My first go at welding

[dropbear_luke]

For my birthday the other day, i got a mini mig welder. Never having used a mig welder before, i thought id try making a Christmas baulble out of wire. Here's an image if my first attempt. After numerous tries. Its finally holding. Only about 109 days till Christmas. Better get cracking. Any tips from the pros?

 

[angus40]

There is a few tricks to bending arc's in metal #1 a pipe bender is a must have for clean bends Zman has a great thread on using 1.

#2 Heating the metal with a torch prior to bending helps alot if bending sharp corners or arcs.

Or if your doing gradual curves you could make an adjustable jig out of wood and use adjustable clamps to achieve nice smooth and consistant arcs/curves .

Now that you own a welder your fabrication potential is unlimited .

Congrats
Richard

 

[dropbear_luke]

Thanks Richard.
Some real handy hints. The pipe bender thing would help a lot i think.
This is todays latest creation...

 

[macflea]

good job droppie
another good way to bend round bar or heavy gauge wire is to make a template on a board with some heavy gauge nails, this way you can draw the outline on the board a hammer in the nails at raduis points to give an even flow, and if you want them to stay there while you bend other wire/roundbar to it just add extra nails to the outside edge this will hold then in place nice and tight.just rember to over bend things as they will spring back under tension or weld them while nailed in place. 3D wire frames take a little extra time using this method..
Good luck with it and keep up the good work the more you do the better you get