Dam cat thiefs

I bought cheapest Harbor Freight flux welder used for a great price to avoid situations like this. It's comforting to know I have it, but haven't started practicing yet, which is not comforting.

Any tips on the best way to go about learning? I watched lots of you tube videos on welding but that just made me wish I had a TIG welder, which I can't afford.

 

Thanks for this valuable information... The more I learn about welding steel the more the little kid in me throws a fit and says I just wanna learn how to weld aluminum. Like I could afford that? Lol.

Looking forward to any pics you can share, especially about how you connect the new cat to the resonator...

 

Lol... That's almost as smart as guy who worked at auto parts store and gave me his welding advice: "Just remember all you gotta do is take a grinder to it and no one will ever question the quality of your welds."

And then there's tik-tok... I sometimes get videos of employers having their mind blown by people who interview for a welding job who show them test welds in their shop. Some of the best welds I've seen and its funny when they refuse the job...

The best one I saw was last night when the welds were perfect in every way but can't find it now. The dude refused the job because he didn't think their equipment settings were right and that made him not trust them. Here's a couple others that are almost as impressive here: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdQrDdyx/
and here: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdQr6U9M/

 

Practice, practice, practice. You want good protective clothing (leather jacket, long pants, boots, cap)and long gloves because flux core throws A LOT of spatter. A big helmet with a large lens. (Auto darkening is great if you can $$, as flip up ones kinda suck in comparison).

As mentioned, you need clean metal for the weld, and a clean solid connection for the ground clamp (closer to the weld area is usually better).

A powerful but cheap LED light- you really want to be able to see the work - esp the weld pool- as you weld. Go for as large of a weld pool that you can without blowing through the material. You can have what looks like a decent weld until you chip off the slag.

Really, I got a cheap Lincoln wire feed welder almost 30 years ago, but before I had used up a couple spools of flux core, I went and got the Mig conversion kit and a small gas bottle for it. Haven't gone back and that little welder is still in use at my shop.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I've been a metal fabricator for 25+ years so just an extra $.02 here.

While gasless flux core wire is easy enough to learn to weld with, it is not ideal for exhaust welding. Gas shielded hard wire (traditionally what's known as MIG, officially GMAW) is easier to learn and as one poster already stated throws way less spatter around. I'd suggest buying the smallest bottle of shielding gas you can find, and switching to hard wire (the spec you want is ER70). You'll also need a regulator but most new welders will come with one. For shielding gas I highly recommend getting a mix of 75% Argon/25% CO2 which seems to be industry standard. You can use straight CO2 as shielding gas but it too will throw more spatter. The good thing about hardwire for automotive is that it comes in a wide variety of diameters which gives you the option to really dial it in for whatever you are welding. The thicker the wire, the higher you generally have to set your power to run it, or if you don't, you have to set your wire feed speed much slower. This can become problematic at really low settings. Remember, you are trying to weld exhaust pipe which is fairly thin. I'd suggest going with either .023" or .030" wire. .030 is great because you can run it at low enough power settings to deal with exhaust welding but I've also had no trouble welding as thick as 3/16" with it on a 110 volt welder. The advantage of .023 is that it is the best for body work, as you can really dial it down, but it will still do fine on exhaust.

Also, very important, you need to switch welding polarity when running hardwire/gas as opposed to flux core. For hardwire you need your ground to be negative and your gun to be positive. For flux core you need a positive ground and negative at the gun. If you don't do this you will have all kinds of trouble and probably not realize why. This is usually accomplished by opening the side of the machine where you install the wire, and switching the two leads that come from your ground and gun leads into the welder. Newer machines should actually have a placard inside that shows you how to do it.

Also I agree with the other poster who said practice. Devote a day to it. Then when you get reasonably comfortable with your welds, try to weld in an uncomfortable position. Again, remember you are trying to weld exhaust here. What will be tricky for the inexperienced is welding bars to your exhaust. The only advice I can give here is to try to establish your puddle on the thicker material then quickly wash it on to the thinner and then back before it has a chance to burn through. It's okay to do short stitch welds too. MIG is very easy to do that with. Having said all that, it can still be tricky for me after all these years. I'd suggest getting the actual materials you will use to practice with before you get started on your Prius.

Hope this helps.

Edit to add: Also don't forget to buy the appropriate size welding tip for the wire diameter you use regardless of what type of wire it is.