Distance From The Work Piece; Laying A Bead; Cleaning The Weld Bead - Sears Craftsman 934.20105 Owner's Manual

Distance from the Work Piece
The end of the welding gun is designed with the
contact tip recessed from the end of the nozzle and
the nozzle electrically insulated from the rest of the
gun. This permits the operator to actually rest the
nozzle on and drag it along the work piece while
welding. This can be very helpful to beginning
welders to steady the gun, allowing the welder to
concentrate on welding technique. If the nozzle is
held off the work piece, the distance between the
nozzle and the work piece should be kept constant
and should not exceed 1/4" or the arc may begin
sputtering, signaling a toss in welding perform-
ance.
LAYING A BEAD
ARC RAYS CAN INJURE EYES AND BURN
SKIN! To reduce the risk of injury from arc rays,
never start a welding arc until you and all bystand-
ers in the welding area have welding helmets or
shields in place and are wearing the recom-
mended protective clothing. DO NOT CONTINUE
unless you have read, understand, and intend to
follow the entire SAFETY iNSTRUCTIONS sec-
tion of this manual.
IMPORTANT! The wire in this welder is always
electrically energized whenever the switch is not in
the OFF position, and will arc whenever brought
into contact with any electrically conductive mate-
rials that the ground clamp of the welder is con-
nected to or in contact with.
Therefore, it is best to clip the wire back to the
contact tip so that you don't create an arc when
lining up on the seam to be welded.
OPERATION Page 21
Once you have the gun in position with the wire
lined up on the weld joint, lower your helmet, pull
the trigger and the arc will start. In a second or
two, you will notice a weld puddle form and the
base of a bead beginning to build. It is now time to
begin to travel with the gun. If you are just learning
to weld, travel by simply dragging the gun in a
straight line and at a steady speed along the weld
joint. Try to achieve a weld with the desired pene-
tration and a bead that is faidy fiat and consistant
inwidth.
CLEANING THE WELD BEAD
When using solid wire and shielding gas, cleaning
of the weld bead is not normally necessary. How-
ever, when welding with self-shielding flux-core
wire, slag is deposited on the top of the weld bead.
This slag consists of the flux from the welding wire
as well as any impurities the flux was able to
remove from the molten weld puddle.
This slag must be cleaned from the weld bead both
for cosmetic reasons and to visually inspect the
finished weld bead. Cleaning the weld bead is
done best with a chipping hammer followed by a
wire brush.
Slag must also be cleaned from a weld bead that
was stopped in the middle and now will be restart-
ed from the point at which it was stopped. A poor
weld will result when a weld bead is started or laid
on a weld bead that has not been cleaned of slag.
CHIPPING AND BRUSHING SLAG CAN INJURE
EYES! To reduce the risk of eye injury from flying
slag, always have eye protection such as goggles,
in place prior to chipping slag.