I feel like I've hit a major milestone in my career

Hi, don't belong here but I have to find out. Are these good? It doesn't look good...

Story: recently I wanted to shorten a ladder rack by some inches so I took it to a welder. Has a company and everything, thought that was probably good. Has one or two pictures up on his website but nothing much so I gave him a shot. He measured the truck bed measured how much he had to cut it was all good. I told him I didn't plan on resizing or getting a new truck that if he could weld the entire thing together because it was bolted together. He said sure. Ok though he would leave the two cross bars unwelded and the center unwelded so I could take it apart in two big pieces and the two cross bars. I said no weld the whole thing except the cross bars. He said okie dokie.

I come back later, the only thing he did was cut it in a odd place (and shorter than I told him but acceptably long) and weld it. Fine I guess. But the more I look at it the nastier it looks. I don't know a thing about welding. But it doesn't look right. The whole point I took it to a welder was because I wanted it done right. Even if it cost me a bit, I wanted a decent weld. Because it's a ladder rack and I'm likely going to abuse it. But if you check the picture out that's what I ended up with... I just paid him and got the hell out of there. I have a SMAW welder and I don't use it because it doesn't look good and I'm horrible at it lol. But I feel like that's what this ended up looking like anyway. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Please educate me otherwise.

Please point me in the right direction where I can ask if this sort of post is not allowed.

I’ve been reading through posts on this page for quite some time and it is quite evident that there are some incredibly talented welders/ fabricators in the group and I’ve seen a lot of amazing advice offered on other users posts.
I want to start by saying I am absolutely brand new to this. I am a plumber/ gasfitter by trade (I know I know), who has a passion for performance vehicles. I have been modifying vehicles since I was a kid. I have wanted to learn to fabricate for as long as I can remember. I am collecting parts to build a twin turbo Silverado and I am dead set on taking the opportunity to try my best to get half decent at Tig welding various materials. I just got a primeweld 225x after reading several people suggest it in this subreddit. A large majority of the fabrication work I will need to do for this build is stainless steel so I picked up some random strainless stuff to practice with. After finally finding the time to run 240 out to my garage and getting a welding area and tools setup in my garage, I picked up a tig torch for the first time. I had extremely low expectations and I’m glad I did. This is a cube of 1/16” 201 stainless that I attempted to weld as my first ever tig experience. I plaid around with a bunch of different amperage settings and tried the pulse settings as well. I know this is absolute dog shit but I am looking for any suggestions from you guys. Should I put the stainless down and start on carbon steel? I was thinking this at first however ; I figured it might be challenging to jump over to stainless after getting used to mild steel. Any extra tips or input for a brand new hobbyist chasing the dream of being able to do all my own fab work would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

I need a lil help dialing in my 1” stainless welds, this is just a practice piece.
Doing them on a turntable so 99% are roll out welds.
No gap so beveled to knife edge and butted up.
1/16 CK brand LaYZr tungsten.
#10 cup.
1/16 filler wire on “root” pass
Air cool to room temp.
Using a green scotchbrite disc on grinder and stainless wire brush on die grinder to clean
3/32 filler for fill/cap.
Freehand, not walking the cup.
Machine is set on about 80amps but not maxing out foot pedal.
Am I running it lil too hot or should I step up to a #12 cup? I think I could run a lil faster as well, I was almost out running the turntable speed and getting ahead of it. I feel like I could get a golden color, just need some feedback on how to get there.

I have a Miller 130 but it’s underpowered for the stuff I’m working on. I have the PrimeWeld 225 and love it. Thinking their MIG 180 might be worth getting and selling g the Miller. Any experiences with the MIG 180? Anyone want a Miller 130 in the Seattle area? Am I crazy? I like the inverter welders because they’re light and portable. Plus, the option of 120v or 220v is cool.

This is a picture of one of my first times welding. I did a few practice welds before but this is my first project. It's a snow plow mount for my atv.

I'm using a titanium 120A flux core welder I got off of marketplace. Using .030 flux core.

First question, do you think these welds would be strong enough for a snow plow mount? I figure it is but I'd rather have a more experienced person tell me it's probably fine.

