help needed

[milk]

hi im tom and need help/advice have a wsme 200 and having trouble with the start up. welding 1mm stainless without filler rod but it just seems to blow straight through before a weld pool even forms.i can run a bead fine but soon as i restart it will blow through.or i get the exact opposite and can leave it on without a pool forming. any ideas

cheers Tom

 

[chrismac]

Do you have a remote, slider or foot pedal or are you working it on the button, sounds like maybe your start up amps could be set too high, or just the fact that stainless needs a we drop of filler sometimes just to get the pool flowing them your off.

I did have a look at one of your plants there seems a lot of knobs to play with, does it have the pulser on it, if so it could be this setting which is giving you the high start up amps.

Chris

ps what type of joint are you doing, butt?

 

[hotrodder]

You need to give us more info to go on. Pics ideally. Could be user error... arc length for example has a big effect and pics will tell us if you're in the ball park. Could be the machine settings/something wrong with it... a sticky gas solenoid would result in a mess if the arc starts before the gas for example, that'd also contaminate the tungsten and mess with arc focus i.e. next time it's like someone turned the amperage down 'cause the arc is difuse/wandering

 

[milk]

cheers for the reply. using a foot pedal and tryig to do an outside corner joint so will try a bit of filler on start up. it does have pulse settings on it but pretty much everything is set on it's lowest setting. the start up is set quite low (any lower i can't get it to arc and any higher its just burning the tungsten) the digi display is reading 0 and not getting any amp readings when running a bead, im not 100% convinced the welder is working properly. but due to lack of experience it could just be me

 

[milk]

You need to give us more info to go on. Pics ideally. Could be user error... arc length for example has a big effect and pics will tell us if you're in the ball park. Could be the machine settings/something wrong with it... a sticky gas solenoid would result in a mess if the arc starts before the gas for example, that'd also contaminate the tungsten and mess with arc focus i.e. next time it's like someone turned the amperage down 'cause the arc is difuse/wandering

will get some pics tomorrow when i go back into work

 

[hotrodder]

the start up is set quite low (any lower i can't get it to arc and any higher its just burning the tungsten)

The torch is connected to the negative socket isn't it? If you've plugged the torch into the +ve then that'd explain the tungsten melting which in turn would explain the randomness/difficulty. While we're here the argon is PURE argon/pureshield argon and not some mix that contains anything else like argoshield?

Different sets behave differently when set to remote... dunno about the various different brands of wsme but the display not doing much might be normal. I'm guessing the manual is written in chinglish so suggesting RTFM is probably pointless

 

[chrismac]

Are you back purging, using a backing strip like a peice of angle to stop it oxidizing?

 

[J_K]

Is it the same as this one?

 

[milk]

Is it the same as this one?

yes exactly the same. had someone who knew what they were doing have a look at it today. and been told the amp settings are out and the foot pedal that came with it is a pile of crap. but have managed to get it set up a bit better.

 

[J_K]

The foot pedal is crap.
I was also taught to work without the pedal and it's much easier to be honest.

 

[langy]

If its for practise start with something thicker like 3mm

 

[milk]

If its for practise start with something thicker like 3mm

i wish it was for practice, my work have decided to throw me in at the deep end. and have a load of tig work for the mod. but there sorting out a decent welder for me so should make things a bit easier.