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First, an electric weld is a closed circuit. The ground very important. The ground cable that came with my welder was too short, and the cheesy sheet-metal clamp was a joke. Upgrading both helped a lot. Mostly, the sheet metal clamp looked big and beefy, but current only passed through the thin areas where the pivot pins were.

When welding up something like a Locost chassis, it helps to have the ground cable attached to one of the tubes you're working on, instead of seeking a ground six feet away through a bunch of spot welds.

Just because it's pulling an arc, doesn't mean it's a GOOD arc. You can lose a lot of energy heating up the connections between the clamp and the work area.

Sometimes you need to weld on something you can't get a grip on with the clamp. If you're holding the part in a vise, you can ground to the vise. I found some magnetic hockey puck things that stick to the part you're working with; they have a bolt on top you attach the ground clamp to. Sometimes I use a C clamp to grab the part, then ground to the clamp.

My welding bench has a 6mm steel plate on the top and the vice is bolted to the top of it. I generally clamp my earth lead onto the leg of the bench, it's great to just drop the work onto the bench then start welding.

I forget how many times I've grabbed my welder, pulled the trigger and a bunch of wire squirted out without arcing. I scratch my head for a few seconds and remember to connect the ground lead to the chassis. Very important for a good arc.

Been there done that countless times. And I thought I was the only one that did that!

I cannot begin to count the times I've pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Very important to flip the switch to "On".

But yes, my welds improved when I upgraded to a bronze ground clamp. Another problem was a worn out tip. Creates terrible arc stutter. The interesting part of that problem is no one seems to mention it.

Bill

Been a long time since I welded at home but a tip used to be to be aware of the time - seldom could get a good weld at dinner/peak time prefering to wait until after 8pm at night when the current was smooth and strong as everyone was going to bed.

I use vise grips a lot - clamp 'em onto the work piece, then hook the ground clamp onto the vise grips. The vise grips get a deep bite onto the workpiece, for a good solid ground. Depending on the workpiece (sometimes they're verrrry small) I use needle-nose vise grips.

I am taking a welding course at a community college,

It has been corrected (very loudly) that it is not called "ground"

Ground is the 3rd prong on the plug in.

What you are referring to is called the "work return cable"

That is from the AWS

I don't know why I felt the need to correct that...

I use the standard bronze ground clamp that came with my Miller MIG welder but my Miller TIG unit needed a new ground clamp so I crimped an eyelet terminal to the wire and then bolted it to a large vice grip. Now I can clamp to the piece oR to the welding table if I need to move the piece a lot during welding. It works so well, I think I'm going to convert my MIG to vice grip ground. (or work return cable)

Tom

On my MIG I too often start an ugly looking bead, stop and then go turn the gas bottle on. That 75/25 gas really makes a difference on solid wire.

I always clamp the return on the closest thing to my work. I rarely just clamp to my table unless the piece is large and is making good, clamped contact with the table surface.

I ruined a brand new pair of stainless braided brake lines welding on an axle with the ground clamped to the chassis. I was wondering why I had such bad welds until my arm brushed up against the brake line and got a nice burn.

*disclaimer - I never planned to let the brake lines be part of the circuit. I just absent-mindedly moved from chassis welding to axle welding without changing my clamp position.

I know what you mean. I cringe every time I hear someone call the engine a motor, even though they may be correct. The companies that make the machines call the clamp a ground clamp. Not sure what they call the cable. English is a strange language.

Sounds like creeping "Politically Correct-Speak" to me. You wouldn't want to damage the "Work Return Cable's" self-esteem by calling it a mere "Ground" now would you??? I heard somebody say their car had "fuel pump issues" the other day. I asked if it would hurt the fuel pump's feelings if I said "The sumbich is broke"...

To me a "motor" is electric and and "engine" runs on gas/diesel. Why? Dunno...

Another big "gotcha" is welding to an A-arm while it's on the car, forgetting to move the ground clamp from the chassis. This means all that welding current is jumping through the rod-end/spherical bearing, which will very likely transform it into an immovable "bracket."

Another glitch that happened to me recently (and spiked my weird-o-meter off the scale) was trying to MIG a couple of small parts that were held together by one of those large on/off fabrication magnets. Lessee now...gas on? Yup. Wire feed rate correct? Uh huh. Ground clamp secured to base workpiece? You betcha. Helmet on & activated? Absolutely!

Fire up old sparky, approach workpiece, press trigger, and...a spectacular light show, sparks & miniature lightning running up & down the magnet, across one workpiece and up the other, tiny little ball bearings of welding wire bouncing and rolling all over the place, all cycling over and over.

Look around shop, search for hidden practical joker/hidden camera. Nope, I'm all alone. Not even Rod Serling (cue "Twilight Zone" theme, for those old enough to remember the show).

Reset everything, try again. Same result. Hmmm. Head scratching time (take helmet off first).

Near as I can figure, the magnetic field was strong enough to draw off the molten beads of weld wire before they could fuse to the workpiece, effectively breaking the arc/melt/fuse cycle. Hence, no weld at all.

Anyone else had this happen???