heres the specs on my welder

its a craftsman wirefeed mig welder. (no gas)
uses .8mm (.030") flux core wire

Primary input volts: 120 vac
Welding Range: 60-120 amps
primary input amps: 20
Phase: single
Frequency: 60 hz
secondary output volts: 17
secondary output amps: 80
duty cycle rating at 80 amps: 20%
open circuit volts (max): 25 vac


manual says its good for steel up to 3/16" with a single pass, 1/4" multi pass.

i just got ahold of some scrap exhaust pipes. i practiced a little bit but my welds are still awful. will this welder work for what im tryingto do? i really want to put together a custom turbo and i would be doing all my exhaust with this welder unless its impossible.

from what i've heard, if i can get it to work, the welds will probably be a bit nasty looking, but im not worried about it being pretty, most of the pipes wond be seen anyway, and ill just clean them up with the grinder if i have to. i just want to know if im going to be able to use this thing to weld some exhaust pipes.

 

The last person who welded my exhaust on used a stick with gas tank welder and I still had to go back and have the exhaust pipes welded back onto my muffler. I don't know if it was poor welding or just bottoming out the exhaust. So I don't really know if your's will be strong enough or not.

 

Yea I'd like to know to, I plan on making a turbo kit. I haven't bought a welder yet but I was looking for something like what you have. I don't want to end up buying the wrong tool.

 

Practice by taking your first pass, and then go back the opposite direction. I personally would not use a mig for any of my setups, but I do have one for other purposes. Then again we always can't get what we want. Money just does not grow like the weeds in my back yard. I guess before trying anything for your setup, just practice. It will work , but it would not be fun for you to do 75 down the highway and all of a sudden your ic piping or your exhaust is being demolished by a semi. Good luck .

 

The welding equipment is fine. You can do exhaust with a stick welder. You just need to practice. Remember do short welds alternating sides and let the pipe cool between welds. If you have the money, inert gas and plain wire should work better and is probably an upgrade for your welder.

 

Well the last time I had exhaust work done, the guys use a Mig welder with a bottle of Gas. The problem with Innershield (Flux Core) wire is that it is really easy to burn holes. That is why I prefer using solid core wire with Gas. Plus the solid core wire is cheaper compared to innershield and much easier to weld with gas.

Charlie

 

well, i tried it again today. i've got some pics this time

the welder: http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...6_309_full.jpg

self adjusting mask, this thing is wonderful: http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...6_308_full.jpg

first i just tried to law a few beads across this resonator i picked up. you can see my progress from left to right. http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...6_307_full.jpg

once i felt comfortable with it i tried to actually joined two pipes together. i cleaned up the pipe really well, but the weld still didnt come out all that great looking. id got dirtier as i welded it too. i blew through the metal in a few spots so i would just go around the holes on a low setting and fill it in. when i finished it seemed strong enough, but it didnt look pretty at all. http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...6_310_full.jpg

i grinded it all smooth though, and there really werent very many holes at all. once i had it all smooth again, i laid down another bead and this one looked quite a bit better than the first: http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...6_311_full.jpg
i suppose if all else fails i can just take this approach.

 

I use a similar welded, its a miller instead of a craftsman, with flux cored wire on my exhaust. With enough practice you can get pretty good. I can butt welded two peices of exhaust together and it comes out pretty clean. Just need to get the heat and wire speed right and its not to hard.

 

i built my entire turbo setup with a MIG, i would not use the flux core crap, i used it on my first header, and ended up grinding and rewelding with gas...much cleaner and easier, the flux core is too inconsistant. Once you have the machine dialed in correctly, there is no reason at all you cannot weld anything with a mig that you can with a tig or arc. they are all based on same priciple, using electricity to melt metal and adding filler metal while fusing the two weldments, they just use different means of accomplishing this task.

The reason TIG is so much cleaner is because the electrode is not consumed into the weld, and the filler metal is added by hand so you can vary the rate at which you add it, unlike mig where you generally do not change the wire speed while welding. TIG just gives much greater control, but a MIG, set up correctly, will make just as strong of a weld as TIG.

The welds on my headers are much worse than the final welds on the cold side tubing (i did the headers first, and the cold side last), it just takes practice, and now that i can do it better, im tempted to rebuild my headers, good luck and keep us updated

 

A couple of things you should be aware of when welding your own exhaust:
Be aware of the weld on the inside of the pipe, its not how smooth the weld is on the outside, but how much molten metal dripped down inside thus causing flow restrictions or turbulance.
A MIG will work best if using inert argon gas along with solid copper wire...this will produce a very clean weld with no slag..the argon shields the weld making it clean. With flux, you can get more slag in the weld causing leaks.

 

you have to admit its sort of hard to see inside a closed pipe. besides when you actually see the blow through and a big hole and the good possibility of a drip, how are you supposed to inspect the inside of the pipe. i thought through this too, but im not exactly sure what you can do about it.

i suppose youre just saying put down a good weld in the first place.

 

Exactly, don't spend alot of time in the same place and if possible use pipe that will slip fit together then you just have to weld a seam which is alot easier than a butt weld on thin metal.
A wire feed as mentioned has a tendency to feed the wire so quickly that you don't realize how much metal your adding and what may not look like a lot on top is actual a 1/2 inch pile inside the pipe. And there's not much you can do about it once its in there.