How to MIG weld

[attwood65]

I am about to embark on recommissioning my Vitesse and will need to get the MIG welder out. I want to be a better welder before I get going. Anyone know of anyone or where I can get some MIG welding training. Perhaps a day or half a day to hone my skills. I live in Guildford. Thanks.

[JohnD]

Like the Noo Yorker cabbie said when the lady asked if she could go to Carnegie Hall, "Ya gotta practice, lady, practice!"

But for instruction, try a local College.   They may do evening or weekend classes, sometimes leading to a City & Guilds certificate.  And, a local fabrication workshop whose offcuts bin you might ask to raid for material to practice on.  Scrap yards are no good anymore!   I discovered recently that they can no longer sell even clean offcuts except to a "Registered Waste Dealer"!    Bugger, when I wanted some alloy sheet!

John

Edited November 3, 2023 by JohnD

[Josef]

I can recommend just cracking on with the car. Start with bits that will be hidden when it’s finished, but where you can see both sides so you’ll be able to learn to judge when you’re penetrating well and go from there. I’d say that actually welding is the easier part, the making / fitting of repair pieces takes up the most time, and I feel requires more learning. 

I seem to remember Guildford College did metalwork evening classes of some sort. It’s been about 15 years since I moved up north though so that may well have changed.

[Casper]

Quote

I seem to remember Guildford College did metalwork evening classes of some sort.

Sadly, when I did it for a couple of years, welding wasn't included.

Worth doing, though

C.

[Puglet1]

attwood65. All I can say is practice, practice, practice. Don’t rely upon your eyes, use your ears as well. You will know when the weld is right. Can I ask what mig welder you are using?

[Unkel Kunkel]

As well as advice given, I find this  DIY mig welding site can also be useful

 

[68vitesse]

Plenty of utube videos.

Regards

Paul

[Morgana]

My partner has a £50 Gumtree Sealey 130XT which has been fine for welding steel together for a house build and MGB sills and panels. I think the welder is less important than practice, as others have said! If you're ever down in Cornwall you could be shown the ropes. Ask on the MIG Welding Forum advertised above and there will very likely be a member there who is nearby and can give you some tips. I found the local college was booked up for months, but luckily partner's brother's archery club president is an ex-welder and offered several months of weekly sessions with metal to play with to give structured practice. There'll be someone like that near you!

[attwood65]

Thanks everyone. Nothing a the local colleges.  I am using a Clarke 135 TE Mig welder and a large gas bottle. 

[Nigel Clark]

I tried looking for college courses to improve my MIG skills about 5 years ago, local to me in the East Midlands. All I could find were car body repair courses, based on accident repairs for modern cars with little or no welding involved, or fabrication courses, welding with 5mm steel and thicker. 

Sadly, neither has any relevance for classic car restoration, so take care not to get onto the wrong course just for the sake of doing something. I was better off with practice and YouTube tutorials at home. 

Nigel

[JohnD]

I discovered recently that my favourite body shop no longer has mig ,or gas welding kit!   The steels used in moderns, 'boron' etc, cannot be welded or else lose their strength if heated to bend them back onto shape.  They will use a hydraulic jig for minor bends, or else replace and spot weld panels.

It's a different world!

John

[andybeau]

Boron is only used in small parts of the body, i.e. door strengthening and dash strengthening. All other panels are normal steel or aluminium. It is a b'stard to weld or rivet tho, but not used in the majority of panels in the body. 

[ahebron]

Youtube has an amazing amount of content on MIG welders that can watch and learn from.
My personal favourite is

https://www.youtube.com/@MakeItKustom

But as everyone has said already practice practice and more practice.
And spend the money to buy a bloody good welding helmet, if you cannot see what you are welding or your welds then you dont have any chance of doing a half decent job. That was my best investment in my welding hobby.
Then buy a TIG welder and start all over again.
Funnily enough the one welding I could never accomplish was arc welding.
As a kid at college I loved gas welding and brazing.

[Colin Lindsay]

Something I have to learn, having had too many friends or relations that would do it for me over the years, sadly many too busy or long gone these days. I missed enrolling for classes last April, about 12 miles from me, so will keep an eye out for more. I've been practicing metal bending and light metal shaping, 1mm sheet is fine to work with, but found that strips of metal from B&Q shattered or cracked before they would bend, even if heated first. Wonder if that's the sort of stuff John is referring to? 

 

[PeteH]

Something I learned a long time ago, If you want Quality sheet steel, go to a comercial supplier. DIY outlets often get supplies from very "iffy" sources. A well known local industrial supplier, has a section in the steel store where "offcuts" can be "discovered" and purchased mostly at discount too. I find that a chat with the guy in the office often gets a a good response. I may have some adavantage having not just worked with structural steel and plate, but also delivered such, which gives an insider view of the business. Having said all that, my personal welding skills still leave a lot to be desired☹️. Even my second youngest grandson`s welding is far neater than mine. I do know my current helmet is well overdue replacement, but I keep finding other stuff to buy😭.

