A wire speed anomaly??

[OUCH! That's hot!]

I was experimenting with my Portamig 185 this afternoon, i started with some 2mm mild steel welding at power setting 6, I progressively wound back the wire speed from 4, which gave acceptable welds, I finished up at wire speed 2 which I found gave excellent welds with good penetration. Next I got a piece of 1.2mm which I have been welding at power setting 1, I have found that 3.5 to 4 is the best wire speed setting for this thinner material, I tried it at wire speed 2 and it was far too slow, back up to 4 and fine again.
I was quite surprised that the thicker metal could be welded best at a much slower wire speed than the thinner and suppose that the semi-synergic nature of the welder is playing a part in this seeming anomaly, I would appreciate the comments of the members. BTW, I am using .8 wire and argoshield light at about 5L/min.

 

[reno]

Hi Ouch, I seem to remember being told that the wire speed control knob is only for trimming the wire speed rather than out and out control as with say a clarke mig. The wire speed is actually set by the power setting.

HTH

Cheers, reno

 

[OUCH! That's hot!]

Hi Ouch, I seem to remember being told that the wire speed control knob is only for trimming the wire speed rather than out and out control as with say a clarke mig. The wire speed is actually set by the power setting.

HTH

Cheers, reno

Thanks Reno, I agree, it must be the semi-synergic doo dah at work but it does seem strange to me none the less, just a curiosity...

 

[reno]

The wire feed will increase relative to the power setting; I would guess rightly or wrongly that the wire speed maximum feed rate for one power setting would not overlap with the minimum feed rate of the next power setting. I know its not particularly well explained; the best thing to do would be to measure the variation of feed rate for each power setting although it would be somewhat wasteful on wire...

I'll be honest I don't have a portamig (mores the pitty) so I can't really offer any more than that. With any luck one of the other portamig owners will crop shortly to explain it better.

cheers, reno

 

[BChild]

I was experimenting with my Portamig 185 this afternoon, i started with some 2mm mild steel welding at power setting 6, I progressively wound back the wire speed from 4, which gave acceptable welds, I finished up at wire speed 2 which I found gave excellent welds with good penetration. Next I got a piece of 1.2mm which I have been welding at power setting 1, I have found that 3.5 to 4 is the best wire speed setting for this thinner material, I tried it at wire speed 2 and it was far too slow, back up to 4 and fine again.
I was quite surprised that the thicker metal could be welded best at a much slower wire speed than the thinner and suppose that the semi-synergic nature of the welder is playing a part in this seeming anomaly, I would appreciate the comments of the members. BTW, I am using .8 wire and argoshield light at about 5L/min.

Not tried anything much thicker than 1.5mm at the moment but I have found that the wire speed is repeatable time and time again but not in the same place for all power levels ranges from 3 to 6

I'm spending most of my time between power 1 and 3 (work quicker on 3 ) and the wire feed speeds are different for each setting but I'm getting to know what speeds are needed to set up before you even strike an arc

 

[OUCH! That's hot!]

... but I'm getting to know what speeds are needed to set up before you even strike an arc

Me too: I've printed off a chart of metal thickness/power settings from the calculator on this site and have added a column for wire speed to which I am adding as and when...
Hope you are still enjoying yours BChild.
John.

 

[BChild]

Me too: I've printed off a chart of metal thickness/power settings from the calculator on this site and have added a column for wire speed to which I am adding as and when...
Hope you are still enjoying yours BChild.
John.

That's a good idea - only I think the chart on here is 9 power levels not 12 (haven't checked recently) but I shall do something very similar to you and laminate it and stick it on the top of the welder - that way my young apprentice can tweak wire speed and power levels on instruction - power 2 please and the wire speed from the chart as opposed to currently - power two and then a few tweaks to wire speed before it's at a good balance

 

[OUCH! That's hot!]

That's a good idea - only I think the chart on here is 9 power levels not 12 (haven't checked recently) but I shall do something very similar to you and laminate it and stick it on the top of the welder - that way my young apprentice can tweak wire speed and power levels on instruction - power 2 please and the wire speed from the chart as opposed to currently - power two and then a few tweaks to wire speed before it's at a good balance

You can put in whatever number of power settings you have, the calculator does the rest.

 

[BChild]

You can put in whatever number of power settings you have, the calculator does the rest.

Shows you how long it's been since I started with an SIP and looking in there