Thanks for the kind comment, and thanks for being part of welding for that long đ. Most of what I know has been learned through making a ton of mistakes, and trying to figure out what happened lol. If you make enough mistakes at some point you definitely know what works and what doesnt lol. I will likely go and teach in some capacity in the future, for now I am just happy to be making a difference for people by sharing what I know on youtube đ
Greg - your no nonsense approach to outside mig welding is great. You are obviously more experienced than you let on. The fact you jump in and try it without tests is the best part. Learning to adjust to obvious not so good results is an example of knowledge of welding method. So many less experienced have no idea what went wrong. They can't determine what to do next. THAT my friend is why your videos are very good learning experiences for intermediate welders. Ignore the experienced welder rants. Your approach is perfect for 90% of the folks watching this vid.
Thanks for the kind words. I try to make things for the average person, and in a relatable fashion. There are far more newbies and average people trying to get better and on CZcams for content than experienced professionals. When watching welding channels a long time ago the ones I enjoyed the most were ones that had a relatable approach with equipment I could afford, doing things I commonly worked on. There were quite a few content creators that focused on high level welding which is great, but I knew I had to commit to teaching the basics first. Most welding channels didnât explain a lot of the âwhy you do thingsâ and because I was curious I researched it myself. Thatâs part of the reason why I cover a lot of things in simple videos, so people understand whatâs going on. Some people donât like this and thatâs fine. I want people to be able to understand how to do something and why I think they should do it that way, so they themselves can make decisions on how to tackle projects. To be good at welding requires a person to be able to think critically and make decisions on their own. Many people donât understand that and that is why so many people never get good at welding, and they are always looking for magic settings/values/numbers to fix their issues. Thatâs why every time I make a weld I purposely talk about defects in it and what could be better so that other people find that in their own work and make adjustments. 100% I could make everything perfect for the camera, but I donât see much gained. Most of my videos I literally sit down, turn the camera on, just make a weld, and whatever happens is what goes in the video. Which is actually a positive thing because I am consistently not perfect, which means the results of much of my testing is pretty accurate to the real world.
This is great information, with plenty of examples of issues (thatâs good) to help us understand why our welds look the way they do, and how to correct those issues. Iâm sure many others also benefit from you not hiding mistakes, and allowing us to learn by example. I noticed a few things during this video that I think others would like to know about too. As you stated, Metal is expensive, and most of us canât afford fancy premade coupons or have access to clean new metal. I think many of us find scraps here and there i.e. dumpster diving for sheetmetal or bed frames etc. Luckily, I have an industrial steel supply, that sells remnants. Unfortunately, most of it is in pretty rough shape, rusty or bent, which is why itâs in the remnants pile! In no particular order: Where do you source your metal? How do you go about preparing (cleaning) the material and cutting consistent coupons etc.? What kind of cutting tools, abrasives and techniques do you use? For example, you have mentioned a metal chop-saw, that you donât use, yet your coupons look like premade purchased! Do you have a bandsaw, or just the reciprocating saw? How about Plasma Cutting? I bought an Amazon 50amp Plasma Cutter by a company called Bestarc, model BTC500DP 7th gen that looks very promising, and any info along those lines would be great. I have never used a plasma cutter (mine will get here next week), but I think it will be much easier to cut my scraps into more practical practice material. I noticed you recently touched up your welding table surface, and would like to see that and coupon prep demonstrated. I would like to do some personal learning videos as I work. Perhaps you can do a behind the scenes video showing us techniques for how we can make videos too. Iâm especially interested in Arc Shots, and how you get closeups. Thanks again for sharing, and bringing us along and letting us see what real world welding looks like. I also would like to see make more Yard Art, as I loved the Bob the Snail and flowers!
