Just went out to the garage and tried MIG welding. I successfully stuck two pieces of metal together. If I had a better hood I could see what I was doing, but I feel that for a first time I did fairly good. I could get the hang of it. I need to go out and see if I can find a #8 or #10 lens to fit my hood. I'm sure that what is in it is for arc welding. I'd love to have an auto darkening hood, but they are expensive. And until I am really worthy of it, I'll just stick to the old school one and do the head nod.

 

The solar powered auto darkening hoods are not too badly priced at Harbor Freight. I got mine on sale for $30. I love it!

 

yeah man, you're gonna need the auto darkening hoods if you want to become good at welding. It's a must have. Either that or about 2-3shop lights right on what you're welding, then you can sorta make out where to start and stop.
Also, a tip. Keep the bead going. If you're doing it right you'll have a nice "glow worm" as i like to call it. By moving slowly you'll keep that "worm' growing (and it'll be orange, hence the word Glow), prevent buildups, and in the end you should have one solid weld.
The way i started, i just went to the nearest welding shop and asked for their scape metal. Then i began welding pieces together, then start mixing up the angles and what not.

 

I saw the hoods at harbor freight, and I may end up getting one. It sounds like my brother has 2 of them and he said I could borrow one for a bit, so that will be nice. I have some steel here, I actually have a Lexus fender here that I could cut up and practice on too. I eventually would like to be able to make my own caltrac bars.

When I am MIG welding, do I need to do the small zig zag with the bead? It seems like it got a better weld once I started doing that. And I think that some external light just may end up being helpful too. I'll try it out with my double halogen pointed on it tomorrow. I really think that I would like to get fairly competent at this. I almost could see where it could be relaxing sort of. Although I have always enjoyed building things and fixing stuff.

 

I do small circles as I move along. Sometimes I push if I want to build the weld up, or pull away if I want a lesser bead.

 

Ok, I'll give it a try. Maybe tomorrow.

 

I agree on the therapeutic part of welding. I actually enjoy fabrication work, and welding is really fun to me, especially if the welds come out nice! I' headed over to a friend's house to help him put a 231 Buick aluminum V6 in his 1955 Nash wagon soon! Hopefully lots of fun fabrication to do!

 

I would imagine that there will be. Probably motor mounts, headers, brackets and alot of stuff. Sounds cool.

 

i just started to get the hang of it, it won't take long at all. i find it is very theraputic but i find that with just working on my car itself. once i found the right heat and wire speed it was a breeze.

 

Correct! Circles are better than zig zag patterns.