Thread: Advice

Here's a few links to get you started. A few of the members have the GMC welder and from all accounts, seems to be a useful little welder.

Welding light tubing will require a bit a know how, but if you read up on the following links you should be able to do it. You'll need to use 1.6mm tube as a minimum.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/stick-welding-19428
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/welding-1-bad-dangerous-51277
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/welding-info-site-44815
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/welding-applications-thin-metal-43621
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/electrode-poor-performance-fix-34235

The GMC should be fine (just bear in mind it will not last for ever).

DJ has already given you all the good URLS - Hey these should be in a sticky at the MM (Mr Moderator )

Here as bit of a quick and dirty sumamry.

Figure on spendin at least the same on PPE
- elbow length leather gloves
- A decent helmet

If you don't have one you really will need a (cheap is OK) angle grinder to cut, clean and tidy up the tubing. Plus
- a full face clear mask
- decent ear muffs

I suggest you consider using 1.6 mm thick walled tubing as you will probably end up spending a lot of time patching holes in any tubing thinner than this. Once you have mastered this you can try 1.2 mm - I think you are really pushing it with 1 mm without a MIG.

Don't try to learn how to strike arcs or practice on the tubing.
- Get hold of some scrap 3 mm thick steel and clean up and then practice after cleaning back to bare metal, striking arcs, and running longe beads on flat metal first.
- Try the same with a dirty/rusty/oily surface and see what happens
- Try different currents and arc lengths etc - those marked on the welder ar not always right.
- Then try joing some pieces of 3 mm, varying the same parameters
- Finally try the tubing.

Here endth the lesson - now if only I could weld as well as I know the theory

Thanks guys..... yeah I wasn't sure what size wall exactly and stuff like that.

I really just want a cheapie welder and just wanna learn as I go weld non-structual things, like this project I have going now.

I always get great advice in this forum and thought I'd get advice for this one too.

Garfield,
Being a TIG welder by trade the best advice I can give you is start by practising on heavier plate. Like at least 3mm and then keep practising.
I worked with an old bloke in the late 70s who could weld stainless steel sink bowls with a stick and that is less than 1mm thick. He could only do that after many years practise.
Another tip is - keep your rods dry. Don't leave them in a damp area. They really should be kept in a cabinet with a light in it to help drive off moisture. When they're wet (damp) they take a lot more effort to start.

Cheers.......obee

Hi garfield,
A little GMC is fine for what you wish to achieve.
A bit of practice as in anything one does,will never go astray.

Grab a bit of scrap a bit thicker (at first) .Electrodes if available in 2mm and 2.5mm are the shot- Look for 6012( or 4812) or 4 or 6013(or 4813 ) on the labellings.

The electrodes are struck like a match and lifted slightly.The electrode is dragged inclined in the direction of travel. The arc is maintained at a height roughly at the electrode core wire diameter.It is easy to say but hard to do.
What you are looking for is a bead consistently wide and of consistent height with an even crescent shaped ripple pattern.The slag on a properly deposited weld will just peel up away from the deposited weld metal or fall off at the touch of a chipping hammer.

Buy your welder and start some practice and if you have probs the mob here can and will help you.

Cheers
Grahame

Thanks for that.... I might tackle it over a couple of weeks and hopefully see some improvement. Its just that I've never ever did any welding before and I know bugger all about a welder its self, but I'm so keen to learn and hopefully be a dependable small home job welder.

Hi all, I still haven't brought my welder yet but i'm close. I've been looking on ebay and stuff, what do you guys with the knowlage think of something like this http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-200...QQcmdZViewItem
v's a GMC mig welder from Bunnies for $100??

Originally Posted by garfield

Hi all, I still haven't brought my welder yet but i'm close. I've been looking on ebay and stuff, what do you guys with the knowlage think of something like this http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-200...QQcmdZViewItem
v's a GMC mig welder from Bunnies for $100??

3 months warranty says it all for me.

Hi Garfield
We all all short of a quid and search the Fleabay for bargains but a bargain, this one is not a bargain. I think its a major PITA waiting to happen to some one.

The specs seem very suss to me.

This a gut feeling based on what I understand about about stick welders. Now, sure these are Inverter specs and I have been been very wrong before - and apologized-

85% efficiency- should be much better than that for an inverter.I have used a good stick machines capable of that.

Take more notice of the 21amp Input rating and the 60% duty cycle. Electrical guys! If I am stuffing this one up too, please feel free to put us all right.

