Happy Birthday to me!!!!!
 

The wife couldn't resist. She gave me my present one day early.
She came through the front door carrying a
- Job Smart flux core mig welder from TSC!!!!!
- Hobart starter kit including : helmet/mask, gloves, a floppy welders hat, and replacement lenses.
Great starter kit and great Wife!!!

That is awesome, I got a Hobart ez125 and it works great on the thicker metal but burns through muffler pipes or thin gauge stuff if you don't weld fast. I will be welding up the muffler pipe to the flange on my wifes blue buggy because it broke off this weekend. We were about 6 miles from camp in a sand wash and it broke right at the weld. This happened to my buggy two years ago same spot. Having my own welder I can fix it without looking for some one to fix it for 25 bucks.

I am glad we had our 20ft tow strap, it took about 45 minuets to get back at about 10mph crawl, with one stop to let my buggy cool down a bit.

As for welding clean welds I still have a long way to go, but the flux core welders weld hot and strong.

Happy birthday and happy welding (:

Thanks Johnny! So....? Mufflers is out if the question?
Even on lowest setting?
Anyways I will be reading instructions tonight and watching You tube indtructionsl vids on flux welding.
I am gonna takes some advice from an earlier thread on wrote a while back and start by welding a welding cart for my mig.

6 miles... 45 minutes towing, pretty damn good!

Do a little research and see if that welder can be converted to gas. As stated earlier, the flux burns hot, to melt the flux in the wire, so doing small and thin material can be tricky and frustrating. All in all, it is a good start, and one of the best ways to learn and practice. One point of advice, if that helmet is not auto darkening, you might want to invest in one, they are so so nice, especially when learning. Just watch out for the cheap-o units, they are not certified to ANSI standards, I picked up a nice one off ebay for less than $50.

Oh well on thin metal....
It s not gas compatible. Wife got me the basics but I am excited to learn. I will end up getting an auto darkening one at some point. Thanks for the pointers guys.

I have dabbled with flux only a little, but the trick I found for thinner materials is bump the wire speed up and move quickly across the seam. This is where the auto dark really helps, you can pause and still see the seam without lifting the hood, and restart before the seam cools too much. Also, the flux leaves a film, so if you have to restart a bead, you will need a wire brush handy. Probably the best advise I can give, is the same as paint and body, prep time should be double the weld time. Beveled edges, clean metal, clamped in proper position, double and triple check, then pull trigger. Nothing worse than cutting out welds, but it does give you a chance to gauge how well you are doing.

You can weld muffler pipes but you need to weld and let it cool and wire brush it and weld again. I usually cut the end of the wire between welds with wire cutters to start with a fresh wire tip to get a good weld. I keep a coffee can near by to cut the old wire into so I wont have it all over the ground.

The welder has paid for itself at least 2 times with all the little repairs I have made over the 2 years I have had it.

Did some welding for the first time ever today! Joined two 6 inch long 1/4 pieces of steel together; pretty awesome!!
Looks like crAp with B B splatters, but fun.

Hey when it gets mud on it or dust you cant tell. I try to chip off the bb splats and paint does a lot to hide the welds.

My motto is it doesn't have to look good it just has to work.

Glad to see you are having fun.

You will get better with time, and practice. You are learning the best way possible, just grab scrap pieces and join them all different ways. Learn the joining techniques as well. My personal favorite is the rosette weld.

happy birthhday nick and congrats on the great wife and new welder.

Well I have been practicing my welds and a still a little crappy looking but every now and then when I have a steady hand I make some real decent looking welds. I did make a very simple welding cart. 4 pieces of angle iron with 4 caster wheels on the bottom. It is sturdy and functional. I will eventually make a real nice cart with multiple levels in the future.
I plan on using larger wheels with welder on bottom shelf supplies on middle shelf with some racks on the sides for clamps and cords.
I plan on using the top as a welding table.
I am having fun with this and look forward to the future of possible starting my own frankenbuggy one day.

Welding Cart
 

I used some extra/scrap angle iron pieces; stripped everything off an old gas powered push type lawn mower deck except the wheels, turned it upside down, welded four vertical pieces into it, then welded a rectangle of angle iron on top of those four vertical pieces. Welder sits in the rectangle, helmets, clamps, brushes, etc stashed in the deck down below. I bent a piece of concrete reinforcing rod and welded to to the rectangle frame to use as a handle.

Might should have fabricated some sort of rack and pinion steering mechanism; maybe installed a reverse gear system. :)

Happy belated birthday. You will just need practice and you will get better on the welds. I have a Hobart Ironman 240 welder and weld exhaust all the time but mine is gas. The flux wire will burn hotter, the trick is to get the setting and wire speed correct and you can weld sheet metal. My first mig welder was a Century with flux wire which I used mainly on body panels. On thin metal you will have to make short bursts making sure to have a good puddle. With my old flux mig I had to use multiple tack welds to keep from burning through. Just takes a lot of practice to get better, the more you weld the better you will get. You might want to get a book on welding at a book store, the book will have a wealth of information and although it will not make an expert of you it will get you there quicker.

Nice, I thought about that idea but didn't have an old mower laying around.

Thanks. I agree practice, practice, and more practice. Thanks for the tips. I think I might I might jut do that and buy a book.

That seams (pun intended) like the ideal weld for tubing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoU5SAyjc-w
now this is what I need! Wow....

That is a sweet table.