"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 09 Jun 2005 03:12:10 GMT, "Jim Newell"
wrote:

I have been practicing welding with my MIG. I think I am getting good
welds. I beat on them, and they don't seem to break.

What I am bugged about is the "fit and finish" of the process. I see
sites
that show different welds, and they look great. For example I saw a
Ducati
motorcycle frame that claimed to be MIG welded, and it was
superb....apparently no grinding or other cleanup.

Is it just a lack of skill on my part, or is there always a ton of
cleanup,
grinding, etc...to get a nice looking fit and finish?

Practice! Try experimenting with your angle of approach, using a
"push" rather than a "drag" approach. Set the heat and wire feed
rate so it "sounds right", then control rate of deposition by
varying rate of progress.

Push or pull. Above centerline, below centerline, forward of center, behind
center. That is mathematically a lot of permutations.

Everything you do to vary the angles, speed, movement, and aim of a welding
torch will give you a different result. The thing you want is repeatability
so that you can make a lot of welds that look the same. You need to weld a
lot to clearly understand how the difference in the position of the torch
head during welding affects the final properties of the weld. And, whether
you aim the wire at the root, or aim it on one side or the other and then
let the molten pool wash onto the other piece has a great deal to do with
the final outcome, too.

Not as simple as some people make it out to be. Every time some small
variables changes infinitessimily (sp?), the whole thing changes.

Steve