I have arc welded most of my adult life. Not professionally, just when I needed to weld stuff and I'm pretty fair at it. I have a little experience with a mig welder. My first experience was 30 years ago with a very large one and the shop only used flux core wire. For a short while I had one of the cheap Harbor Freight flux core welders but finally broke down and bought one of their Titanium 140 welders and sprung for an argon tank.

I'm doing well with stuff like base plates and jaw laminations but feel I'm running too hot for S hooks and J hooks but when I turn it down I'm not sure I getting as solid a weld as I'd like. I've always turned my arc welder down and used small rod to weld my J hooks and S hooks and it has done alright but I'm loving not have slag to clean.

So my questions to the accomplished mig welders out there is what wire speed and amperage is best for J hooks and S hooks with a mig such as mine. I'm welding inside out of the wind with .025 solid wire.

Hopefully you'll get a response from Seldom Fails. That fella knows a thing or two about welding!

I will be following this.

I’d just burn some 6010 on them with about 90 amps and call it a win

20v 300 ipm maybe. A hotter tac on j hooks or s hooks is better holding then a cold one. I have welded literally 1,000s of j hooks and s hooks I don’t even bother changing my settings on my miller from welding laminations, baseplates, or even when welding thicker products like drags and what not. I’ve never had a j hook weld or s hook weld break tacking them shut on a hotter setting.

I’m the same as Hammer. I mig weld baseplates and j and s hooks same amps and speed. Haven’t had any fail yet.

I’ve been running 18.5 and 260 ipm on baseplates and laminations. It seems to be giving good penetration but I’ll up it a bit and give it a try.

With j-hooks and lap links I just crank it up a bit and throw a bit of wire feed at it and call it good. No failures and if anyone has the gall to criticize, then more power to them. All I need to do is prevent a moment of movement in the attachment, which is likely plenty strong anyways.

We think alike. I just don’t use wirefeed much, I haven’t decided if I like it or not. 1/8” 6010 has never failed me for anything I needed to put together for trapping. I like 3/8” rods if I have anything more high tensile going on

If you’re worried about slag cleanup, spray black graphite all over your welding area before welding. The slag won’t stick so you can sweep it off with your hand.

I've trapped for over 60 years and I yet to weld any J hooks shut. And I have never had any open up.
But if you feel the need, go for it.
1/8" rod should work for any type of welding. I myself like burning 1/8" 7018.

Like you I’ve trapped for many decades and never had a J hook open. But wolves are a real possibility of a catch in my area. I don’t want to try tracking down a wolf wearing one of my traps because a J hook or S hook opened up. Much of my coyote ground borders native ground and they are not keen on non native trespassers regardless of the reason.

When I arc weld I use 3/32 rod on the J hooks but my question is about MiG welding. I’m trying to become more proficient at it.

Just had my 2nd cararact surgery yesterday so my spelling will be suspect. I never welded a J-hook or any terminal gear for coyotes except those traps I sold! I welded them to sell because who knows who might want them welded and I love welding anything! Lol. The very best way to ensure your mig settings are correct is to make a weld at what ever setting you feel comfortable with and it SOUNDS right, then do a simple bend test! I suggest doing the bend test on the same weldment you’re going to be using. Weld a J-hook or S-hook or whatever and see if it’ll come apart when you try to bend it or break it in the same direction the force will be applied, If it doesn’t, you’re golden!! Also, consider your little tack weld made with 70,000 psi filler metal is going to be in tension during use so as long as you have full & complete fusion to both pieces, you’re golden!

I highly recommend that anyone who hasn’t had some formal training for mig SC (short circuit transfer)to test a sample of your weldment to ensure your setting are correct. Mig SC is the one welding process that the weld looks great but can be absolutely worthless for strength due to lack of fusion due to the arc’s less forceful, shallow penetration compared to stick or flux-core.

You also want to make sure there isn’t any coating on your s-hooks like some chrome or galvanized or zinc. That would wreak havoc with your welding especially when using gas. Your work needs to be clean before mig welding with gas. Arc 6010 and mig es70 with gas are very different. Like hammer said throw some heat on that tack. Most hobby welding is done too cold with very little penetration.

I must have it hot enough. I did some destruction testing on a few S hooks yesterday. The S hook metal twisted off but the welds held.

Good job! Those few minutes should give you a ton of confidence/assurance when welding/tacking material of that thickness.

It did at that. When the weld held and rest of the S hook turned into a pretzel, I felt much more confident in my welds.

Welds generally become the strongest part of something if they’re done properly. In most destructive tests, whatever was welded will break near the weld, but not at it.

When testing a mig-sc weld you are actually testing the amount of fusion to the base material, the filler metal is maybe 20,000psi stronger than the base material. Mig-sc is unlike other normally used welding processes because of the inherent low arc force.

As per most QA/QC construction Codes especially welding structural steel the welder welds only one side of a T-weld. The unwelded side of the T-joint is forced/bent over the welded side. A perfectly symmetrical fillet weld will split right down the middle and if it isn’t symmetrical it’s fracture through the thinnest cross section of the fillet weld. This is all good! What is looked for in a mig-sc weld (other than complete penetration of the root)is that the weld will not be fused to one side of even both sides of the two plates. This is very easy to see that there is no or minimal fusion to the plate(s). Many times I’ve actually seen the mill scale still completely intact as it was before welding!!!!

This is a true story because i was doing the testing of 3 young welders on one of my projects (back in the day Dow tested ALL contractor welders taking the responsibility from the contractor). This mig-sc testing was done in the contractors fab shop so I lined the welders up and let them weld their T-weld coupons. The test was inaccordance to the AWS D1.1 Structural Code. I’m walking around inspecting production welds but I aways pull my lens and check out testees since I want to be familiar with their welds when they’re going to be on my job. I notice one fella who had been doing a lot of lip service and barvado before the test and I could easily see he hadn’t removed the mill scale from his coupons AND he was “riding the puddle” he was riding waaay back on the puddle where riding the puddle even a 1/16” back will screw you and he was further back than that. Which will make a beautiful looking weld (like spreading butter) but it will be worthless due to gross lack of fusion and he wouldn’t have a full penetration weld at the bottom of the root. I did not “look” him out but allowed him to weld the two welds. I picked up his horizontal coupon with channel locks and tossed it on the floor near the other fellas tests. The coupon broke in 2 pieces!!!!! The mig weld was no stronger than bubble gum due to gross lack of fusion to the sidewalls. The worst lack of fusion I’ve ever seen, not a spot of fusion the entire length of an 8”lg x3/8” coupon and never had to try and bend it over with the sledge!!! LOL

Looking back that day I figured the guy didn’t know crap about mig and possibly had one of his buddies either tell him the voltage & amps setup or even set his machine for him I don’t know and it made no difference! LOL The only problem was that the guy welded mig like he would stick, something his buddies couldn’t help him with. His two buddies both passed their qualification tests btw.