Welding Adjustments Help!

[JoshStratton]

Well I never thought I would have to post in the emergency section, but here I am.

I am trying to get my welder adjusted and nothing I do seems to work. I am getting some penetration, but my welds are not puddles, they are like little rough pills. They have little bumps, not necessarily porus, but also not clean.

What is it that I am doing wrong? Is my wire speed too high or am I running out of gas? I couldnt imagine the gas thing would cause it and I think I still have enough gas in there.

It is a little 120 volt Century welder.

I am going nuts here and dont want to start on my finishing piece until I get this adjustment worked out.

[David Pozzi]

It sounds like a lack of heat. I assume this is a Mig welder?

Try a higher voltage setting if you have one. Then adjust wire speed until you get a steady sizzle not popping or sputtering.

The metal has to be clean and have a good ground connection to the welder or you will have terrible welds. Grind the weld area if you need to clean it, no paint or rust.

If the welder is set as high as it will go, then try pre-heating the area with a torch, then weld. If that works, then keep welding without stopping as much as possible so it doesn't cool down.

[klkordzi]

What thickness metal?

[protour_chevelle]

Sounds like too much wire not enough heat. Whats your gas regulated at? You can run a bottle very low and still lay perfect welds.

-Matt

[Matt@RFR]

Josh, if you still can't get it figured out after trying the advice above, give me a call anytime before 9:00pm, 7 days a week and I'll walk you through it.

530-877-1160

[toxicz28]

Try reversing the polarity on the machine. Mig and flux cored welding use opposite polarities.

[JoshStratton]

Thanks for the responses guys!

I will give your tips a shot in the morning and let you know how it turns out.

This may have been it. I had to run out tonight, but before I did, I tried one last bead. This time I adjusted the psi on the regulator to 20 (it was set at 10 before). It seemed to work much better. I would like to try a few more tomorrow before verifing that though.

Sorry that I left a few details out of my original post. I am using a MIG and the steel is 18 gauge.

[JoshStratton]

LOL oops. I didnt mean 20 psi. I meant 20 cfh for the gas mix.

Incidentally this fixed it. I am not sure how it got changed. I must have bumped it at some point.

Thanks for all the help guys! I think I am good to go now :)

[David Pozzi]

Some regulators are not consistant. I use a 21 setting most of the time. I don't know if that's the best, but it's what I was told to use.

If there is any wind it blows the gas away, you can turn it up to help, but gas Mig isn't good for outside work on a windy day they use flux core for that.

I've never used flux core, so I forgot about the polarity being different.
My favorite trick is to leave the ground off the Plasma machine, I guess I treat it like an acetylene torch, and don't even think of needing a ground.

[Matt@RFR]

Some regulators are not consistant.

For some unkown reason, no regulator I've ever used flowed the exact same after a bottle change. Always check your flow rates after changing bottles.

[JoshStratton]

For some unkown reason, no regulator I've ever used flowed the exact same after a bottle change. Always check your flow rates after changing bottles.

Ahhhh. You guys may have pin-pointed it. I recently got a refill and I bet that may have had something to do with it.

LOL you learn something new every day. In my case, lots of stuff :)

[Camaro Zach]

not only that but often as a bottle's pressure goes down the flow rate will go down slightly as well so you have to stay ontop of it.

[Stoker420]

What gas are you using? I like using 75% argon, its good for SS also. How far away are you from the work piece? If you are too far you won't get the shielding from the gas. You could always try turning up the gas. And make sure the work piece is clean.