Blowing holes

[OldMig130]

Hi

I recently bought a sip mini 130 synergic after having an old sip migmate 130 for about 30+ years. On a recent weld job on my car I seem to be blowing a lot of holes in the weld, I can see the current is obviously too high, you can see the edges I'm trying to join retreat away from each other, I've had cut the repair hole quite far back from the rusty bit to make sure I'm not welding weakened metal, some bits are ok but some of the metal, even the good stuff is paper thin.

I think the thing I'm struggling a bit with is the synergy control. The book says start with it in the middle i.e. 0% and current at 1, which is a ball hair off the bottom of the dial. I never really understood this synergy control and really preferred my old mig, which had the range of manual power settings.

At the setting I described it seemed like the feed speed was too quick sometimes then when you try to adapt it slows down and then you slow down and then burn a hole through. I tried my best to weld away from the weld to minimise heat build up but it still doing this burn through.

Any thoughts on settings or how to try and lower the current flow? I was toying with the idea of getting a welder with a lower current like the autostar but not sure if it might be something else I can try.

I'm using 0.8 flux and MIG welding and using 0.9 zinc coated steel for repairs. I read that 0.6mm wire is perhaps better for that thickness?

Thanks

Andy

 

[GRW]

Hi

I recently bought a sip mini 130 synergic after having an old sip migmate 130 for about 30+ years. On a recent weld job on my car I seem to be blowing a lot of holes in the weld, I can see the current is obviously too high, you can see the edges I'm trying to join retreat away from each other, I've had cut the repair hole quite far back from the rusty bit to make sure I'm not welding weakened metal, some bits are ok but some of the metal, even the good stuff is paper thin.

I think the thing I'm struggling a bit with is the synergy control. The book says start with it in the middle i.e. 0% and current at 1, which is a ball hair off the bottom of the dial. I never really understood this synergy control and really preferred my old mig, which had the range of manual power settings.

At the setting I described it seemed like the feed speed was too quick sometimes then when you try to adapt it slows down and then you slow down and then burn a hole through. I tried my best to weld away from the weld to minimise heat build up but it still doing this burn through.

Any thoughts on settings or how to try and lower the current flow? I was toying with the idea of getting a welder with a lower current like the autostar but not sure if it might be something else I can try.

I'm using 0.8 flux and MIG welding

Thanks

Andy

I started out with Flux Core. It burns hotter as I guess you know than Mig, so that's not making life any easier to start with.

 

[OldMig130]

I had a new torch for my old welder as the wire kept snagging in the torch and the multi buttons were starting to not click in. I was trying to get used to the new welder but just couldn't no matter what I done.

Sprayed some loose oil in the old mig power setting switches, which freed them all up, and put a new torch on and got a lovely weld there on a piece of scrap metal. Will be trying to keep this going as long as I can I think.

 

[eddie49]

The SIP Mini 130 is a synergic MIG welder, i.e. it controls both voltage and wirespeed in a pre-programmed ratio using a single knob. The dial may be calibrated in millimetres of metal thickness, e.g. from 0.7mm to 5mm, or in Amps, from 30 to 150A , etc.
On some low-end machines this design does not succeed, with wirespeed too high, feeding too much wire and not enough voltage to melt it, or vice-versa.
However, your machine also has a provision for manual fine-tuning or "trimming" of the preset ratio, by altering the voltage. This is done with the lower control knob, and it offers the wide range of -20% / 0 / +20%. Some machines have no trim option at all, or just +/- 5% or +/- 1 volt. I would suggest trying it initially with the lower knob at the "0%" mid-point, and the upper wirespeed control at about "2" or "3" ( about a quarter of the way up ). Increase the lower voltage trim control towards +20% until it starts to burn through.

Note: - your welder may have a ( very annoying ! ) "soft/slow/creep start" option, which feeds wire at a very low speed after the trigger is pressed, until it detects that an arc has started.

For gasless flux-core wire, you need to have the MIG torch polarity set to Negative ( using the short jumper wire and plug ), and the work return cable and clamp plugged into the Positive socket.

If the results are still bad, you can try to fool the machine by choosing other options on the push-buttons, such as 0.6 or 0.8 wire, or MIG/MAG, Flux, Gas, or 100%C02, even if you are not using those choices. This will alter the programming and you may get better results.

 

[OldMig130]

Hi Eddie

Thanks for that detailed reply.

I did notice the slow wire speed when you hold the gun and press the trigger, it's like a delayed start, I didn't find that too bad but it felt as if the voltage was increasing sometimes when doing a weld. I did try the setting at 0% and wire speed about 1 with no real improvement,, still burning through at 0, i'd initially started it at -20% as well with same results.

I've got all the polarity set up correctly for flux core. I did notice the jumper cable had a tendency to work loose, so tightened that up, seemed to help slightly, but that might have been me just imagining it.

I was running out of patience with it hence the re-emergence of my old welder, but I will try playing about with it some more when I got some time.

Thanks

Andrew