Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

I have a 110V lincoln mig, he set it by the chart inside, I think C & wire sped of 5, D is the highest I'll do a test there & then lower the wire speed & see what I get.
I do remember I used D on my frame rails, not sure of the wire speed, but I did burn my face pretty good!
 
110v welders are great for doing sheetmetal work. Easier to NOT burn through. But thicker metal gives you a lot less chance of burnthrough. Don't be afraid to really "cook it in".
 
My friends been really busy at work, he does the cutting out & prep work, see what he does on his first round this time (whenever it happens) & when I start grinding I can mess with the settings on the second round.
I did mention it to him & he didn't seem concerned???
He has done a bunch of these before I never really looked close at the welding, as far as I know none of those parts fell out!
 
OK back at it, the rear of this one is worse need to make a few patches in the cross member.20251027_171748.jpgThe bad stuff cut out20251027_142628.jpg
Had to trim the cap down on the top, this one was all the way up to the curve away at the top20251027_142643.jpgHad him stop by on his way home to mount the leaf spring to be sure everything was copasetic before I start to weld20251027_155432.jpgI will try & get that welder set to try for a little more penetration, hope that goes well?
 
I'm more worried about the paper thin crossmember & getting a solid piece in there.

Murphy must stay away, I can mess things up just fine without his help!!!
 
I found some metal to burn through!!!!

Getting that back patch in the old metal just withered away!

This is after about 10 rounds of welding & grinding, still a few holes. 20251028_162648.jpgStill no attack plan for this mess on the bottom? 20251028_162707.jpgBut it was getting late & I wanted to get a few spots in the side, welder all the way up, slowed wire speed, no good, had to bring it up pretty high (the speed) I think they are burning in well? 20251028_162748.jpg
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
Now if I could aim better, I miss what I'm aiming at, at least 1/2 the time!
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That has always been my problem. I'll be blind as a bat someday if I live long enough. With both diabetes and cataracts I could use eye transplants.

Try more light on the subject. I also would mark the spot with soapstone to make it visible.

Those welds look pretty good though at least in the photo.
 
I have the quartz light out there, it helps, but I have a problem wearing the welding helmet, I use really dark sunglasses, now that the welders all the way up I have to cover my face, on the low setting out back I already got a little face burn.
 
Couple more rounds should have the outside pretty good, 20251029_161956.jpgThe back side is killing me, hard to get a good angle on the welder.20251029_162046.jpgI may save that for him on the weekend?
 
I'm calling it good enough, Mark will stop by tonight or tomorrow & see if he wants to hit the inside again?
I'm happy with the outside. 20251031_151300.jpgNot so much with the inside? 20251031_151328.jpg
 
What I see of the outer mostly looks darned good, except the end. Next time move your welder from side-to-side to make the metal flow from one piece to the other. There's different ways to do this, mostly personal prefence. You can do it in straight lines, /////, or some prefer an arcing pattern, ((((((
 
That I did do, mostly almost straight lines, at the top end I went quite a bit out from where the cap ends to make sure I got the weld to bridge over to the new piece
 
68R/T said:
You can do it in straight lines, /////, or some prefer an arcing pattern, ((((((
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Or like the curlie-cue on the top of a little debbie's cupcake with tighter circles.

1762000478327.png

Wagging it back and forth gives you penetration on both sides. That is, if you're not entirely missing one side or the other, such as blind old men tend to do.

I remember when I butt welded a new trunk pan bottom in our Duster I would start the bead, then jump directly across to the other side and it would just flow right across the gap. That was more of a zap-move-zap routine, as sheet metal work often is. The hardest part of that job was getting rid of all the light I could see through pinholes after grinding.

A country-ass body guy I know told me liquid nails would work for seam sealer over the welding, so I used that. It was gonna be ugly no matter what.
 
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