I had a long response written and it didnât save for some reason and was lost đź. I rewrote some of it, so here it goes: For plasma cutting I am a huge fan of it. I had a hypertherm xp45 I used a bunch. I ended up selling it and a few other things to buy my dynasty tig welder. The hypertherm is practically the best/highest end plasma at the 45 amp range. To give you a idea how good it was I could cut 3/16th thick steel using just a aluminum square, and the cut was so clean it looked like it was sheared or water jetted. This was with moving FAST. For cutting metal a solid plasma system is a unbelievable tool. I currently donât have one because I donât own a compressor anymore and my 3 torch sets take care of what I need. I have never used that bestarc plasma but based on having used other cheaper plasma systems I am sure with some practice it will do a great job. Amazon reviews are also generally pretty accurate, so that can help decide. Like I said my main repair work/side hustle is on 1/4in and thicker steel and portable so a plasma system is not practical. In the future I will have one again. I am coming up on 1 year of making CZcams videos so itâs time to share a behind the scenes look at things. Up until recently I have had the simplest of setups which i still believe is valid and good (a expensive IPhone and a good mic). In the last week I have upgraded to a actual computer, a mirror less camera with a high end lens, and a even better microphone. All of these things will drastically improve the quality, but the learning curve is steep. I will gladly shoot some videos about my process and explain things upcoming. Also, just wait until you see the arc footage of the new camera, itâs on par with the best on CZcams. I will shoot a video on coupon prep and how I keep my table clean đ§Œ đ. Definitely some good and bad ways to go about that. Back to the coupons, I actually cut them With a Diablo blade on a sawzall. I will have do a video on how to calculate cut cost/speed of processes, but the cost per cut of that blade canât be much higher (if at all) over a dry cut. Dry cut blades donât last nearly as long as I expected. I have had great luck with evolutions blades but harbor freights blade was terrible (70$ for less cuts than a 10$ sawzall blade lol). For what I cut (roll cage tubing and other unusual pieces) tend to be real hard on dry cut blades. Honestly I rather have a band saw because they make better cuts on tube (especially thin wall). For cutting just straight bar stock the dry cut is killer, but not the random stuff I do. Not to mention if you accidentally cut a piece of stainless you just cost yourself 70+ dollars by smoking the blade lol. Also, once I get through MiG welding videos I will be doing a ton more of viewer submission videos where I answer questions with hands on demonstrations and I will also be doing far more repair videos. I wanted to get a bunch of info out there so I had the âhow I do what I doâ out and then repair videos I can just focus on doing the repair. I have done a ton of jobs in the last couple months, itâs just very tough jobs to film as one person (think under a truck) or so time constrained seconds counted. I will bring more of that stuff to the channel because I enjoy it and I know everyone else does too. I also have 5 videos shot and edited regarding running welders on generators and running a mobile repair business, I think many people will find that content great as well đ. Anyway thanks for the comment and I look forward to making a few videos with answers to what youâre wondering đ.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg Something I forgot to mention/ask was when you are demonstrating how you setup your camera for various views, could you please include viewpoints that more accurately portray âDrag/Travel Anglesâ and/or any angles for that matter. Something that has plagued me since the beginning has been proper torch/stick angles. You often video from above, which is great, but it is sometimes difficult to see both Torch/Stinger angles and or travel direction. Perhaps using a 2nd or 3rd camera from a slight distance, inserted periodically would be very beneficial for all.
@@makingmistakeswithgregthis was some of the post? I hate to think what the whole post was. But, yeah, I agree. I use a ThermalArc Havenât had any problems. A plasma is very useful, particularly if thereâs no other way to cut something longer than about 5-6â when itâs too think to cut with various other methods. Also good at cutting shapes other than straight lines.
You are correct, thatâs DCEN. I wasnât doing flux core previously though đ . I am thinking I disconnected the cables to hang them up out of the way, and when I put them back on the welder I was somehow a idiot and switched the ground and the MiG gun lead. It still seems to be mysterious circumstances, so I am going to say a ghost did it đ
Lots of very good advise Greg. One of my welders does pulse so I cheat on outside corners now. I still only do 2-3 inch welds stop and check. I have caught myself getting of track at times. How about a video on silicone bronze, I have do some with mig and today got a job to repair a motorcycle muffler on a old bike out of production, so repair it is. Silicone bronze on thin (appears 20 guage) would be great. I have done some on 10 guage but not 20.
