Argoshield Light on 4mm+

[reidser]

Hi,

I'm after folks thoughts on using Argoshield light on 4mm to 6mm mild steel. I think Argoshield Universal is ideally whats needed for this thickness although it's not covered by the "volkszone" offer.

I'm not to concerned about pretty welds as long as they are strong.

Thanks

Reidser

 

[Mode1]

I use argoshield light on 1mm car body panels and up to 4-6mm easy,with 0.8 wire,its nice welds.Anything thicker and i prefer use the arc welder myself.They'd love you to have a rental for all the different types of gas they stock im guessing.

 

[reidser]

Thanks Mode1. Appreciate your reply.

 

[Shedendman]

I used argonshield light up to 3-4mm mainly, if its just a little bit of 5-6mm its fine no problems, but for alot of 5-6mm i use straight CO2

 

[Jim_gsxr1000]

Its fine for most things, just need to take care to ensure penetration on thicker materials

 

[reidser]

Cheers folks

 

[morph]

I prefer light to universal on anything! I've butt welded 20mm plate with light! It just seems to give less splatter and a nicer looking weld! I'm sure there's a technical reason why this is wrong but I've not had a weld fail yet!

 

[reidser]

That's good to know morph, thanks.

As said above it may well just be a marketing thing......

Phoned the Aberdeen office and they hadn't heard of the "volkszone" offer but a call on the 0800 number sorted it all out. As others have found they are a very helpful bunch.

Thanks again

Reidser

 

[Ed.]

My tri mix is similar at 2%O and 5%CO2 and I also use it for all thickness from 1.2mm up to 20mm, but the higher CO2 mixes penetrate much better in thicker steel without excess heat, hence don't produce as smooth a weld bead, bear in mind a smooth weld bead is not important compared to having good penetration and wetting in on heavy metal and too much heat can cause the bead to crack easier and distortion increases as well.

I chose this mix as it gives me the greatest versatility without needing two bottles of different gas mixes and at a pinch I can use it on stainless as well. If however I was doing a paid heavy structural job then I would get a bottle of the appropriate higher CO2 mix. For my own home use now it does what I want.

 

[reidser]

Appreciate your input Ed.

Thanks.

My Portamig arrived today and I picked up my Argoshield light. Just waiting for my accessories box, which will hopefully be here tomorrow.

Reidser