How many have plus 20 amp Gpo's?
60% Duty cycle many stick welders(big uns will run at 100% duty cycle )

And I could not find the bit that said no trouble with spare parts cos it wasn't there!.

Honestly, I reckon it depends on what you are doing.For light work the little GMC is a good as anything else and its got more than 3 months warranty and it will run on a 10 amp plug.
Cheers
Grahame

forgive my stupidity guys, but with that GMC mig welder do i need to have a special power point installed or something?

Basically i want to acheive this (picture below) with a welder to make some legs for my camp kitchen i've just built. It will be some cut down tent pegs welded in a few spots.

Attachment 61666

Originally Posted by garfield

Hi all, I still haven't brought my welder yet but i'm close. I've been looking on ebay and stuff, what do you guys with the knowlage think of something like this http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-200...QQcmdZViewItem
v's a GMC mig welder from Bunnies for $100??

Whoa, lets back up here.

First of all I wouldn't go anywhere near this welder with a barge pole, my Lincoln Inverter welder is 250amps and will run of a 15amp P/point and has much better efficiency then that one, mind you I paid $1600 for it secondhand.

Now the Whoa bit, your now changing the tune here.

At the start and until this post I've quoted here we were all talking about the GMC Arc Welder, now your talking about a MIG.

I would be very wary of the GMC MIG as they use consumables whereas the ARC doesn't apart from the rods and I don't think you'll pick up a GMC MIG for a $100 either.

Just be aware, the little MIGs don't like continuously welding, and you will need to be able to source new tips, nozzles and liners for it not to mention having a regulator and gas bottle for it as well.

If you go the gasless route, it will need a very good duty cycle or it will overheat and shut down till it has cooled down and if done continuously will shorten it's life.

Assuming we are talking about the arc welder and not the mig, then the GMC will work fine. I have an "Ozito" which apart from having ridiculously short leads works surprisingly well. It has a fan as well which may improve the duty cycle a little? For intermittent welding with smaller rods, it rarely cuts out and it is plenty good enough for the non-critical work I do around the home.

The problem with teaching yourself is you invariably "practice" on rusty broken bits at awkward angles on a cold and dirty concrete floor. The first thing that happens at TAFE is you get directed to this nicely built booth with a massive welder that has "low settings" that are as high as the maximum for your poor little home brand welder. They have a welding table set up at the right height and present you with a new clean chunk of 10mm plate, with a carbon content conjusive to easy welding and a box of rods, and off you go, trying to make your beads as neat as the guy that demonstrates it.

I recommend a TAFE course, because it is cheap (the consumables you use are worth more than the course fee), I found the instructors were happy to "massage" the curriculum to suit your requirement (when they realised I had no interest in the actual qualification, they were happy let me make my own "Rusty gate repair 101" course. I simply turned up one night a week until I got sick of it, and randomly welded bits of steel together, presented them to my instructor who would tut-tut, and then proceed to lay a perfect demonstration bead and show me up. I could have easily gotten carried away and progressed onto more advanced stuff, but I could see too many applications of me doing overhead pipe welding with my little Ozito!

MMAW is what you want (Manual metal arc welding). In my town they have a beginner, intermediate and advanced course.

I'm sorry I just mean a welder.... I thought for some reason mig as I was typing the reply. I just need a welder to do a job suitable to the pics I attached. sorry for the confusion

Originally Posted by acton

. . .
The problem with teaching yourself is you invariably "practice" on rusty broken bits at awkward angles on a cold and dirty concrete floor. The first thing that happens at TAFE is you get directed to this nicely built booth with a massive welder that has "low settings" that are as high as the maximum for your poor little home brand welder. They have a welding table set up at the right height and present you with a new clean chunk of 10mm plate, with a carbon content conjusive to easy welding and a box of rods, and off you go, trying to make your beads as neat as the guy that demonstrates it.

Swings and roundabouts, it's all very well learning on such nice gear but then you eventually have to face the reality of "rusty broken bits at awkward angles on a cold and dirty concrete floor". It would be useful for a home handiman to be shown how to weld on the cheapies as well as the RR welders - it's like they should have both welders on hand to experience.

I also recommend a TAFE course. I did 3 (?) terms of night school TAFE courses 30 years ago and made some car ramps, a BBQ, Car jack/stands, a fireplace hearth and tool rack. Still have the car ramps somewhere.

Cheers