Cold and shitty

Fred Flintstone-approved floorboard

The Mustang project is at the point where we need to start welding patches into the holes where the rusty bits were. At last count that includes driver and passenger-side floors, firewall, engine compartment where the battery tray was, headlight cups, frame box where the driver's side leaf spring shackle attaches, and possibly the driver's side wheel tub. The engine is done, and now we need to focus on getting the chassis and body solid, right, and painted so we can put the engine back in. This means I need to get cracking with the metal work, like now-ish.

The goal for my Independence Day weekend was to set up my new welder and get some practice time in, since it's been a couple years since I've last MiG'd something up. I wish I could sing a story of success, but if you've been reading my blog regularly, you'll understand when I explain that I got more experiences than I bargain for, and ultimately got no welding done at all. Will I get there? Sure. But it looks like I have some things to check out.

So here's what happened

 

Showed Xavier the angle grinder, and he went to town

After moving Project Invadr to the new space, I organized the empty stall into a couple different work areas. One is just for welding/fabbing. All good. If you recall way back in December I mentioned I would tune the setup on the new welder by building a cart (own a welder? Don't buy a cart, sheesh). Xavier had already cut to length all the square steel tubing on Saturday, so I just squared, chamfered, and  jigged it all up with some magnets.

After setting up the welding rig, I went to tack some of the pieces together. The weld was cold and shitty. 

After grinding bare the surface on which I attached my ground lead, I went to tack. The weld was cold and shitty.

After realizing I had forgotten to turn on my gas tank, I cranked it open, dialed in the right output volume and went to tack again. The weld was still cold and shitty.

Went back and read the manual (yes, this was getting serious, serious enough to actually stop and read the instructions), realized since I was doing solid wire welding with gas that the default polarity was backwards. So I changed the polarity and went to tack yet again. God. Damn. It. The weld was cold and shitty.

Now if you've never welded, let me explain that when you lay down a nice bead, it sizzles like bacon, and penetrates enough to achieve a strong bond, but not enough to blow through the backside of your work. I got none of this. I'd even take a blowthrough over what was actually happening. The wire arced and spit, and even started to maybe think about flowing on the last attempt, but it sounded like crap, didn't look good, didn't pool, and didn't feel nice. Each time I was able to just snap off with a pliers the weld I had layed down. So frustrating. I retired to the house to try and figure out what else it might be.

Thing I need to try #1: Weld up something thinner. I should be able to weld 1/8" steel, but just for fun, maybe seeing if I have better results with some thinner stick, like 18 or 20 gauge.

Thing I need to try #2: Wire up a 230 volt 50A receptacle. I have a postwar modern home build in the 50's, which has great architecture, but the wiring is dated - I was running the rig off 115 volts, although it can run on 230v if I wired up a 2-pole outlet to use. Like I mentioned in #1, I should be able to weld up 1/8" steel, although that's probably the limit without supplying more power.

Thing I need to try #3: Crash a friend's garage with my rig and see if it works there. I will entertain volunteers but if you are my friend and you have a garage, consider this fair warning that I may show up unannounced with a welder, a gas tank, and a truck bed full of steel. I will also bring plenty beer, because fair is fair. Apologies to spouses.

Nothing like a little mystery. Let's figure this out.