7 Tips/Tricks To Make Your 110v Weld Like A 220v! (welding tips for beginners)

what's up guys stead under lifestyle man explore topic that I get asked about a lot and that is can i weld fill in the blank with a 110 welder using a 220 volt welders ideal for most axle suspension or framework due to the thickness of the material in a perfect world you just get a 220 volt welder but unfortunately this doesn't work for everyone whether it's cost or you simply don't have access to a 220 outlet you want to build cool projects and need to make a 110 work I want to take a quick second to clear up a little bit confusion that I've seen online around the output of a welder I've seen some folks make comments that they definitely believe that the output is based on amps but it's actually based on watts so 180 amp welder from a 220 is not equivalent to 180 amp welder on 110 the 220 will be about double the watts the watts is the actual measurable output so 220 volts times 180 amps is gonna be roughly 40,000 watts if you do the exact same amount of amps with a 110 volt welder so 110 times 180 it's gonna be about 20,000 so it's half the amount of output for the same amount of current this difference is obvious when you're working on a project the lower output of 110 volt welder makes it difficult to get proper penetration because it struggles to heat thick steel whereas if you have the higher output of a 220 volt welder it can transfer more energy giving you a better weld the machine we're using today is the Miller multimatic 220 ac/dc this can be a 220 volt machine or a 110 volt machine so today we have it set up for 110 and that's all we're gonna weld with the first tip is the champ for your edges if you're welding 3/16 or quarter-inch plate it's difficult to deliver enough energy to get proper penetration when you transfer your edges it gives you a space to fill this will force you to move the puddle more slowly to fill the space because you're focusing the heat for a longer duration this will give you better penetration of your wealth just getting started here and I already made a boo-boo I have my welding hood adjusted to dark and so I I missed a little bit on the center of the weld because I had to do all this without being able to see it just to complete the weld anyway it's adjusted now so I'll be able to see in the next one but you can still see what I'm talking about here there is a big gap in there and in fact because I missed that center section you can see the big gap because there's a big gap to fill in here it makes it so I have to weld slower allowing more time for the heat to penetrate into the material and so even though this way the machine is set up right now is rated for 3/16 we're welding quarter to quarter and we still have penetration and I'll show you the heat marks on the bottom you can see right here we definitely are getting some heat that is going all the way through and penetrating although it's not very hot at the beginning of the weld but this next tip will definitely help us with that the second tip is much more well known so I'm only going to touch on it briefly that is preheat the piece that you're working on if you're welding something large like an axle or a heavy-duty control arm you definitely want to preheat before you weld on it larger projects with a thick sidewall act like a giant heatsink I recommend getting a laser thermometer and preheating the piece to about 450 degrees before you start welding I got this piece to between 450 and 750 depending on where I lasered it the it was kind of a big fluctuation on the heat but either way it was all hot enough to start welding and the instant I pulled the trigger it was just perfect bacon sizzle there was no popping no nothing the welder wasn't struggling in any way to get enough penetration now unfortunately because it's discolored from us heating it up we're not gonna be able to tell how much discoloration is from the welder and how much is from the torch but in either case as I was welding I could very clearly see that it was getting plenty of penetration and I was able to go just walk it nice and slow all the way down and this is a weld that would have no problem holding the third tip is prepping your surface this tip seems obvious to many but it's worth mentioning if you're welding over rust oil or mill scale it can do more than just contaminate your weld this can disrupt the flow of energy from your machine to your workpiece making it pop and resist a continuous bead this next tip dovetails perfectly into chamfering your edges and that is leave a gap on purpose in between the two pieces that you're welding what this will do is force you to go slower in order to fill that gap making it to where more of that heat from your machine is baking into the piece that you're working on when I tack these two pieces together for this demonstration I purposely left a gap on this because I wanted to be able to combine everything we've talked about so far and preheat this with the chamfered edge and fill a really tall gap and I'm gonna film it all in real time so you guys can see how long it typically takes [Music] when you combine the different strategies together like we just did it gives us the opportunity to really let that heat bake into the piece and as you can see we're actually a little bit undercut so not only do we not have that problem with 110 welders well where it'll just build up and get towards a super tall weld but because of