Welding

[cardiff_gareth]

Hello, I have just bought a cosmo mig welder but it has no instructions, does anyone know what settings to use as it has 6 power settings and a dial that goes plus to negative :?:
I'm using it to weld the floor pan in my Disco.

Cheers

Gareth

[muddymesser]

at a guees th power settings are for diffrent thicknesses of metal so th higher th power th thicker th metal

[wizard]

This might help.
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

can you believe that there is a forum for mig welding !!!!!
there again look at us

wizard

[hairyasswelder]

can you believe that there is a forum for mig welding !!!!!
there again look at us

Hey  :lol:  :lol: Why not  :lol:  :lol:

Steve

[Guardian.]

stick it on one of the numbered settings, it should click between them.
this will determine the amps, or the power it uses, so the higher the number the more amps, thicker steel.
then the other dial should be like a volume switch, this is the wire speed, turn it down low to start, start welding and turn it up slowly to you get a nice bead of weld.
even if you have never welded before , it will just feel and sound right when its running proppa.
depending on what your welding, i would get someone who can weld to explain a few things though.
you can with a mig welder put down a lovely looking weld but its sitting on the top of the steel, had no penetration :D
you dont want to start welding things together especial crucial things like chassis etc, and it shakes to bits!

[Range Rover Blues]

Top tip, if it looks like a peice of bird s*** it is.  You need to balance the wire fed with the melt rate, if it pops and spits then possibly not enough wire feed, if you feel it juddering and stabbing then too much.

If you keep burning holes through then too much current, same if the weld look undercut.

I'm probably not explaining this very well but once you know how it should feel it's easy to do (come on guys back me up here ) and should crackly like frying bacon, apparently.

BTW, I found a nice little booklet in my local Halfrauds.

[Mudlark]

Top tip, if it looks like a peice of bird s*** it is.  You need to balance the wire fed with the melt rate, if it pops and spits then possibly not enough wire feed, if you feel it juddering and stabbing then too much.

If you keep burning holes through then too much current, same if the weld look undercut.

I'm probably not explaining this very well but once you know how it should feel it's easy to do (come on guys back me up here ) and should crackly like frying bacon, apparently.

BTW, I found a nice little booklet in my local Halfrauds.

Without pictures I'd say that was perfect :lol:

I'd just add do plenty of practising before you try it out on something important

And remember welding upside down under the car where you can't get your helmet in properly and all the cable and exhaust system is in the way, not to mention jutting out bits of the chassis, is really soul destroying :roll:    :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[P.R.Howler]

Hope its not gasless, fluxcore wire is a waste of time money and energy, make sure area to be welded is clean as poss, check underneath for wires/fuel lines etc and the dreaded underseal is fun to weld above........practice on clean bits of scrap, and yeah, it should sound like sizzling bacon when running right.........but you cant always get it right, I set my mig up so I can adjust the wire feed with my left hand while welding up.......but I have been mig welding for 20+years

[cardiff_gareth]

Well I gav it my best shot and not blowing my own trumpet, did a pretty good job, the bacon was sizzling and so were the eggs :lol:
Richard from the DOC has been helping me with the floor and as I've never welded he gave me a master class 8)
After 10 mins I was welding the floor pan in with Rich watching over me, my main problem that Richard had to keep stopping me from doing was going too fast as I got carried away but it turned out well, some areas of the floor were very thin and I made some nice holes (enter seam sealer!) but over all it was good. We practiced on some sheet metal first, getting the speed right, getting over the nerves and playing with the settings, in the end we went for low setting, high current or high setting low current depending on the area being welded. All I need to do now is paint the floor up and then pictures will be in Discovery forum :P
Dead chuffed now - I can sort of weld now :lol:

[Defender]

Check out your local colleges as they sometimes do a welding course at "Night School"
They will often cover Manual Metal Arc Welding (stick welding), MIG Welding, TIG Welding, Gas Welding & Gas Cutting.
Whilst I taught myself MIG Welding, I managed to get one of my employers to send me on one of these courses & it improved my MIG skills & I also had the benefit of learning some new skills. :)
15 years later, I am now having to call on my training & I am trying to remember how to use an Oxy/Acetalene kit to cut steel.  :shock:

[andyhubbard]

Hairyasswelder you have PM.

[hairyasswelder]

Hairyasswelder you have PM.

Cant see it Andy  :oops:

[big rob]

No one has mentioned it yet , and I don't know if you have welded before.
But please use the eye protection that should have been supplied with the unit.
When the arc is struck it will produce an intense white light:
If your eyes are not protected
1/ you won't ne able to see what you are doing.
2/ you will enduce a medical condition called "arc eye" which means that after a while your eyes will become sore and feel like someone has thrown sand in your eyes it will last for 12-24 hours.
Don't mean to be Mr serious but some people don't know the dangers of these machines, it doesn't help when the instructions are missing.

[Range Rover Blues]

Good point Rob and not at all overstated.

When I started as an engineer one of the many things the H&S bloke liked to drum into us was arc-eye.

I have a lasting image of a photo of serious and irreversible arc-eye that leads to permentant blindness.

If you want to know the effects just be warned that the protein in your eyeball is similar to that found in an egg.

Put an egg in the microwave for a minute and imagine it's your eye.

Sick huh?  I never a**e about with electric arc without my visor.  Shutting your eyes doesn't work either

[cardiff_gareth]

Yeah,
Good point guys, I used the face shield that came with the unit and also some rigger gloves.
I got the settings for the welder off the web site that Wizard gave me.

It said as well to wear a face mask because of the fumes that clog your lungs up, didn't have one to hand so did next best thing - opened the sun roof :lol:

I'll look into a college course on welding, Wizard has also offered me a master class on welding so when I get some more time I'll be taking him up on it - if its still ok  
At the momment after work is looking after baby time whilst my wife goes to her classes. I'm maybe looking into a home course on health & safety. Great contridiction with the above comment  :lol:  :lol: