Welding/Pro Mig 180

Welding at Noisebridge

Hello! If you are reading this page, you might be interested in welding at noisebridge!

The MIG setup at noise bridge is great for:

• Welding large steel tubing, coupons, sheets, and bars
• Steel metal artwork
• Hobby project go karts

It is not setup for:

• Welding aluminum
• High precision welds more suitable for TIG
• Precision roadbike

Here are some good background videos to get you started.

This guide will not teach you how to weld, but it will teach you a playbook for setup and a teardown for welding at noise bridge. There are plenty of good videos about how to do the welding once everything is all setup on youtube! Here are some that you should watch beforehand:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9fBVq9NlE

How to weld at Noisebridge

Before you arrive:

• Watch the videos!
• Bring long-sleeve cotton (or atleast non-synthetic) shirts and pants.
  • These will protect you from getting sunburned as well as from sparks
• Wear close-toed shoes, and things that things you don’t mind getting some sparks and metal on

As you arrive:

• Notify people in the front “foyer” area that you intend to weld, and discuss with them if you need to coordinate usage in the space.
• Clear the foyer space as you will need at least a good kitchen-sized area to work.

Bringing things from the back:

• The welding cart
• The welding table
• The Welding Personal Protection Bin

Note: It is recommended to raise the garage door to help get the carts through, and you may optionally lower the door again to block welding flash, or later put up a curtain.

Setting up Welding Curtains

Welding creates bright flashes. If someone looks at it directly it may temporarily blind them so it is important to put up these welding curtains for the safety of others.

• Set up one welding curtain over the door entrance, it is sufficient to fold in half and then drape over. You may need to drape asymmetrically to get it low enough on one side to block flash
• If the garage door is partially up, set up another curtain using clips to “hang the curtain” from the bottom of the garage door.

Getting Power to the Welder.

• The welder must plug into a 240V AC plug. There is one halfway on the wall left of the garage door. If the cable is not already plugged in, plug in the large 240V AC cable into that port, and lay-out the cable outside the garage to your workspace.
• Make sure the switch-box controlling the 240V AC plug is on (up-position)
• You are welcome to unplug any vehicle charging off this line. Hacking takes priority over vehicles

Inspect and Setup the Welding Machine

This is a communal machine, and so you should check that things are the settings you expect, and are good to go before beginning welding.

The Air Tank:

• TODO about inspecting how much air is in the tank

Welding Feed Wire:

• Make sure the welding wire is what you expect
• Make sure you have enough wire to weld, as long  as can’t see the center of the spool, you’re good.
• TODO

Welding Settings:

• TODO see this video about which settings you should use when welding
• For most steel at XXX thickness, A voltage and B feed is good.

Loosen (only a few turns) the air on the welding regulator

Lastly Turn on the welding machine.

PPE

Noisebridge should have:

• Thick Welding Gloves
  • Perfect for picking up hot things or welding for a long time.
• Thin TIG Gloves
  • Thinner TIG gloves might be easier to work while you’re actually pulling the trigger, but they will NOT protect you from the heat if you touch something hot, or weld for a long duration.
• Several auto darkening masks.
  • Auto-darkening masks are mostly clear, and sense the sparks of welding, and auto-darken to protect you. If you can’t see anything and it looks black, you are wearing a “always-dark” mask. Try a different mask.
• Full Welding Apron
  • You might want this if you are welding a vertical position and expect to get showered with sparks, but most people do not wear one.

You should wear a mask and gloves when welding.

Note: In the unlikely case that spark flies off and catches your clothes on fire, just take your glove and pat it out quickly.

Setting Up Your Workspace

You should reference real tutorials for how to setup your weld, but here are some good high level pointers.

• Make sure all the wheels on the welding table are in the down and locked position. This will keep your welds steady.
• When you are not welding the welding gun should be in the welding table holders; otherwise you may accidentally drop or trigger the welder
• Ensure the ground clamp is solidly connected to the welding table or the work piece.

Have fun welding!!

Auxiliary Equipment

Grinder

• Todo details

Bandsaw

There is a large handheld bandsaw in the woodworking area that you can use to cut your metal to length.

The bandsaw has a small guard at the bottom, make sure to loosen the hexes and extend the guard out while using it. Then use the key to retract the guard so that the saw can fit back into its box.

Teardown and Cleanup

1. Clear any scraps and finished work away off the welding table
2. Return any clamps to the welding cart
3. Take off all PPE and put it back in the PPE bin
4. Turn right-tighty the top knob on the air tank to close the tank
5. Turn off the welding machine, and unplug the welder from the yellow 240V AC
6. Take the power cable and the welding gun, and make big loops around the welding handle to hang up the cables.
   1. Take care to make big loops. If you tightly wind it, this is not good for the inner tubes that feed the gas and welding wire
7. Remove the welding curtains and drape them back over the welding machine cart
8. Unlock the welding table wheels
9. Roll both carts back to the welding equipment storage area behind the stairwell
10. Shutoff the 240V AC switch box on the wall

Additional (Old) Details

PRO-MIG 180 WELDER Model: K2481-1

Here is the product:

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/equipment/Pages/product.aspx?product=K2481-1(LincolnElectric)

Here is the user manual:

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/servicenavigator-public/lincoln3/imt10135.pdf

If you don't want to read the manual, here is Lincoln Electirc's video on how to use the welder:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzIfMPvZG9o8UkFNakRXdzkyQ1E

Detailed Use of this Welder

There are two methods of using this welder. Inner-shield and Gas Shielded. The primary goal is to avoid oxygen contact with the welding surface. When steel reaches a high temperature it reacts with the oxygen and produces very sloppy welds. When welding unshielded you will see sputtering and a lot of sparks.

• Inner Shield (Flux Core) relies on using wire that has an interior material that (when heated) will offgas and form a non-reactive gas layer around the welding surface. You accomplish this by purchasing flux core wire and loading it into the machine (see instructions in manual/video)

• Gas Shield relies on an exterior tank of non-reactive gas (typically Argon) to provide a gas layer around the welding surface. This is the preferred method of welding, as it provides a more thorough gas protection around the weld surface, but requires a supply of Argon.

Grounding:

Before welding - you must ground the piece that you are working on. There is a large alligator clip attached to the welder. This MUST BE clamped to your work piece, or the (metal) table that your piece is resting on.