MIG Welders Beware! - 'Pretty' Does NOT Equal Strong. - Weld Analysis

Test your welds, kids... You may be surprised.
MIG Welding Flux Core Welding Innershield Inner Shield

The purpose of this video is to help educate beginner/hobby welders about weld strength vs. appearance when using smaller hobby welder machines.

Thanks for watching.

[needleonthevinyl]

I see the comments all the time on Facebook. People will take one look at a photo of a high production stringer weld that used dual shield or spray, and it's the worst thing they've ever seen, the welder was lazy, didn't know what they're doing, blah blah blah. But as soon as something has little consistent weave lines in it (or worse, a huge row of overlapping tacks), it's automatically a perfect expert level weld. The stack of dimes obsession on the internet is out of control.

[makingmistakeswithgreg]

I did a bunch of videos on this exact thing on my channel. 100% running cold settings and stacking dimes to get the look results in poor fusion and very weak welds. Despite a ton of evidence presented in the videos I still had a significant amount of people say that’s simply not the case and say the numerous videos were wrong. To date nobody has provided a sample weld, cut and etch, or settings that will allow for proper fusion with some stack mig settings. Thanks for covering this, the more info out there the better 👍👍

[matthewpeterson]

Great video. I have always chamfered plate that is thicker than 1/4". A few moments on the grinder nearly always means better penetration, and I find the entire process faster and more economical when I can get away with a single pass. Thanks for the clinic!

[janofb]

Thanks! Where were you years ago when I was learning while rebuilding a truck? Fortunately the steel I was working with was 1/4. My 110v machine said it could do 3/8 but I thought that was just marketing. I preheated with a small propane torch, and used 3 layers. It came out nice. Shock towers to a truck frame. They've held up.

[smurface]

Seeing the first pass and the first weld seam breaking, I was about to write "hey, over here in Europe we use to do some weld prep". But you said it all in the end. Nice demonstration why weld prep is not just annoying work but an absolute necessity.
Over here most newer welders are "synergic" machines, setting voltate and wire feed according to the current asked (which is set according to material thickness). One can override the presets, but they're commonly pretty good. If my welds have a hump, it's not the settings, it's myself - the hobby welder. This takes out a lot of completey bollox settings that only generate good looking welds with no penetration.
Btw, 3M Cubitron fiber disks are awesome to grind bevels on thick plates before welding. Started to use them a couple weeks back and wished, I would have known about them earlier.

[gregmarchegiani]

Awesome short video. Straight to the point. I am no welder but I like to learn new things. Subscribed

[magnum]

Have loved your content over the years. I am not a welder by trade, I do it for fun. I am by trade a Mechanical Designer. Had this been a bracket from a system I designed it would have been a double bevel weld (bevel dependent on material thickness) with at least a 1/16IN gap. I learned early that every design I submitted for stress analysis that had a T-Joint weld was sent back with a required bevel weld, at least on the side of the most stress. For the casual home/small project use, hammering a test piece is fine, but most of the work I did on designs required an accompanying stress report, so we knew who to blame when it failed :)... And you are correct, it does not have to be pretty as long as it is done properly.

[DustinStruckman]

I'm currently in welding school and my instructor taught us the wip method with gmaw. He pushes not drag. This time we are using Flux core with gas. On the side he giving me a head start on aluminum tig.

[radtap]

Structural commonly uses dual shield, gas shielded flux core wire. Typically a larger wire than solid core wires and much higher voltage and feed rates. Get it set right and it's a quiet hiss. Can achieve insane deposition rates with full pen.

[No_Lucks_Given]

I've been in school for like 6 months now and all these videos have been priceless. Obviously my instructor teaches me a lot but he only uas sonmuch time and when I'm not welding in school it good to look at stuff like this to get an idea of what I'm looking for in my own welds. I'm starting to get quite good at this point. I started with stick and let me tell you it was rough but little hy little I've gotten to a point where I feel pretty comfortable with stick, MIG and even acetylene welding as well as unshielded flux core and dual shiel. I start TIG mext week and im excited for that.

[Native_love]

Wow! This was an eye opener! Absolutely epic teaching points. I will remember this forever! Really shows you why the good welders grind in the steel to a 45 angle taper so the wire sticks better. Awesome! Thanks!

[jesscneal]

I've been an amateur welder for several decades and just recently figured out that I have a tendency to go too fast and had my wire feed too high

[outtakontroll]

i take your point, but you broke the second one a different way than the first, and welded the edges as well.

[nopenoper]

Great video, you showed that it was not joined but ‘glued’ together

[Len_M.]

I was going to say you are asking a lot for a 110v/120v machine. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I doubt the specs say it can weld 3/8ths in a single pass on 110/120v, does it say it can weld 3/8ths in a single pass on 240v? If its a Millermatic 211 then 240v 3/8ths is the max size in a single pass (240v.) I think beveling the piece and using it on 240 if you can, if not multiple passes would definitely be the way to go along with beveling the piece you are welding onto the base piece, and even giving it a bit of a preheat if possible, do everything you can to give yourself the best chance of penetrating into the parent metal. You might even be better off using SMAW if that piece absolutley had to stay put.

[AUMINER]

short circuit mig should never be used on anything that matters over 1/4" thickness. Will is stick two pieces together, yes - is it strong, no.
Excellent video Mr6061.

[ashwilliams]

I never thought flux core would be better than gas. Very interesting thanks!!

[bjorn]

whenever I need to weld material that thick I pull out the stick welder (its actually a tig) and thats with the luxury of having 240 volt 15 amp mains

[bigwilly]

I'll probably never weld anything, but this was cool to see.