I have never run silicon bronze with Mig, but I use tig all the time for it. I definitely will have to experiment with it on mig. I think a lot of people could benefit knowing how to use it since it limits heat input (and warping).
If I'm going to take a 1/4" mild steel butt & T joint test using Mig w/75-25 mix. Can I practice on a 1/8" mild steel ? What should be my settings on a 1/4" mild steel ? Voltage? Amps?
You can do that, the fillet/t-joint will weld much the same be it 1/8th or 1/4, minus the increase in settings for the 1/4. If you can do the 1/8th well you will find 1/4 easier (it can take way more heat). For butt joints if you are just running a weld on a closed plate (no bevel or gap) 1/4in plate will have a lot less penetration than 1/8th. 1/8th on plate will easily have melt through on the backside, 1/4 wonât. If you are doing bevel or bevel-open root the 1/4 will pull way more heat out of the puddle so the 1/8th will take far less heat than 1/4. For settings I highly recommend you download the miller welding ap, or use their site. They have a calculator for MiG thatâs pretty accurate. I donât MiG weld often enough to know the numbers off the top of my head for 1/4 (I stick weld that) but 1/8th I run around 270 in/min 19v with .030 wire. For 1/4in plate millers calculator is saying 360 and 21.5 on .035 wire, thatâs probably close. Thicker steel becomes easier to weld because itâs more forgiving.
You should teach in a vocational school. I have been welding for 50 years and I still learn from your videos. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind comment, and thanks for being part of welding for that long đ. Most of what I know has been learned through making a ton of mistakes, and trying to figure out what happened lol. If you make enough mistakes at some point you definitely know what works and what doesnt lol. I will likely go and teach in some capacity in the future, for now I am just happy to be making a difference for people by sharing what I know on youtube đ
Greg - your no nonsense approach to outside mig welding is great. You are obviously more experienced than you let on. The fact you jump in and try it without tests is the best part. Learning to adjust to obvious not so good results is an example of knowledge of welding method. So many less experienced have no idea what went wrong. They can't determine what to do next. THAT my friend is why your videos are very good learning experiences for intermediate welders. Ignore the experienced welder rants. Your approach is perfect for 90% of the folks watching this vid.
Thanks for the kind words. I try to make things for the average person, and in a relatable fashion. There are far more newbies and average people trying to get better and on CZcams for content than experienced professionals. When watching welding channels a long time ago the ones I enjoyed the most were ones that had a relatable approach with equipment I could afford, doing things I commonly worked on. There were quite a few content creators that focused on high level welding which is great, but I knew I had to commit to teaching the basics first. Most welding channels didnât explain a lot of the âwhy you do thingsâ and because I was curious I researched it myself. Thatâs part of the reason why I cover a lot of things in simple videos, so people understand whatâs going on. Some people donât like this and thatâs fine. I want people to be able to understand how to do something and why I think they should do it that way, so they themselves can make decisions on how to tackle projects. To be good at welding requires a person to be able to think critically and make decisions on their own. Many people donât understand that and that is why so many people never get good at welding, and they are always looking for magic settings/values/numbers to fix their issues.
Thatâs why every time I make a weld I purposely talk about defects in it and what could be better so that other people find that in their own work and make adjustments. 100% I could make everything perfect for the camera, but I donât see much gained. Most of my videos I literally sit down, turn the camera on, just make a weld, and whatever happens is what goes in the video. Which is actually a positive thing because I am consistently not perfect, which means the results of much of my testing is pretty accurate to the real world.
