Am I out of Gas?

[Boony405hp]

Yesterday I was welding fine, came today and I could not get a non porous weld to save myself. I tried different ground clamps, different metals, super clean grounds and metal but nothing changed. Please note I didn't have the gas up that high originally had it back around 10-12L/min but when it wasn't working I thought I'd try up the pressure. I noticed when I squeeze the trigger the L/min gauge hardly flicks backwards (if at all) any more. Is this an indication the bottle is empty. I thought the gauge on the right was your 'gas level'. I am a noob though

So ultimately what I am asking is: am I out of gas, and is the gauge on the right indicate how much gas is remaining in the bottle?


Thanks in advance, Dave.

 

[chevy2]

The r/hand guage appears to be contents at around 80bar?
so you should in theory have gas.
Try the normal checks first...
Make sure the valve on the cylinder is 'fully' wound open,
Set the flow to around 15 litres per minute,
Check the shroud is not caked with mig spatter or the gas outlet holes in the torch blocked,
Pull the trigger and listen for the gas flow(without firing wire into your ear)
See how you get on with that first?

 

[pedrobedro]

Remove the regulator from the cylinder, open the cylinder valve momentarily to blow it out. Screw the regulator control knob all the way out and all the way in then turn it back to where you want it on the flow gauge (LITRES/MIN) with the trigger pressed and no wire feed.

 

[normspanners]

Listen to the end of your torch is there a definate hiss of gas there, because sometimes the hose disconnects inside the lance and the gas is just going inside the lance and coming out by the wire feed!

 

[Boony405hp]

The r/hand guage appears to be contents at around 80bar?
so you should in theory have gas.
Try the normal checks first...
Make sure the valve on the cylinder is 'fully' wound open,
Set the flow to around 15 litres per minute,
Check the shroud is not caked with mig spatter or the gas outlet holes in the torch blocked,
Pull the trigger and listen for the gas flow(without firing wire into your ear)
See how you get on with that first?

Valve - fully opened
Set flow to 15 L/min
Shroud was clean, but gave it a wipe over. Where about's is the gas outlet hole?

When I pull the trigger the needle flicks ever so slightly backwards, not much, but I don't seem to hear the gas at the torch end. However if I close off the gas valve and squeeze the trigger it clears the gas from the line as the gauges both zero when I do this.

 

[Boony405hp]

Listen to the end of your torch is there a definate hiss of gas there, because sometimes the hose disconnects inside the lance and the gas is just going inside the lance and coming out by the wire feed!

Bingo Norm, thanks mate, you got it in one. Thanks to everyone else who posted replies too. This is a great forum!!! I can now sleep not wondering what was going wrong.

 

[normspanners]

Glad I could help!

 

[Welderpaul]

Also one to watch for (which stumped me for a while) is if the wire ever shorts out, it glows red hot through the torch and feed rolls.
It birdsnested and melted through the gas hose at the back of the euro connector inside the machine and very little gas gets to the torch.

 

[normspanners]

back of the euro connector inside the machine and very little gas gets to the torch.

good tip too, hard to find that one if it was only a small leak!

 

[Robotstar5]

Also one to watch for (which stumped me for a while) is if the wire ever shorts out, it glows red hot through the torch and feed rolls.
It birdsnested and melted through the gas hose at the back of the euro connector inside the machine and very little gas gets to the torch.

And you end up with a mess like this!

 

[BillJ]

I assume that can only happen if the wire is not connected properly to welding voltage via the tip? Otherwise, no current will be flowing in the portion of wire between the rollers and the tip.

 

[justin]

Yesterday I was welding fine, came today and I could not get a non porous weld to save myself. I tried different ground clamps, different metals, super clean grounds and metal but nothing changed. Please note I didn't have the gas up that high originally had it back around 10-12L/min but when it wasn't working I thought I'd try up the pressure. I noticed when I squeeze the trigger the L/min gauge hardly flicks backwards (if at all) any more. Is this an indication the bottle is empty. I thought the gauge on the right was your 'gas level'. I am a noob though

So ultimately what I am asking is: am I out of gas, and is the gauge on the right indicate how much gas is remaining in the bottle?


Thanks in advance, Dave.

I had the same problem last week, It took me a while to realise that the wheel on the welder was parked on top of gas hose cutting the supply off