Ordered me a little welder

[Whitewill1412]

I have zero welding experience. I'm gonna give it a go. I get kinda jealous when I read about guys fabricating things by welding them. So I got a cheap little welder to give it a try. It's an mma250 model. Super small. I looked at some videos of people using these little things on YouTube. Seems to do the job pretty well. Now I need things to weld

 

[GW's Motorized]

Practice beads, then Practice root passes.

 

[cloakedvillain]

Weld.com is what my community college taught. But the biggest help was the instructor watching you and correcting your technique. Guy has been welding since high school, great combo welder. Not the best in the world at any particular method but more than good enough at everything. There is no replacement for time under the hood with the proper technique.

 

[GW's Motorized]

Weld.com is what my community college taught. But the biggest help was the instructor watching you and correcting your technique. Guy has been welding since high school, great combo welder. Not the best in the world at any particular method but more than good enough at everything. There is no replacement for time under the hood with the proper technique.

I've gotten really good at analyzing technique with welding, as that is what has helped me improve the most. My welding teacher doesn't know how to weld, he's just a place holder. I had to learn to weld by myself, and I've been told by professionals I am really good for only welding for 3 years

 

[Whitewill1412]

Ok I finally got to trying welding just now. I'm welding on a railroad tie plate that I picked up and cleaned off the rust. It's a nice piece of steel for practice. I'm just using the cheapo j422 rods that came with the welder. I have some 6013 to try next. The amperage on this machine is kind of like you have to guess and try different settings to see what works. In other words it is not accurate. The picture shows my little bit of progress so far. I started at the top and worked down so the bottom line was the last one. I think I'm doing pretty good for never welding before.

 

[Chainlube]

Ok I finally got to trying welding just now. I'm welding on a railroad tie plate that I picked up and cleaned off the rust. It's a nice piece of steel for practice. I'm just using the cheapo j422 rods that came with the welder. I have some 6013 to try next. The amperage on this machine is kind of like you have to guess and try different settings to see what works. In other words it is not accurate. The picture shows my little bit of progress so far. I started at the top and worked down so the bottom line was the last one. I think I'm doing pretty good for never welding before.

Did you get a wire brush with the welder? Give those welds a good brushing.

 

[Whitewill1412]

I figured out that I was going too fast. Slowed it down on these last 2 rods

 

[Whitewill1412]

Took me 2 more rods to finish that next to last line all the way across. I have to work on speed and arc length. I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos

 

[Whitewill1412]

Alright I burned through the 12 rods that came with the welder. I finished the last line across with one of the 6013 rods I got. I think they run better than the j422 rods. You can see towards the end when the rod was getting short I was high arcing and holding in place too long

 

[Whitewill1412]

I just realized that the 6013 rods I grabbed are thicker. Must be 1/8" and the other ones were 3/32"