the combination of of factors it's actually undercut a little bit I could have slowed down a little bit more and filled this up even higher but in any case that is a great weld and it's definitely gonna hold the fifth recommendation I want to give you guys today is to clean your ground and locate it as close to your weld as possible this step is important to everybody that welds whether it's a 220 machine or 110 but it's even more important to somebody who has a 110 a dirty ground will reduce the amount of energy between the machine and your weld and the longer the distance the more the energy is reduced I think a good example as to where this could become a problem is let's imagine that this wood table is all steel I've seen a lot of people will just have one grounding place that they ground everything - and if we grounded our machine to that corner and we were welding on this corner it's going to lose energy from there to here it's gonna lose quite a bit of energy now if you have a 220 machine you are starting with a higher amount of energy so you're not gonna notice the amount of loss by the time it gets all the way over to this corner but if you have a 110 and you have low watts to begin with you want to take advantage of every bit of energy that that machine can churn out and one strategy is to make sure that your grounding really close to where you're welding the sixth tip today is keeping a clean nozzle keep the contaminants out of your weld is super important and the last thing you want is to periodically fight a bad connection from build-up whether it's in your nozzle or on the surface of your project contaminants are the enemy I use a few strategies to keep my nozzle clean as I'm welding one is in between welds I'll tap the edge just like that and a bunch of debris will typically fall out and that'll last for a little while then we'll get to a point or I'll take the brush and I'll physically just brush the inside and that'll last for a while then eventually we get to a point where we need to remove the nozzle and you Jam the end of your pliers in there and this is made to scrape the inside of the nozzle clean now once the nozzle is warm you can dip it in nozzle gel and this will definitely help to extend periods between having to pull that and clean it but regardless you're gonna periodically have to pull this nozzle off and keep it clean the seventh and final tip is easiest one out of all of them and that is cheat do not be too proud if you're welding an axle with a half-inch thick housing and you're welding 3/8 brackets on it you're not gonna be able to create the kind of energy you need in order to make it as strong as possible you might be able to get everything to stick together using these techniques but when it comes to safety stuff there's nothing wrong with tacking all those brackets on on your vehicle removing it and taking it someone who does have access to a bigger welder something that you know is gonna be able to at the penetration you need on a half-inch thick axle housing you know if you get one of those old-school 1978 dana 60's with a half-inch thick axle housing that is a giant heatsink and I would preheat that I've got a really powerful 220 machine in here I would still preheat a housing that thick to make sure that I'm getting proper penetration from the bracket to the axle so this might seem like a cop-out but I do believe that this is a viable option that a lot of people don't consider twelve fourteen years ago when I first started welding all I had was a 1:10 welder and I would do this I would tack together control arms different things like that I would take it to someone who I knew that welded professionally and for 50 bucks and some beer he would finish welding he would finish weld all these different parts and pieces that I would bring to him so to me that was worth its weight in gold to know that my control arm and the control arm bung isn't gonna fall off whenever I'm on a really hard rock in the middle of the Rubicon or something like that and then not be able to fix it or get home or whatever the case may be so I think that this is a viable option and a lot of people don't consider it if you guys like the video make sure you give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already I've got a whole bunch of how-to content on here I like to build four by fours I like to build engines I like to go out and have fun off-road so if you're into that kind of thing make sure you stick around if you can help support the channel or if you've learned anything from any of my videos you can go to the under lifestyle comm you can get a t-shirt hat sticker we have net Gators all bunch of different things like that we also have access to our patreon account there as well if you follow me on social media I'm accurate lifestyle Nate we'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Dirt Lifestyle

Views: 86,481

Keywords: how to, mig welder, how to get 220v from 110v, how to weld, dirt lifestyle, metal fabrication, fabrication, 220 welder, 110 welder, 110 welders any, 110 welders any good, miller welders, welding tips and tricks, welding tips for beginners, learn how to weld, welder, welderup, welder for beginners, welder lifestyle, welder cart, welding, mig, weld, diy, lincoln, miller, metal, wire, mig welding, welding tips, how to weld mig, how to mig weld, how to weld metal for beginners

Id: 01YiWLvEEiU

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 19 2020