Help with welds

So Ive been welding for a while now, mostly just little stuff but im getting more into frame work and i'd like to improve my welding.I'm using a Hobart 140 with gas and i'm starting to get decent looking welds but I know theres plenty of room for improvement so if you would help a brother out with some tips on how I could have improved these i'd really appreciate it.I have others but I lost my memory card so hopefully these are good enough to get an idea of what im working with.

I think those look pretty damn good, I wish I could weld 1/2 that well. I just bought a machine and this motivates me to practice, thanks!

Thank you, with a little practice you will be welding like this in no time.
If I could give a guy any advice it would be to make sure your machine is dialed in just right before you expect to lay down any half decent welds. Also, the good wire seemed to make a HUGE difference in my ability to weld. I was running the cheap stuff and immediately after swapping over to the higher grade wire my welds have started turning out alot better...
Pre-heating the thicker steel also helps the smaller machines to penetrate better too.

Edited: 11/16/2012 10:02:02 PM by bagged95s10

Clean your steel first bro, it'll eliminate the splatter you see around the weld, i use a 60 grit flapper wheel and prep back about an inch of area to be welded. The scale on HR plate is hard to get off but will make for a alot cleaner weld.

What is your mix of gas. I use to use 98-2 and am now using 75-25 and have noticed allot cleaner welds. Looking at the pictures it looks like in a few of them you were making large circles, for the speed you were traveling. Try making a little smaller circles on the flat stuff and a little faster of a circle motion that will take care of some of that slag. Splatter is caused allot of times from unclean metal or wire speed to low or high. A smooth consistent motion is critical as well as distance from the tip to the metal. Be sure your tip is the correct size for the wire as well. One more thing to take into consideration is a good power source you will be very surprised switching from a 15amp breaker to a 20amp will make a big difference. The welder can be restricted with the wrong source, causing welds to look bad and not no why.

I'll deffinately slow down and prep the metal a little better, i should have known better but it just seems I get too excited to take a few extra seconds to do so ha ha.

If I remember correctly, i'm running straight CO2 from a small Pepsi tank. I've got .30 wire and tips so I know i'm good there and I also have a 20amp breaker in the panel. Thanks for the input guys

Definitely run like a 75/25 mix. That will help clean up the weld. CO2 is a very dirty gas. You'll have to mess with your heat settings when you switch to a mix but once you get it dialed in, it'll be a lot nicer. Argon is a very clean gas but it is cold, so the more argon you add into the mix, the hotter your settings need to be.

Weld prep is probably 50% of your weld quality. Chamfer the edges of your joints, especially your miters on the frame rails and cross members (which it looks like you are already doing). However, you can also do that on the edges of your tabs and corner gussets. You could definitely use a good abrasive to clean up the things like the stock frame rails before you weld to them. Stay away from hot rolled material as much as possible. It has a nasty scale on it. Cold rolled is more expensive, but will weld much better... it's also stronger. A mid point between hot and cold rolled plate is P&O. P&O is a hot rolled sheet that is "pickled" in acid which removes all the scale left from the hot rolling process, then they apply the "oil" after that to prevent rusting. It welds nicely and is what I have most of my parts cut out of, unless I am using chromoly plate.
As far as the actual welding goes, there are many techniques to choose from and some of them work better in different circumstances. Welding inside/ outside corners I normally just build the puddle and move, keeping the nozzle at the angle that splits the angle of the corner (on a 90 degree corner, nozzle at 45 degrees). I use the same technique on lap joints. On butt joints I normally do a sideways "C" pattern while pulling the weld. When upside-down, I turn the heat up without touching the wire speed. This usually helps to keep gravity from doing it's thing, lol. I'm sure everyone out there at one time has been welding upside-down and had a large ball of molten metal falls from the weld and burns the crap out of them, haha.
***I've been welding for a long time now, and I do not claim to be anywhere near a perfect welder. I like learning new stuff from other people whenever I can. It seems like no matter how good you are, there's always more to learn when it comes to welding.