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Miller 135 Practice

mikedashg

mikedashg

NAXJA Forum User
Location
San Diego, CA
Just picked up a Miller 135 this month used. Cleaned up nicely with some simple green on the case, and some mothers interior protectant on the black.






Put some .035 flux core in it, started running some beads on 3/16"
Not bad eh? There's a lot of spatter on the little plate, but there's a lot of beads in one compact area, plus it's flux core.












I tried running some beads on 16 ga, and the beads looked horrible and I was blowing through a lot. I know some solid wire and gas would probably be better for it for that, but I have no plans on welding anything less then 3/16 on my Jeep so I'm not too worried about it. If I do, I'll get the gas kit.
 
What technique are you using A (c) pattern or circle? I can lay some pretty good beads with a circle pattern (heard they werern't as good as C) still practicing my c patterns.
 
homebrew said:
What technique are you using A (c) pattern or circle? I can lay some pretty good beads with a circle pattern (heard they werern't as good as C) still practicing my c patterns.
Click to expand...

Neither. All of them are straight stringer beads (no weaving) except one.

There's one wide bead on the small plate in the upper right hand corner, that was a crescent pattern. It's like a zig zag, only arch'd points instead of straight.
 
I am no good at discussing quality of welds.

but when I was welding with flux I found the paste you can get to cut on splatter worked very well.
keeps splatter down and the work area clean... er.
nice lookin machine tho.
 
Cleaning up that metal well will help reduce the spatter too. Nice work on the clean-up!
 
Whats a stringer bead? does it penitrate the same as a ( or 0 ? The hardest part for me is keeping a steady hand.
 
homebrew said:
Whats a stringer bead? does it penitrate the same as a ( or 0 ? The hardest part for me is keeping a steady hand.
Click to expand...

A stringer bead is the opposite of any weave pattern. It's welding in a straight line. Weaving isn't needed on every weld.

My welding instructor in college showed us a good technique for hand control. Hold the gun in one hand like normal, take your other hand and make a fist. Place the flat part of your fist (where your rings would sit) of your knuckles into your gun hand somehow (however it's comfortable for you) like at the inside of your wrist. Pretend your first is glued to your gun hand. Apply some pressure to your gun hand and lock it in. Or pretend like you've got a handle on the wrist of your gun hand. Use your fist to steady the gun hand. If you need even more stability and you have a table, you can also brace your forearms on the table while doing this.
 
From what I have found best at school and work was to pull my weld when running flux to keep the slag from staying in the weld. If you push it you have little bits that build up and cause a weak weld, but I dont think we are trying to pass CWI test when building our XJs. So what ever works do it.
 
Reichy said:
From what I have found best at school and work was to pull my weld when running flux to keep the slag from staying in the weld. If you push it you have little bits that build up and cause a weak weld, but I dont think we are trying to pass CWI test when building our XJs. So what ever works do it.
Click to expand...

I've always pulled (drag), never pushed.
 
At work we push everything even now that im programing the robots, I still have to program the robots to push. But when im home running flux im a pulllar.
 
mikedashg said:
Good idea, yeah if I was welding something for sure, I've got a wire brush on my angle grinder I'd clean the area up with.
Click to expand...

I find that using a flap disk to completely remove any pickling/ coating on the metal produces really good looking flux core welds.
 
XJ_ranger said:
I usually try to keep my half full gas cans away from my welding table... :doh:
Click to expand...

I knew it, I saw that in the picture and figured someone would comment on it. Took you guys long enough, yer slipping. I even saw the cans before I started welding/taking pics.


But I hate to break it to you Superman, those military cans have been empty for over 7 years. :moon:
Not really an excuse for being safe then sorry, just saying they're definitely not "half full." There's not even a little in bottom of the can.
 
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