stack of dimes (mig welds)

[BajaWelder]

Looking to get better, obviously practice makes perfect but I cannot get that [i]stack of dimes"[i] look on tubing or flat stock.
Mostly practicing on flat stock 10ga or .120 wall tubing (fishmouthed) to fit another piece of tuning(like a roll cage)

Using the Miller 175 with 75/25%.

what am Im I doing wrong?

Too me, its actually easier to get better looking welds TIG vs MIG.
TIG




thanks!

[Scott V]

what am Im I doing wrong.

Worrying about it.

[jamlit]

Not sure what you mean by the fish mouth look. Maybe you could post a pic. As to the stack of dimes look. sometime that is the affect of a pulse weld. also it is the affects of a small side to side motion while welding. If your heat and wire speed are set right, move your bead side to side just a little and should see the look you are looking for and get a good weld.

[KB Fabrications]

what am Im I doing wrong.

Worrying about it.

lol. hehehe

[tsalagi]

if you mean fish mouth by that they are pointed, then your travel speed is too fast.

[Sundown]

Somehow I don't think he is refering to the weld bead being "fishmouthed" but the tubing end being "fishmouthed". If you are using a MM175 don't expect to be able to make the weld look like the Tig beads, it might be possible, but it certinly won't be easy.

[paulrbrown]

The picture posted looks alot like Aluminum also. Sometimes the 'Stack of Dimes' look is a good selling point to an uneducated eye, meaning if it looks good it is good, but those dimes can be stress risers leading to a shorter life. A good smooth bead with MIG is probably stronger, just not as ***y. Hope this helps, Paul

[makeithot]

That stack of dimes look your after is created by pulsed arc mig and is created by whipping simular to burning E6010 electrode takes some practice but not much. On the other hand though those welds look pretty good to me. Don't worry about it.

[Bert]

How the heck do you do that in the first place without a pulse MIG? Are you pulsing it with the trigger?
please answer by e-mail, I may not be able to find this thread again.thanks
[email protected]
New to welding
bert

[HMW]

They look pretty good to me, as someone else said, smooth is really OK. It does look like aluminum in the picture

[bob_e95482]

Some of the guys I work with can make a mig weld look like a stack of dimes; one guy showed me how, said a lot of people would kill for the info- they weld in a triangular pattern. I just can't get the hang of it. But it goes something like this-Up, then diagonal down to the root, then back to the toe, then up again. Little overlapping triangles.

[turbo38t]

Ok, it's pretty easy to do, but not easy to master. Machine setup is key. The wire speed will have to be a little lower than you are used to. If you weld from left to right use a drag technique with the gun at about 15 degrees from perpendicular to your work. Start your weld, then perform small circles(rembember, traveling from left to right) in the counter clockwise motion with a short pause(you will learn it with practice) at 12 o'clock. Basically you are doing little curly Qs with the next circle starting out and coming up through the right, you should see the wire burn through the joint. Like I said before, propwer wire speed is key. If you are using .035 wire try voltage setting around 19.5 -20 and wire speed around 30 or so. The straighter you hold the gun to the work piece the prettier the result. Dave