I did a weld

Kinja'd!!! by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 01/28/2017 at 20:19

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Kinja'd!!!

Welded a cat into my buddy’s 3 inch exhaust on his turbo miata with my cheapo flux core harbor freight welder and some wire from Lowe’s. Can anyone tell me how to keep the wire in one of these from instantly exploding into a tangled mess? Because I have yet to figure that out.

Kinja'd!!!

Here’s a look at the engine itself.

Kinja'd!!!

Roughly 20psi. Is fun. Shoots flame out the hood from the external wastegate.


Replies (10)

Kinja'd!!! "Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
01/28/2017 at 21:35, STARS: 0

Did you really mean wire, as in just plain bare wire, or is that just a term for a welding rod that I haven’t heard of before?

Kinja'd!!! "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
01/28/2017 at 21:40, STARS: 0

Flux-core wire welder. It’s a gassless MIG thing that splatters everywhere and makes lots of smoke but is extremely inexpensive and has no gas to worry about.

Kinja'd!!! "OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars" (jakeauern)
01/28/2017 at 21:41, STARS: 0

I think TIG uses wire and MIG uses a welding Rod. I’m not a welder and not around it ever but that’s just what I remember

Kinja'd!!! "Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
01/28/2017 at 22:10, STARS: 0

Hmm - never worked with one of those before. I know it’s been around for some time, but I just can’t see how you would get enough shielding from such a small amount of flux to actually make a decent weld (depending, of course, on the thickness of the wire). What was the gauge of metal on that pipe?

Kinja'd!!! "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
01/28/2017 at 22:22, STARS: 0

I honestly have no clue. It was slightly thicker than most OEM exhaust pipe. Managed to not blow through it more than once or twice.

Kinja'd!!! "plak424" (plak424)
01/28/2017 at 23:25, STARS: 1

Tig uses a tungsten electrode and you hand feed wire in. MIG uses a machine fed wire spool. Stick welding uses welding rod.

Kinja'd!!! "OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars" (jakeauern)
01/28/2017 at 23:52, STARS: 0

So I was 1/2 right. Go Vols?

Kinja'd!!! "merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc" (merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc)
01/29/2017 at 00:05, STARS: 0

You don’t get enough sheilding. A real might welder is 10x easier to weld with than the flux core wire welders. I’ve used both, and so glad I had a chance to pickup a real mig with gas cylinder. So much nicer.

Kinja'd!!! "merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc" (merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc)
01/29/2017 at 00:12, STARS: 1

Tig uses a tungsten electrode and sheilding gas, then you use a rod of the welding metal to add to the molten pool as you weld. Tig is the shit. I have never tried it, but if you can get a rig and learn that, you can weld anything, including aluminum.

Mig uses sheilding gas through a wire fed handle. The arc is struck and the wire feeds adding to the molten pool via the trigger operated gun.

The type that use a stick is DC arc welding. Sheilding gas is made by the rod burning via the electric arc and the stick adds to the molten weld pool as you go. Then you have a protective slag left over the weld that you knock off with a hammer to reveal the actual weld. Normally reserved for thicker metals.

Kinja'd!!! "OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars" (jakeauern)
01/29/2017 at 00:20, STARS: 0

Vols.