Always grind off the paint and get to good metal. my buddies just wont listen and they look like chicken poop

Welding thick metal together is easy. It's the thick on thin car tin thats a pain. I just seem to tack the crap and then stick a bolt along the car tin and pipe and just weld the sucker solid. so far every thing has held

i have found it is usually better to weld something a little too hot rather than too cold. A ''pretty'' weld is not always a good weld.

Start with the thicker metal and roll into the thinner.

yes. ive been told this several times. no matter what tho i can never get just the right setting untill im done with my car....
whatta pain! everything has held every year tho so imnot to worried. even got some nice burn/tan in that time haha

practice makes perfect, the more ya weld the better you will be. get a good ground. if you use a mig welder you can adjust the wire spped to how fast you weld so you are comfortable

A weld that is to hot can sometimes be just as weak as a weld that is to cold weld though

My tips, for the novice welder from a novice welder. its all about speed. get the metal CLEAN, like stated above, thick metal is easier and roll it on the thin metal. And Practice!!! hold the welder at a 45 degree angle, if its straight up and down, you will blow a hole in your work, if its flat, you will blow the pool flat over everything. keep the arc pointing straight into the weld "joint line" at a 45 degree angle, (Or thicker material). the position will be uncomfortable at first. Welding on sheet metal can be an art, but an easy art to master, if you blow through turn everything down, if you like your speed and heat but are still blowing through, go 4 on 4 off or however much you can before you blow through, allow the metal to cool then fill the gaps

there are many different movements, but here are the basics: (Best i could do with the key board keys)
Z <- Zig Zag ((((((((((((( <- "Horse shoe"
Z <<<<<<<< <- "modified horse shoe"
Z OOOOOO <- If you pinch those together you will get a "sqiggly line"
Z
Z ***Zig Zag works good for thick on thin, hold the pool on the thick and slide it over to the thin then pull back ***

^^^^ Experiment with those find one you like and comfortable with or just one you have success with.

On a stick welder, if the rod sticks or is hard to strike, turn up the heat, if it blows up when you strike it, turn it down. Rod sizes make a huge difference.

if the Bead looks like this:
<<<<<<< youre to hot. or moving to slow, id turn up the wire speed or turn down the heat. (Practice)
CCCCCCC okay, but a little cold, or slow down your movenment speed.
------------ To fast, not enough movement, and to cold. to hot, or a combo, i'd start by slowing down then figure out the adjustments
o

o((((((((((( perfect! your heat is good, movement it good, and wire speed is good.

Welding vertical, pull the pool down, turn down the heat (a little) and movement, and gradually let the pool slide down, AC/DC stick welders this can be tricky, but if i remember right, AC will allow the arc to not jump?

Horizontal, point the nozzle or stick up at an angle 45 Degrees, so the heat is pushing up at an angle. seems to work good for me, i guess if it is horizontal the bead will sage.

another thing, put the ground in a nice place if its in a crazy spot the arc goes nuts and jumps around.
good example..... (G) ............./ ****Oh yea with ground location, watch out for bearings and parts that move, heard of someone welding on a tractor and messed up his rear end.****

One thing my welding teacher in high school told us was, "imagine an ant on a motorcycle driving a 100 mph over your weld, you want him to drive over it without crashing."

to add on kluvers post about ground placement, you want to have it close to where your welding if at all possible because it
will affect the weld (as in colder or spotty)

welders have a weld/cool cycle I:E 20 mins constant welding 10 mins cool down (im sure someone knows the correct term)
what i mean by this is after 20 mins the internal switch will trip and it wont let you weld any more till its cooled down
the better the welder the longer the time you can spend getting welders tan

my favorite welding tip is
when welding specialy on twisted up body metal get the pieces as close together as possable and tack it then while the tack is still red hot hammer down flat and it will suck it together and hold them nicely

thanks goines! thats the term i was drawing a blank on and yes the duty cycle does vary from welder brand to welder brand

Get a good 220v wire welder with Ar/Co2 and a good helmet so you can see what you're doing.
On dirty, painted or rusty metal try pushing instead of pulling as it will blow/burn the debris away ahead of your work pool and make a better weld than dragging.
Best tip:

Keep beer handy to lure over guys who like to weld.

weldign thick to thin isnt to hard with practice i tacked this in place in to spots and ran the whoel bead without stoppin gand guys who think fluxcores to much for derby cars

fluxcore is fine, just gotta know how to use it.... on a side note, thats what like 6 inches.... at work i weld 56 inch bobcat buckets without stopping, its a faster weld with whipping style motion but still, its hard, have to take a few steps while welding, not fun

actually its about 8 i started at the top welded down wrapped aroudn the right side and stopped at the left side and im sure at your work its a 220 solid gas mix 3000 dollar welder to my 140 499 welder

our welders probly cost more than that even... miller 451's and lincoln 455's... i wrap welds all the time, not hard, in fact all our welds have to be wrapped so water cant get in, but then again these are Bobcats not derby cars.... i use flux at home too

probably idk i just posted pics sayign its nto hard to weld if u take your time to learn and you go oh well i weld 56 inches congrats man as u said ur certified i hope you could weld that much but also steel to steel inst steel to sheetmetal