Complete Beginner Tries MIG Welding for the First Time - Clarke 135TE

Can't build a car if I can't weld metal together, so I went to Machine Mart and bought a Clarke 135TE Turbo MIG welder to play with. Watch as I nail my first weld with absolutely no issues or oversights whatsoever...
You can follow me on Instagram - / cgten.uk

[@stevenginnever5343]

Pretty good effort with basic equipment. Many people give up after an hour or two. Keep at it, after five or six one hour session's compare your first and latest welds. As others have said a comfortable position is key when learning. Good luck.

[@NaokisRC]

Even an ugly weld can be ground down into a lovely finish ;) You might be blowing through because you're running it too hot (amps) but I'm not an expert on that matter! I think wire speed is more to match your movement and amps is for material thickness.

[@diggadyl]

I’m a welder by trade. The weld you said has more penetration is pretty good for your 5th go! Penetration only really matters when you’re welding different bits of steel together. You’ve picked it up a lot quicker than a lot of the apprentices that join my work haha.
The first one has porosity because there was no gas and I wanted to note that depending on your guns shroud diameter you should alter the gas coming from the bottle using litres/pm but the bottle didn’t seem to use this measurement so I could suggest using a gas flow meter.

[@cgten]

Really appreciate the insight. Sadly the regulator I'm using on these small disposable bottles only really works on the wide open "6" setting. They're not very good to be honest, but fine for getting something working out of the box. My intention is to upgrade to a refillable bottle with a proper regulator so I can control the gas flow a lot better.

[@gwiggy8793]

Just keep going it gets easier mate

[@diggadyl]

When welding the pipe together you want to butt weld it back together, you could try grinding one end of the pipe into a sort of bevelled shape for the weld to sit in and this will stop them looking like Mount Everest

[@futten3230]

cold welds maybe too much wire . also when you weld make sure to be comfertable and lean on something so your arms arent floating

[@cgten]

Good advice. I'm still learning but I'll get there eventually.

[@futten3230]

@@cgten practice practice practice

[@kellenedwards8675]

@@cgtenu might already know this by now probaly but idk if this varies for different machines but when I mig weld I used voltage at 20 and wire feed at 4

[@victorcoroycuevas2416]

Muchos amperes , baja la velocidad del alambre, no zigsagues(no hace falta para lo que estas haciendo), ve recto

[@andru9102]

I am planning to learn to weld and thinking of buying the same machine you bought. I will be very pleased if I start as well as you did. How are you finding the welder a year on?

[@cgten]

After some time I'm pretty happy with it, but the lack of fine voltage control makes it hard to apply techniques you learn in tutorials because they all assume you have a voltage dial. Aside from that, make sure you use 0.8mm wire if you're welding anything thicker than 1mm.

[@gwiggy8793]

If in doubt make what you need and get it welded somewhere , don’t want to worry about the strength of your welds