What can cause high amps ?

[Sonic]

Hi guys,

Need your expertise. What can cause high amperage and what are the ways to adjust it?

Thank you.

 

[BrokenBiker]

your going to have to explain that a bit better. what do you mean by cause high amps?

if you are referring to the current supplied to the arc whilst welding, wire size, wire feed rate will affect current, also voltage settings will affect the amount of current that is provided, arc length will play a small part too

 

[steviec_lj]

Another assignment question perhaps?

 

[BrokenBiker]

did occur to me, that's why I asked for more detail, assignment questions are usually a bit more indepth than that

 

[Jan]

Let's start with the controls on your machine. Unless you have an expensive machine it should have several push buttons on the front - maybe even if you have such a machine. One or two may control the polarity of the torch for changing from gas to gasless and back or they may be inside. That's positive for gas wire and negative for flux cored.
Next there's the amperage buttons which will be marked 1, 2, 3, etc plus another marked 'High/Low'. This one can be confusing as some are pushed in for high while others need to be pushed in for low! The correct progression from low amperage to high amperage is High/Low set to Low and the No. 1 button pushed in followed by 2, 3, etc. Then you set it to High and start again.
Just to confuse the issue the (usually rotary) wire feed rate control also has an influence on the actual current although it's only a 'fine tuning' effect. Similarly the diameter of the wire being used can influence the current being fed to the weld. The odds are that you will be limited to just 0.6mm and 0.8mm with 1.0mm gas (copper coated) wire being an option on some higher end machines. Also 0.8mm and 0.9mm flux cored wires being your other options - with the torch set to negative polarity.
However 'high amperage' can just be a symptom that you're trying to weld material that's too thin for your level of experience. Anything under 1.5mm will be tricky if you haven't practiced enough and the incidence of blow-through will be horrendous.
So ... more details please; and a pic or two of the front of your machine would be very helpful.

 

[Robotstar5]

Next there's the amperage buttons which will be marked 1, 2, 3, etc plus another marked 'High/Low'. This one can be confusing as some are pushed in for high while others need to be pushed in for low! The correct progression from low amperage to high amperage is High/Low set to Low and the No. 1 button pushed in followed by 2, 3, etc. Then you set it to High and start again.

Pushbuttons/switches normally control the voltage, current is controlled by wire speed.

 

[BrokenBiker]

if current is being controlled by push buttons you do not have a mig im afraid. mig is constant voltage, meaning that current is affected by variables. something that is able to set current via a switch is constant current, i.e. a tig or stick welder. I have a sip stick welder that had the original rotary switch replaced with latching push buttons for current selection

 

[Jan]

I've checked the voltage outputs on my SIP 130 and found that there is some variation - not much, but it's repeatable - as I employ the different button settings. I've never bothered checking the output of my old stick welder as it works fine every time despite its advanced years. It was far from new when I bought it around 20 years ago and it just refuses to die.

A true constant voltage/variable current may be easy to implement on a modern solid state unit, but pretty much unachievable on the older style transformer only models.