Beginner looking for advice w/ pic

[substatica]

This is my second weld with a Lincoln Weld Pak 100 with gas. Seemed to be spattering a lot, I had the power at D (the highest) and wire speed at 5 of a possible 10, any advice? Cheers

 

[cumbriasteve]

For first welds, or second as the case may be, they are pretty damn good.

I can see you have cleaned the steel prior to welding though hard to tell if it could have done with a bit more of a clean up.

If your machine is 100amps max then that steel (is it 3mm) may be just a bit above it's limit, the weld looks a bit cold.

The dirty sooty deposit could be from the steel, could also be a shortage of gas, simply not enough pressure or the angle of the torch.

Wire speed may also be having an effect, did it sounds nice or was it spluttering a lot.

Get some very clean steel a little less thickness but not too thin, should think 2mm would be ok for that machines top power and have another go, do a few runs with different wire speeds and you should find one that has a nice even sound, wire feed on some machines can be very very touchy and even the smallest of turns can make a significant difference.

 

[Kent]

forget were the dials are, though its hard to tell from a description and photo - it sounds very much like too much wire speed. to be totally honest you see this and here this as you weld and its harder to diagnose without this. is this a little biddy 100amp max mig? if so you might be failing to really melt that parent metal and feeding into too cold a pool

 

[Kent]

For first welds, or second as the case may be, they are pretty damn good.

I can see you have cleaned the steel prior to welding though hard to tell if it could have done with a bit more of a clean up.

If your machine is 100amps max then that steel (is it 3mm) may be just a bit above it's limit, the weld looks a bit cold.

The dirty sooty deposit could be from the steel, could also be a shortage of gas, simply not enough pressure or the angle of the torch.

Wire speed may also be having an effect, did it sounds nice or was it spluttering a lot.

Get some very clean steel a little less thickness but not too thin, should think 2mm would be ok for that machines top power and have another go, do a few runs with different wire speeds and you should find one that has a nice even sound, wire feed on some machines can be very very touchy and even the smallest of turns can make a significant difference.

looks like 5-6mm bar to me from the countersink , like you rightly say might be pushing the thing a step too far

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum.

Part of the problem could be contamination, grind the metal to really shiny bright.

 

[substatica]

Thanks for the feedback, yeah, I kind of thought the metal might have been thick, I guess I wanted to test the machine's power -- plus I had that piece kicking around to test on. A couple of follow up questions, what should I set the gas at in Lh, I see a lot of suggestions in Cfh but none in Lh. Some say 15 Cfh which would convert to 420 Lh, but that seems way to high. Also, what angle should the torch be at?

 

[Welding Bear]

Laying beads wont be a problem on that thickness i believe. But try joining two pieces together (later on) and youll find the penetration wont b e very good at all. minse a 135 amp and that wouldnt touch 6mm steel.

but they look good.

if im right in saying (as im newby too) they look a bit ''cold'' looking at the toe lins. is this a correct statement?

 

[rtbcomp]

1 cu.ft. = 28.3 litres, 15 cu.ft = 424.5 litres

 

[substatica]

1 cu.ft. = 28.3 litres, 15 cu.ft = 424.5 litres

Ah, my tank gauge actually reads in L/m, that's why 424 seems so high, it's actually only 7.06 L/m, which is where I've got it set. So wire speed too slow I suppose.

 

[cumbriasteve]

10 lpm is about the norm that most people use, up to 15 lpm if there is a risk of any minor draughts affecting the gas, major draughts make a bigger difference but you would then tend to see other effects that your welds are not showing.

 

[substatica]

10 lpm is about the norm that most people use, up to 15 lpm if there is a risk of any minor draughts affecting the gas, major draughts make a bigger difference but you would then tend to see other effects that your welds are not showing.

Okay, good to know. Here's a vid of the weld pictured above. Not sure what happened in the gap you see in the weld, you can hear it occur in the video. Is that amount of spatter typical?

 

[Welding Bear]

As ever, speaking as a newb.......

Clarke manual states 3-5lpm. Indoors i've stuck to this and my welds havent been affected by porosity and i've also not used up my hobby gas bottles anywhere near as quickly as suggested on the net that i might.

Obviously every machine i'm guessing is different but i havent had a problem

 

[Kent]

Laying beads wont be a problem on that thickness i believe. But try joining two pieces together (later on) and youll find the penetration wont b e very good at all. minse a 135 amp and that wouldnt touch 6mm steel.

but they look good.

if im right in saying (as im newby too) they look a bit ''cold'' looking at the toe lins. is this a correct statement?

To be fair your correct about the join wont ever be good enough but also that feeds back to the plant not having the power to melt a proper pool and yes it will effect the weld process even in practice as you will be pushing wire into a rapidly cooling pool, it will feel like the feed is too fast. Thicker metal soaks up more heat its that simple

 

[substatica]

To be fair your correct about the join wont ever be good enough but also that feeds back to the plant not having the power to melt a proper pool and yes it will effect the weld process even in practice as you will be pushing wire into a rapidly cooling pool, it will feel like the feed is too fast. Thicker metal soaks up more heat its that simple

I was beginning to see the pool, from all I've read I was expecting the pool to be glowing orange when I observed the wire feeding into a pool during this weld the pool was not orange but just looked like liquid metal that the wire was pushing into -- does that mean it's too cold, or is that the pool everyone talks about?

 

[Kent]

I was beginning to see the pool, from all I've read I was expecting the pool to be glowing orange when I observed the wire feeding into a pool during this weld the pool was not orange but just looked like liquid metal that the wire was pushing into -- does that mean it's too cold, or is that the pool everyone talks about?

from your description- yes! We might see colours differently but you tell whats happening by looking at the pool and were you new metal is feeding in relation to it also the shape and size of the pool, its controllability etc. Basically concentrate on the hot bit

 

[Dimitri De Spiegeleer]

divide cfh by 2 and you get litres / min.
The error is small enough to neglect it all together.

 

[Welding Bear]

You might see the colour differently depending on your mask. Mine, for example is green. So i see a bright green blob.

But the glowing blob is the weld ''puddle'' / ''pool''

 

[substatica]

So I've been doing a bunch of welding now, mostly small square tubing braces and such. The biggest problem I'm having is that after the first weld I've got an after image of it making it hard to see for the next weld. The mask I'm using is this one,

http://www.amazon.ca/Antec-Electronics-Darkening-Welding-Variable/dp/B00BWAEYV8/

Which is rated for MIG, the battery is good, I've got it set on 9-13 with a long delay and high sensitivity. Any suggestions?

 

[Kent]

its too light a shade for you most likely, we all have slightly different rates of dilation I think

 

[substatica]

its too light a shade for you most likely, we all have slightly different rates of dilation I think

Meaning I should change the glass on the helmet with one of the others that it came with?