HerrDeacon
Over 1,000 Posts
I'm all set to build the bracket to support my fairing I'm building for my CB350 and I'm currently practicing welding with some similar sized material that I'll be using. I'm very new to welding and have to say that it is much harder than it looks. I'm using a Lincoln Mig Pak 140 and don't have any gas so I'm using flux core. I don't have any money for gas or a different welder so it is what it is.
One question I have is how do you know that you have a good structural weld? I've welded some stuff before but didn't really care how solid it was since it was under no load, but with this bracket holding the fairing, even though its really light, and being subjected to vibration I want to ensure the welds are good. I'm sure experience helps here but for a newbie whats a good way to tell? I whacked on this practice piece with a hammer and it held great, but don't really want to do that with the final part. ;D
Also, in my practice I burned through the metal a couple of times but couldn't really understand exactly why? Could I have stayed in one spot too long? Wire speed not fast enough? The material is 18ga so its fairly thin (at least for my green welding hands). I don't mind making mistakes as long as I understand why and can learn from it.
Here are a couple of pictures showing some of my practice welds. It was a square tube and I welded each side at a time and inspected it before moving to the next side (hence the gaps in each weld). Each side got better as I went with the last one looking pretty good to my untrained eyes. First picture shows the hole I burned through and the second showing the third attempt (left side) and final (right side).
Have to say its been very fun practicing though, opens up a lot of possibilities if I can learn this correctly.
One question I have is how do you know that you have a good structural weld? I've welded some stuff before but didn't really care how solid it was since it was under no load, but with this bracket holding the fairing, even though its really light, and being subjected to vibration I want to ensure the welds are good. I'm sure experience helps here but for a newbie whats a good way to tell? I whacked on this practice piece with a hammer and it held great, but don't really want to do that with the final part. ;D
Also, in my practice I burned through the metal a couple of times but couldn't really understand exactly why? Could I have stayed in one spot too long? Wire speed not fast enough? The material is 18ga so its fairly thin (at least for my green welding hands). I don't mind making mistakes as long as I understand why and can learn from it.
Here are a couple of pictures showing some of my practice welds. It was a square tube and I welded each side at a time and inspected it before moving to the next side (hence the gaps in each weld). Each side got better as I went with the last one looking pretty good to my untrained eyes. First picture shows the hole I burned through and the second showing the third attempt (left side) and final (right side).
Have to say its been very fun practicing though, opens up a lot of possibilities if I can learn this correctly.