both plates that is the hard part.

I had to pass oxacetlene welding in USAF tech school before moving onto to arc and tig.
Tin

 

[canadianhorsepower]

[QUOTE WHAT DID I MISS? Should I just grab a piece of steel and weld?[/QUOTE]

Sshire,
your their it's time:fan: I teach welding in my Robotic
program, and it doesn't matter what you weld with, torch, mig ,tig arc
the key to success is controlling that little pot of molten metal.
This is what all my students must do before touching any other type of welding
Get a piece of sheet metal, and start making circle about .125 in diameter
and torch pointing at a 45 degree with your plate.. You will see your metal changing to red color and then it will turn into liquid, be careful if it's close to white in colour you'll make a hole. Once you have this just keep making circle and moving the torch so you would wright your name in the sheet metal. Once you achieve the control of this your in business.
The exercise #2 make two L shape with your sheet metal one side the width of your steel put them side by side, secure them so they cant go away from each other and do the same thing with a little bit larger circle your going to make your filling with these little lips . Once done flip your piece over it should be as flat on the bottom then it is on the top.

after achieving this you re hydrate your self grab one or two of
*beer**beer* and enjoy your work

cheers

 

[Sshire]

Thanks guys. That was helpful.
I'll be welding on the slab outside of the shop and the guys at Airgas wouldn't let me leave without the flashback preventers. I also understand heat of recompression and will be opening the o2 verrrrry slowly. As far as someone to check on me, a few friends are sure that this will provide a great deal of entertainment, so they'll be in attendance.

Luc
I want to be clear on your exercises. Are you saying that if I can control the heat on sheet metal, thicker stuff should be fine?

 

[canadianhorsepower]

Thanks guys. That was helpful.
I'll be welding on the slab outside of the shop and the guys at Airgas wouldn't let me leave without the flashback preventers. GOOD THING
I also understand heat of recompression and will be opening the o2 verrrrry slowly. YES AGAIN As far as someone to check on me, a few friends are sure that this will provide a great deal of entertainment, so they'll be in attendance. SEND THEM HOME

Luc
I want to be clear on your exercises. Are you saying that if I can control the heat on sheet metal, thicker stuff should be fine?

It's all the same, heavy metal or sheet metal the colour tell it all

the idea of using thin stuff to start with is only to shorten the time of the color change but a 1/2 inch steel will be at the same colour at the same temp then a sheet metal would be.

The tip of your flame should not make any king of "issing noise"
when you are melting your metal if you see some small fire work coming
out of your steel turn the oxy down a little it's going to back fire on you like
spaghetti sauce at hi on the oven.

Best thing to do slowly observe what's going on in the transition and you'll do just fine

 

[Sshire]

Thanks Luc
I'll report tomorrow with pix for a critique..

 

[Ed T]

You might want to weld over the slab outside, but be careful welding on the slab or the heat may cause the concrete to explode from steam with no where to go.

 

[canadianhorsepower]

You might want to weld over the slab outside, but be careful welding on the slab or the heat may cause the concrete to explode from steam with no where to go.

weld over a slab

if you ever seen someone doing this
you wouldn't say be careful you'd say

run al your adding to concrete is what it need to transform itself into a BOMB

 

[kf2qd]

Ever do any tig work? Gas and Tig are a lot alike...

Biggest problem I had was getting the torch turned down enough to weld properly. Harder to control the heat than with Tig and a foot pedal...

 

[Sshire]

Thanks for the concern about welding on a slab. I'm not. I'm welding on a Stronghand portable welding table. What I should have said was, "I've got my welding table on the slab outside of the shop"
The first attempts went quite well. I was being very cautious about setting everything up. Spent about an hour installing the regulators, pressure AND bubble testing, hooking up hoses and the torch and testing those. FR jacket, goggles with #5 filter, fire extinguisher and cap and gloves.
I started with the thinnest practice stock I had (1/8") by making puddles and melting all the way through. Then 2 pieces together and practiced tack welds.
Then the R45 filler rod. I'm still working on recognizing when the puddle is ready for the rod, but that's getting better. I'm guessing that I was moving a bit too fast as I did not have full penetration but that got better as the day progressed.
I also tried grinding bevels on the edges for some butt welds. That also worked well.
I did have a lot of fun with it. Looks like it will be a more useful skill than I had thought and not too difficult. But, when I look at a weld by someone who knows what they're doing I realize that it takes a lot of skill and experience.
Most of what I need to do will fall into the range of repairs to a, let's say, broken brace on a snowblower, a stand for my arbor press, and similar things.
I haven't gotten a chance to try cutting yet. With some things to do around the house then getting packed up for the ME show in Vermont, it may be a few weeks before I get back to the torch.
No burns. No fires. No explosions. A successful first try.

 

[Tin Falcon]

No burns. No fires. No explosions. A successful first try.

.. and no photos shame on you !!!!

Tin

 

[Sshire]

Geez, I knew I forgot something.

Stuff I got

Thanks, Floyd

All connected and leak tested

First welds. I was having so much fun after this that I forgot to take pix.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Ok you are forgiven