Pete

[Unkel Kunkel]

19 hours ago, attwood65 said:

Thanks everyone. Nothing a the local colleges.  I am using a Clarke 135 TE Mig welder and a large gas bottle. 

Also, If you haven’t already got one, I  strongly suggest  Auto- darkening welding helmet.

They really do  make a huge difference. 

[Puglet1]

To back up what these guys are saying about helmets.

 I have 2 auto darkening ones in my garage. I mistakenly picked up the cheap helmet and wondered what was wrong with my mig welding (difficult to see the pool of weld or work area). I switched to my R-tech helmet and all was instantly back to normal.

[JohnD]

5 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

 found that strips of metal from B&Q shattered or cracked before they would bend, even if heated first. Wonder if that's the sort of stuff John is referring to? 

 

I did NOT suggest metal from B&Q!

Try any local fabricator, ask in the workshop for the foreman or similar, explain your need - to practice welding - and to take a few bits from their offcuts bin.  I'd further suggest not to offer payment but after you have some bits give them a 'drink or two'!

You might be invited back!

John 

[Colin Lindsay]

1 hour ago, JohnD said:

I did NOT suggest metal from B&Q!

Try any local fabricator, ask in the workshop for the foreman or similar, explain your need - to practice welding - and to take a few bits from their offcuts bin.  I'd further suggest not to offer payment but after you have some bits give them a 'drink or two'!

You might be invited back!

John 

Ok ok, I concede, it's not the source but the type.

It seemed the easiest (laziest?) solution to buy long strips of metal off a stand in B&Q when they were right in front of me, cut and shape for brackets for the Herald wind deflector, but despite being shiny and strong, they were also brittle, and just splintered in the metal folder. 

 

[Unkel Kunkel]

From a self- taught  DIY welder , who still has a lot to learn:

The Metal:

Clean it’ - bright and shiny is essential. Don’t try and weld through rust,oil, paint under-seal/ waxoyl.

‘Clamp it’ - panels need to be firmly clamped together-

                   -You can’t have too many clamps.

‘Cool it’  - avoid distortion - Don’t be tempted to run a long weld starting from one end otherwise you’ll get a lot of distortion /bucklingDo it in stages as tacks,  allowing things to cool-  jet of compressed air can be useful. - Clean , check readjust  Clamp  before each weld.

The Mig machine :

‘Tune it ‘

Unlike the power setting and and gas flow which are fairly straightforward to set from info that comes with you machine for whatever gauge you are welding, I found wire speed  to be both the most crucial - and also the most difficult setting to achieve as the rotary dial range is not ‘ linear’, least not on my machine.

 The best way I found to get the optimum wire speed  is by sort of ‘ tuning’ -

Take a piece of scrap of the required gauge, select a low wire speed and start welding a bead.Keeping  your other hand on the wire speed dial knob  and as you continue to weld, slowly adjust   the wire speed  up and down to find the optimum setting which will become obvious by the appearance of the bead  - and it will sort  of ‘sound  right’  too.

 

 

[JohnD]

9 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

 

Colin, scale not clear from your pic, but a short section of square tube would be ideal for what you're making.

[PeteH]

3 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Ok ok, I concede, it's not the source but the type.

It seemed the easiest (laziest?) solution to buy long strips of metal off a stand in B&Q when they were right in front of me, cut and shape for brackets for the Herald wind deflector, but despite being shiny and strong, they were also brittle, and just splintered in the metal folder. 

 

That looks suspiciously like a form of "brittle fracture"?. The reasons are lengthy, complex and technical, (there are whole technical "papers" written about it) and have to do with intergranular failures. I’ve only ever seen that where welding procedures where not followed to the letter, promoting changes to the granular structure of the steel close to the Heat Affected zone. Some steels have been known to spontaneously fracture, after being stored at extremely low temperatures even if brought to ambient before being worked. I have no idea what happened in your case, you would need to know it`s composition and history to get any clues. I never studied metallurgy, but I did know one or two through work. Always blinded me with science.

Pete

[68vitesse]

To make brackets from thicker steel strip I've cut part way through bent to shape and then welded the cut. As said above practice practice practice, a smaller local stockholder/fabricator will let me have a good sort through their offcuts for a donation to their tea and biscuit fund.

Got some heavy odd shapes I've found useful to help shape parts.

Regards

Paul.

[JohnD]

PeteH, any flat bar from B&Q will surely be "builders metalwork" intended to provide a straight, durable edge for plaster work or othe non-structural purpose.   It would not be intended to be bent, especially through a right angle, let alone welded!   B&Q offer good materials, but not for metal working!

Glad that others, like Paul, have found sympathetic workshops who Wil support the amateur metal worker!

John

[Unkel Kunkel]

Fellow highly-esteemed ‘ Triumphants’

May I humbly  point out  that  we seem to have not only drifted  a little from the path of the  subject , which was a question entitled ‘ How to Mig Weld’, we have now veered  off down an  unmarked track on another subject.

-fascinating as it is.