HOW TO MIG LIKE TIG WELD (Stacking Dimes) W/ OVERKILLRACINGANDCHASSIS w/ *Tips and Techniques*

[BRAD] What's up, guys?

My name is Brad.

Welcome back to another video.

If you're new to this channel,
we talk about welding and

fabrication, CNC machining,
some Fusion 360 stuff,

and we're gonna dive into
some really cool projects.

So if that sounds like fun,
hit that subscribe button.

On this week's video,
we travel out from Colorado

to Utah to talk with Joel and
his crew at Overkill Racing and

Chassis about how to lay down a
beautiful open corner MIG weld.

I'm gonna pass you over to
Joel, Rodrigo, and Alex Brown.

These three guys are gonna give
you the tips and tricks, the

techniques to be able to make
this possible for you at home.

So stay tuned,
hit that like button,

let's get into it.

[JOEL] One of the most common
questions that we get is how

do we make our MIG welds
look the way that we do?

What we're gonna do today
is we're gonna answer those

questions one by one.

And it's not just a
one step solution.

We've got our prep work.

We've got the fit up itself.

We got voltage settings,
and there's a couple other

little techniques that you're
gonna learn from two of the

best MIG welders that I know.

When it comes to welding
in general, there's a lot

of people that feel there's
a lot of trade secrets.

When it comes to MIG
welding an open corner,

what we're gonna do is pull
the layers of that onion back.

We're gonna give you guys
all the tips and tricks that

you need so you can weld
exactly like Rod and Alex.

All right, guys, so here it is,
quarter inch open corner joint

for your social media shots,
and you're looking to get

something like this.

We're gonna give
you all the tips.

First things first,
if you look at this part,

look at how clean it is.

It's not a bunch of mill scale.

It's not all dirty.

Rod, what did you do to actually
clean and prep this part?

[RODRIGO] First thing I
did was I hit all sides,

I mean every single
side, with a DA pad.

And then I took my
three-inch Roloc disc with

a Scotch-Brite and cleaned
off all these inside edges.

So there's no mill scale, which
just leaves a nice clean weld.

[JOEL] Once you actually
get ready to weld the part,

so we've got it all prepped up
and you got all the mill scale

removed, settings and stuff.

I mean, that's one of the
biggest misconceptions.

You know, people are running a
real, real thick diameter wire.

We're really only running
an.030 diameter wire,

and it's a Lincoln
L56 ER70 S-6 wire.

In terms of settings,
we're running roughly about

18 volts, 18.5 volts, and just
around 200 inches a minute.

And, uh, Alex, I mean,
I know you do a lot of

pulse, um, spray work.

If you were to be welding
this open corner, compared

to the settings we would use,
how much would you change it?

[ALEX BROWN] Um, well, as far as
the, the layout of the machine,

it wouldn't be a voltage
and a wire speed.

It would be a wire
speed and arc length.

So the machine setup's
a little different.

The mode of transfer's
quite a bit different.

The technique itself is
actually pretty similar

to what I do whenever I'm
trying to get that real,

uh, nice stack of dimes.

It's a really different
process from what I'm used to,

and so I can't speak much to
the short arc aspect of it.

But Rod did a really
nice job on these.

These look as good as
I've ever seen from

anyone, so I'm impressed.

[RODRIGO] So if you look here,
you actually see that these open

corners are tic-tacked together.

And the reason I do that is
'cause when you're welding

over it, you don't get these
massive lumps that just

make your weld look ugly.

So I start right here, and as I
come forward, I'm coming down,

making sure my wire's in
the center of that joint.

I come forward a little bit.

I start coming up,
and as you come up,

you see this silica
form, which is this, like,

brown substance you see here.

And as it forms,
you see that it

gets darker.

And as, as soon as you see
it gets darker is when you

start your process all over.

So with this Millermatic 252,
we are running.030 wire

and 75% argon and 25%
CO2 as a shielding gas.

So when I'm welding an
eighth-inch open corner

joint, I will be around
16.5 volts and a wire

speed of around 150 to 170.

When I weld a quarter-inch
open corner joint, I am

running 18 volts and anywhere
between 200 to 220 inches per

minute for the wire speed.

And this is with.030 wire.

[JOEL] So what I'm gonna do here
for you is I'm actually gonna

show a visual demonstration,
basically what Rod

is talking about.

So here we're gonna
use this piece that Rod

welded on the back side.

It's a quarter-inch open corner,
like he was talking about.

And what we're gonna be doing
here is describing kind of

what he was saying, but
actually on the table itself.

So if we depict these lines as
being the throat of the weld,

so basically the inside section,
and these two lines here being

the toes, which are these edges,
these are really what you wanna

focus on if you wanna have that
nice, consistent looking weld.

So there's a couple of
different ways that you

can go about doing it.

Some people like to do what's
called a whip and pause.

So what that is is you're
actually just moving the puddle

straight in between the middle
of the throat and the toes,

and you're pausing for a second.

And what you're doing is
you're letting what's called

the deposition rate fill up
the joint with filler wire.

Once it's filled to make that
nice, clean-looking bead,

then you pull back or whip,
and then you pause again.

So as you pause again,
it's going to start

stacking 'em up.

So there's another technique
that people like to use,

and that Rod actually used
specifically for this weld here.

And it's essentially
doing a cursive E.

So what he's doing is he's
working his way to the bottom

of that toe and quickly
moving his way to the top,

and then pausing just for
a brief second at the top,

and then working his way
back down to the bottom,

working his way back to the top,
and just repeating this all the

way through the entire joint.

And what that's gonna leave
you is this real nice,

consistent looking weld profile.

As long as your Es are
consistent every single

time, your weld will
eventually look like this.

[RODRIGO] Don't be discouraged
if you don't get it right away.

[ALEX BROWN] Yeah,
I agree with that.

There's, there's no secret.

It's just practice.

[JOEL] Guys, and just remember,
this is just a baseline.

The numbers that work
best for Rod are gonna

be different from what
works best for Alex that are

definitely gonna be different
from what works best for me.

So it's one of those that
this'll give you a great

foundation, but ultimately,
with a little bit of practice,

you'll be able to fine tune
your settings so that you

can produce what Rod has been
producing this whole time.

Guys, I hope this tip helps.

Thanks for watching.

If you learned anything,
hit that like and

subscribe button.

And until next time.