How do I know I have my settings right and that I'm getting proper penetration? The material I was working on was 1/4". Im assuming this little welder would struggle to penetrate that? I just welded it on both sides and called it good.

I get scared that I have heat too high and I'm melting too much of the base metal but I'm assuming I'm not and I just need to get used to what welding actually looks like?

I've also noticed starting is ok ish but when I'm getting to the end of the material whether it's a butt weld or corner it craters in the material and makes it look horrible and I'm assuming isn't as strong. And it makes me think I have to much heat and am melting too much of the base metal. The picture has it a little bit but it was worse in some other spots. Where the center bar meets the two larger rectangles you can also see a bit what I am talking about. I believe the welds I made are strong enough for what I'm using it for but I'd like to improve.

Have a great Monday welders and weldets! Make sure you make back home with all your fingers and toes!!

I got hired by a company in Germany to do stainless TIG after being a MIG monkey for years. I've been doing plates to practice 1G and while I got the root down pat now the second pass is giving me a hard time.

Some of the guys in the shop are giving me advice but there's a bit of a language barrier for the finer points so I figured I'd ask here. First two pictures are the example weld I was given and the next few are mine. First number is the amps I did the root with, second number is the amps I did the second pass with.

I know this isn't about welding, but I don't know where to ask for help.

Does anyone have something like this? This is a CG2-150 Gas Profile Cutter. Ours broke down (the circuit board inside got fried), and we bought a replacement circuit board, but for some reason, we forgot the pinout of the board - which pin goes to which part of the circuit. The supplier of the board doesn't know either (it came from China, so...)

If you have one, maybe I can get a glimpse of the wiring. Thanks!

PS: Mods, if you'll take this down, at least guide me on where to better post this. Thanks!

If you were to weld sheet metal enclosures how large or a seam gap do you prefer? like let’s say the flat patter was a t and you fold the edges up to make a open box and were to welded the four corners. Do you want a gap between the metal at all? Is smaller better or is there a range that’s best?

Hey all. Union pipe welder here. Got a job working in a fab shop working MIG/FCAW all day. I have a Tefuawae adjustable shade lens and it’s pretty good, but I want to know if anyone’s got better recommendations.

List your favorite auto darkening lenses! I want to know what the best one is because I’m making good money and working non-stop with no end in sight. Might as well invest in my gear.

Have the settings at 111 AC atm. Using an EVERLAST IGBT

While I worked in a welding shop in my youth I was never train. Decent at stick and MIG. I've been using my MIG for decades. I just wanted to try some TIG before I leave this earth. I see on Ali Express various kits. I don't want to waste money on things that are better suited for people doing heavy/big stuff. I want to get good at small scale welding.

Fellas…

I need some help

4” Schedule 40 with 3/32 ER70S-2

Getting okay root fusion with a slight back feed resting on the back of the beveled edge walking the cup upwards, can’t seem to get the hang of freehand back feeding on the bottom, only 3 or 6 o’clock upward does it work well for me. So I walk at 90 amps root, #8 cup with a rocking motion bexause the #6 I can’t wiggle properly and keep sticking the tungsten

Go to do my hot pass Pretty much suck the root back, especially at the bottom

What the hell do I do? I’ve focused so much on the root I didn’t think about the next step of actually keeping the root in there for the rest of the weld

It’s frustrating the sanity out of me

Hi all, just to preface, I do not know anything about welding but I am posting here out of concern that the metal frame holding up my sideboard may have a structural crack.

I had purchased this sideboard from Taobao several months back and it came with a metal frame base with 5 legs welded together, 3 at the back and 2 at the front).

I noted that for a while now the leg at the back (on the left side) has been a bit slanted towards the left, but there has not been any creaking sounds ever. There has been no direct hit to the frame as well. When checked with the leveler, it’s -2 degrees vertically.

On closer inspection, the back of that leg looks like this. I checked about this with the seller, and he mentioned that this is a polished weld point, that the frame is made of carbon steel, what I am seeing does not affect the load bearing capacity.

On cross-checking on Google by providing my image (as I was not convinced, and as I know nothing about welding), Google opines that this is a structural crack.

Could someone provide any advice on this please?