A while back – quite a while back actually – I introduced you all to the welding tutorial video by MOTORZ TV. Part two of this welding “mini” tutorial features the same two guys, MOTORZ TV host Chris Duke and his friend Brian Karas, going over some basics of MIG welding and offering some wonderful tips along the way.
Below the video is the full transcript, once again presented to you by yours truly. Enjoy!
Brian: Ok Chris. So here we've got a couple pieces of 16-gage sheet steel, typical of what you might find in an auto body application. Again, we've sanded it clean, cleaned it up, got it clamped down here. Now I'm going to start welding this with the same settings we used on the previous material and see how it works out.
Chris: Alright, let's go for it.
**WELDING**
Brian: Alright, let's take a look at what we have with this right here. It looks pretty good from the surface, feels pretty sturdy. Take a look at the back. We see here – looks like that weld actually penetrated all the way through the steel. Looks like our settings might be a little too high, so I'm gonna try turning down the voltage on this and moving the wire speed back a little bit.
Chris: Ok
Brian: Ok. So we'll go back to the front panel of our welder here, move the voltage down to one and I'll move the wire speed from 30 down to about 20.
**WELDING**
Chris: So Brian what happened here with this weld? I noticed that it really didn't take too well.
Brian: Yeah, it definitely had trouble – had some trouble getting the arc started. So, that's a good indication that we didn't have enough voltage. I think we we're right to turn the wire speed down a little bit. So we'll move the voltage back up to two, but we'll leave the wire speed back up to 20 and see if we can get this dialed in.
Chris: Alright.
**WELDING**
Brian: Ok. One more try and we'll move this back up right between 20 and 30 and it should be dialed in now.
**WELDING**
Brian: Yep, I'm happy with the results of how that turned out. This underscores why it's very important to make sure you do your test welds on some scrap pieces first. Make sure that you get your settings right before you start working on your actual project.
Chris: Well Brian that looks pretty cool. I think I've got enough information now for me to give it a shot myself. What do you think?
Brian: I think you'll do alright Chris. Let me give you a couple of last minute pointers –
Chris: ok
Brian: – and we'll see how you do.
Chris: I'm excited to check this out, so how does this thing work? How close do I put it? How fast do I go?
Brian: So this trigger here is what is gonna start your arc and feed the wire. So we're gonna start – you basically want the electrode touching the metal, slight arc back, let the arc start, and then as you're going forward pulling away, basically just sort of trace the front of the arc as you go along. You'll get a good feel for the speed, and – uh – that's pretty much all there is to it.
Chris: Alright, let me have at it.
**WELDING**
Chris: How'd I do Brian?
Brian: Let me take a look. I think, for a beginner Chris, you’re off to a very good start.
Chris: It's actually kinda hard staying on line with the amount of darkness the shade gives you and the arc glow, but I think I did alright.
Chris: Well Brian, thanks for coming out and showing us a little introduction to welding. I appreciate your time, and I have one more question for you on more common automotive applications with like some thin sheet metal on a fender or something like that: is the technique any different?
Brian: Chris, the basic technique is the same. You're gonna wanna turn down the settings on your welder, and you're gonna wanna basically start with a couple of tack welds and move back-and-forth around the piece you're working on so you don't build up to much heat and warp or distort the metal in one area.
Chris: Ok cool. So is all the information I learned today enough to start working on my trailer or something like that?
Brian: Not quite Chris. If You're gonna want to do something structural, like building a trailer or working on a suspension application, we recommend you take a course at a local voc. /tech. college.
Chris: Ok, sounds good. Well, that does it for this episode of MOTORZ. For more information on the products we used in the episode check out HobartWelders.com, and – of course – for more episodes of MOTORZ check out MOTORZ.tv. We'll catch you next time.
** CREDITS AND BLOOPERS. I DID NOT TRANSCRIBE THE BLOOPERS. SORRY.**