Luckily this is the last video with my phone for a arc footage camera. With my new camera future videos will have much better arc shots đ.
This is great information, with plenty of examples of issues (thatâs good) to help us understand why our welds look the way they do, and how to correct those issues. Iâm sure many others also benefit from you not hiding mistakes, and allowing us to learn by example.
I noticed a few things during this video that I think others would like to know about too.
As you stated, Metal is expensive, and most of us canât afford fancy premade coupons or have access to clean new metal. I think many of us find scraps here and there i.e. dumpster diving for sheetmetal or bed frames etc. Luckily, I have an industrial steel supply, that sells remnants. Unfortunately, most of it is in pretty rough shape, rusty or bent, which is why itâs in the remnants pile!
In no particular order:
Where do you source your metal?
How do you go about preparing (cleaning) the material and cutting consistent coupons etc.?
What kind of cutting tools, abrasives and techniques do you use? For example, you have mentioned a metal chop-saw, that you donât use, yet your coupons look like premade purchased! Do you have a bandsaw, or just the reciprocating saw?
How about Plasma Cutting?
I bought an Amazon 50amp Plasma Cutter by a company called Bestarc, model BTC500DP 7th gen that looks very promising, and any info along those lines would be great. I have never used a plasma cutter (mine will get here next week), but I think it will be much easier to cut my scraps into more practical practice material.
I noticed you recently touched up your welding table surface, and would like to see that and coupon prep demonstrated.
I would like to do some personal learning videos as I work. Perhaps you can do a behind the scenes video showing us techniques for how we can make videos too.
Iâm especially interested in Arc Shots, and how you get closeups.
Thanks again for sharing, and bringing us along and letting us see what real world welding looks like.
I also would like to see make more Yard Art, as I loved the Bob the Snail and flowers!
I had a long response written and it didnât save for some reason and was lost đź. I rewrote some of it, so here it goes:
For plasma cutting I am a huge fan of it. I had a hypertherm xp45 I used a bunch. I ended up selling it and a few other things to buy my dynasty tig welder. The hypertherm is practically the best/highest end plasma at the 45 amp range. To give you a idea how good it was I could cut 3/16th thick steel using just a aluminum square, and the cut was so clean it looked like it was sheared or water jetted. This was with moving FAST. For cutting metal a solid plasma system is a unbelievable tool. I currently donât have one because I donât own a compressor anymore and my 3 torch sets take care of what I need. I have never used that bestarc plasma but based on having used other cheaper plasma systems I am sure with some practice it will do a great job. Amazon reviews are also generally pretty accurate, so that can help decide. Like I said my main repair work/side hustle is on 1/4in and thicker steel and portable so a plasma system is not practical. In the future I will have one again.
I am coming up on 1 year of making CZcams videos so itâs time to share a behind the scenes look at things. Up until recently I have had the simplest of setups which i still believe is valid and good (a expensive IPhone and a good mic). In the last week I have upgraded to a actual computer, a mirror less camera with a high end lens, and a even better microphone. All of these things will drastically improve the quality, but the learning curve is steep. I will gladly shoot some videos about my process and explain things upcoming. Also, just wait until you see the arc footage of the new camera, itâs on par with the best on CZcams.
I will shoot a video on coupon prep and how I keep my table clean đ§Œ đ. Definitely some good and bad ways to go about that.
Back to the coupons, I actually cut them
With a Diablo blade on a sawzall. I will have do a video on how to calculate cut cost/speed of processes, but the cost per cut of that blade canât be much higher (if at all) over a dry cut. Dry cut blades donât last nearly as long as I expected. I have had great luck with evolutions blades but harbor freights blade was terrible (70$ for less cuts than a 10$ sawzall blade lol). For what I cut (roll cage tubing and other unusual pieces) tend to be real hard on dry cut blades. Honestly I rather have a band saw because they make better cuts on tube (especially thin wall). For cutting just straight bar stock the dry cut is killer, but not the random stuff I do. Not to mention if you accidentally cut a piece of stainless you just cost yourself 70+ dollars by smoking the blade lol.
