MIG questions

Why are you purging anything? It has no benefit to your welds.

MIG spatter has to do with wire size, gas mix, voltage and quality of machine. I would suspect you are running too large of a wire. A 175 class MIG should run 0.030" (0.762 mm) wire and nothing larger.

Soapstone is fine. Also use a small quartz work light to illuminate your work area.

Ok. I just assumed that after a while not welding the C25 in the cable would become mixed with air that would be detrimental to the weld.

I am using .030" ESAB 70S-6, Argon/CO2 (75/25). I'm going to try .025" Lincoln L-56 and see what happens.

Ok, thanks for the tips.

Don't unlatch the mechanism, but just turn the speed down to zero. Squeeze the trigger for a second or two, and the line is full of gas.

Yes, it is normal to get some spatter. But not a lot. Check the diagram inside the door, and match the thickness of metal you are welding to the chart, and get the start settings. I say "start" because you can go up and down from there, but that will "start" you pretty close. Dirt, moisture, rust, oil, and paint can cause spatter, too.

Try a setting of nine.

Just play with it. Don't sweat "purging" the line. Read the chart inside the door. Watch the distance you are with the tip from the work.

Practice, practice, practice.

Steve

And watch your stick out distance. Took me a long time to understand why it splatters when long, and not much when short.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Guys If I remember right, Flux core gives a lot of splatter, C02 give off a little less, and 75/25 argon/ C02 give off less giving a better finish appearance. Am I right?

I have a tank of C02 and Argon mix, when I finish off the C02 and the mix I have I will trade them both in for a bigger mix tank.

Don D.

My welds wandered a lot until I got a helmet with a lens big enough to use the bifocal lenses in my glasses . World of difference when it's in focus ...

When you changed from flux to gas shield , did you change the polarity of the leads ?

Guess I'll give it a try with my reading glasses on.

I started with gas and went to flux to try it and did not change polarity and that made for some really lousy welding. I was thinking man this flux core sucks - then remember to swap terminals for flux. I did remember when going back to gas.

I too have bifocals, but find that putting in a magnifying lense ( sold at welding stores everywhere ) works much better. It lets me use the upper part of my glasses and I don't get a crook in my neck.

Dan

My vision is so bad, and my neck so stiff, I can only weld good if I have:

contact lenses reading glasses, too autodark lenses

But, as with welding from the first day ........... pick the equipment that fits YOU. Particularly when it comes to vision, hearing and safety equipment.

Steve

"Steve B" wrote: I too have bifocals, but find that putting in a magnifying lense ( sold at welding stores everywhere ) works much better. It lets me use the upper part of my glasses and I don't get a crook in my neck. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Wait 'til you're my age, and have to wear TRIFOCALS. I stopped using those diopter corrections that fit in the helmet, and I now rely entirely on a pair of reading glasses, for a couple of reasons:

1.) Dust collects on every surface of the stack of filters, lenses and shields that you have to look through. This collects slowly, and after a while the scattered light interferes with seeing. 2.) Having to hold ones head at a certain angle to make the multifocal spectacles work can be difficult. Sometimes the helmet wants to bump against part of your work. Sometimes, as the weld progresses, your line of sight progresses to a different element of your glasses, and you have to spend part of your attention on trying to refocus.

My welding improved markedly once I figured this out.

I would not recommend a setting of 9 for any sort of MIG welding. The minimum recommended shade is 10 for either light or heavy MIG welding, and that is only up to ~100 amps. Up to 175 and you need 11. Up to

250 and you need 12.

I would highly recommend some auxiliary lighting in cases where you are not able to follow your weld, but for God's sake don't put your eyes at risk.

John P.

If you turn the MIG machine on after it has been idle for some time and immediately begin welding you will undoubtedly have a faulty weld. "Purging" the line might not be the right word, but it does take a couple of seconds for the shielding gas to flow.

I always run about a 2 second bead on the side of my welding table to get the gas flowing. (I grind them off occasionally) Then you can have at it.

John P.

It only takes a couple of seconds. It is always good practice to start welding on a piece of scrap material before you turn to your work piece to ensure that your settings are correct.

If you have your wire speed and amperage perfectly matched there will be absolutely no spatter. This can be tough with the machine you have as the settings are not infinitely adjustable.

It is likely that you have your wire speed set too high. If your wire speed is too fast you will get splatter. You will NOT get spatter if your wire speed is too slow. The puddle simply can't melt everything your shoving into it.

The best way to gauge your settings is actually by the sound. A perfectly matched power + speed setting will sound like bacon frying in a skillet.

Too much wire speed or too little amperage will usually sound pretty good for a couple of seconds followed by pops, then normal sound, then pops, and so on. (Solution: turn up the heat, or turn down the wire)

Too little speed or too much amperage will have what I can only describe as a "sucking" sound. When the wire hits the base material it burns not only where it is contacting, but continues on up towards the MIG electrode. Way too much heat will actually melt the wire up and destroy the electrode. (Solution: less heat or more wire speed)

Soapstone or even a paint pen are fine. The absolute best thing you can do is to just put more light on the area you're welding. That will solve all your problems.

John P.

Generally speaking, yes. 75/25 mix also costs more so that's why some people forgo it.

John P.

Good point - will do.

It's a 175-Plus so it does have analog voltage setting rather than discreet voltage points.

I definitely have the bacon frying in a HOT skillet sound when I use the listed settings for 0.030" wire and C-25. Perhaps I am running to high of amperage (wire speed) because I am afraid of cold-lap. So far my cross-section cuts through the weld show no evidence of cold-lap though.

A good DVD instructional video would be worth a thousand words because it would convey the look (as through the welders eyes) and sound of welding with a correctly set machine and correctly handled gun. (Ernie - have you been working on those yet?)

I am slowly digging myself out from under a pile of backed up home projects. I am thinking about doing them as Video Podcasts.