I am not getting a puddle or penetration with my MIG!

Sounds like you need more heat - turn up the voltage. Solid wire WOULD be smaller in diameter compared to flux core with equal metal content per unit length - think about it.

Its already on Maximum! Its a 130Amp welder and the material here is

3mm, so its possibly beyond the capability of the welder.. But if I turn off the gas I get MUCH deeper welds, so the power is there!

Jon

CO2 by itself makes a sucky weld, try Argon/CO2 mix 75/25%

And your weld polarity is?

I am no expert, but do some research into gas flow rates. You may be actually cooling the joint with too much gas flow. I think that about

20 cubic feet per hour is somewhat normal. If the regulator you got is measuring psi, not flow rate, I don't know what to do, but I'd assume that you'd only need one or 2 psi to get that flow rate.

Pete Stanaitis

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snipped-for-privacy@alcatel.co.uk wrote:

You did remember to change the polarity as well correct? It is the opposite of what is used with flux core.

MIG/MAG-welding is noisy! If the wire is below 1.5mm diam and the current below 200A it makes a hammering sound.

MIG/MAG without gas will look like alien broke. :-) You will get bubbles that are so obvious, that you won't ask "are these the bubbles I get?"

My guess is: The arc is much to long. The distance between nozzle and work should be about 10 times the wire diameter. I guess that the arc (with your feed) is burning back to the wire jet. CO2 has better penetration than a mix gas (Argon/CO2), but more sputter. If I would know the thickness of material you are welding and the diameter of the wire, I wouldn't have to guess that much. But you should start with the feed in the middle setting. Select the voltage until you get penetration. If the weld is looking like a tried out worm laying on top of the surface, increase voltage. Then set the feed at a rate that is comfortable for you. If you have to slow a feed, the arc will burn back and you get a very strange sound and it looks like some plasma from a SciFi-film.

With the (guessed) thickness, the wire hits the workpiece, melts to a drop that is blast to the workpiece, the wire hits the workpiece ... That is why you get a hammering sound and this arc is called short circuit arc.

At high currents (above 200A) you get a very nice silent hissing sound.

Nick

Yep.. The polarity is correct.. If I remember rightly its a Positive torch for Gas and Negative for Gas-Less!

Jon

I don't know what your problem is, but a 130 amp machine should be able to weld 3mm steel. It's at the upper limit, but it should do it. I've never used straight CO2, always used 75/25 Ag/CO2 mix.

~~

You must be ritch! :-))

Ni-SCNR-ck

How does that mix exist in a single cylinder? Pure CO2 is gas over liquid. How do you mix argon with CO2 in a single cylinder? Or do you need a cylinder of each and a blending manifold?

I guess the brewers do this with with CO2 and nitrogen in one cylinder for Guinness.

Never thought about that.

No, it's in one bottle. Linde's brand name is Corgon for that mix. There's also no label on my bottle saying "Shake before use". :-)

Nick

Could it simply be the amount of gas? I have been looking at MIG regulators and they all have valves on them to control the flow.. The one that I was given gives a fixed pressure (for Pub CO2 delivery) and I am thinking that the pressure/flow is simply too high.

I am tempted to buy the proper regulator, but I am concious that I might be wasting money!

Jon

Do that!

If you don't buy it, you will be wasting money on gas.

But still I don't think that there can be too much gas. I can't imagine that it cools down the arc/puddle. Except you have so much flow of gas, that you have to fight the thrust. :-)

Nick

snipped-for-privacy@alcatel.co.uk wrote in news:1141752346.837514.238780 @v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com:

regulator

strength,

This article, from the AWS, on mig welding might help:

I think it is too much gas. An easy way to check is to use a plastic bag of known size. With it empty hold it onto the nozzle ( rubber band ) and see how many seconds it takes to fill the bag. And then do the math to convert to liters per minute or whatever the recommended flow is measured in.

All the regulators control the pressure. The ones used for MIG have a small orfice on the low pressure side that converts it to a more or less constant flow. If you are familar with electronics think of a constant current supply as a fairly high voltage supply and a resistor so the short circuit current is the amount of current you want. So try something like a 1 mm dia hole to limit the gas flow on the low side of the regulator.

Dan

snipped-for-privacy@alcatel.co.uk wrote:

There can definitely be to much gas. At the very least to much gas draws air into the puddle.