Also, once I get through MiG welding videos I will be doing a ton more of viewer submission videos where I answer questions with hands on demonstrations and I will also be doing far more repair videos. I wanted to get a bunch of info out there so I had the âhow I do what I doâ out and then repair videos I can just focus on doing the repair. I have done a ton of jobs in the last couple months, itâs just very tough jobs to film as one person (think under a truck) or so time constrained seconds counted. I will bring more of that stuff to the channel because I enjoy it and I know everyone else does too. I also have 5 videos shot and edited regarding running welders on generators and running a mobile repair business, I think many people will find that content great as well đ.
Anyway thanks for the comment and I look forward to making a few videos with answers to what youâre wondering đ.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg
Something I forgot to mention/ask was when you are demonstrating how you setup your camera for various views, could you please include viewpoints that more accurately portray âDrag/Travel Anglesâ and/or any angles for that matter.
Something that has plagued me since the beginning has been proper torch/stick angles. You often video from above, which is great, but it is sometimes difficult to see both Torch/Stinger angles and or travel direction.
Perhaps using a 2nd or 3rd camera from a slight distance, inserted periodically would be very beneficial for all.
@@michaelwhiting878 now that I have a new primary camera I can use my iPhone as a second angle. I will definitely do that in future videos đ
@@makingmistakeswithgregthis was some of the post? I hate to think what the whole post was. But, yeah, I agree. I use a ThermalArc Havenât had any problems. A plasma is very useful, particularly if thereâs no other way to cut something longer than about 5-6â when itâs too think to cut with various other methods. Also good at cutting shapes other than straight lines.
Thank you so much.
No problem đ
thanks Greg. good info. broken record is good!
So, you were doing some flux core earlier? That's DCEN.
You are correct, thatâs DCEN. I wasnât doing flux core previously though đ . I am thinking I disconnected the cables to hang them up out of the way, and when I put them back on the welder I was somehow a idiot and switched the ground and the MiG gun lead. It still seems to be mysterious circumstances, so I am going to say a ghost did it đ
Lots of very good advise Greg. One of my welders does pulse so I cheat on outside corners now. I still only do 2-3 inch welds stop and check. I have caught myself getting of track at times. How about a video on silicone bronze, I have do some with mig and today got a job to repair a motorcycle muffler on a old bike out of production, so repair it is. Silicone bronze on thin (appears 20 guage) would be great. I have done some on 10 guage but not 20.
I have never run silicon bronze with Mig, but I use tig all the time for it. I definitely will have to experiment with it on mig. I think a lot of people could benefit knowing how to use it since it limits heat input (and warping).
If I'm going to take a 1/4" mild steel butt & T joint test using Mig w/75-25 mix. Can I practice on a 1/8" mild steel ? What should be my settings on a 1/4" mild steel ? Voltage? Amps?
You can do that, the fillet/t-joint will weld much the same be it 1/8th or 1/4, minus the increase in settings for the 1/4. If you can do the 1/8th well you will find 1/4 easier (it can take way more heat). For butt joints if you are just running a weld on a closed plate (no bevel or gap) 1/4in plate will have a lot less penetration than 1/8th. 1/8th on plate will easily have melt through on the backside, 1/4 wonât. If you are doing bevel or bevel-open root the 1/4 will pull way more heat out of the puddle so the 1/8th will take far less heat than 1/4.
For settings I highly recommend you download the miller welding ap, or use their site. They have a calculator for MiG thatâs pretty accurate. I donât MiG weld often enough to know the numbers off the top of my head for 1/4 (I stick weld that) but 1/8th I run around 270 in/min 19v with .030 wire. For 1/4in plate millers calculator is saying 360 and 21.5 on .035 wire, thatâs probably close. Thicker steel becomes easier to weld because itâs more forgiving.