bought a welder tonight and having problems, plz HELP

[xpackken]

So i have just bought a clarke 151en from Mm , i have purchased with it the following

6mm wire
co2/ argon disposable gas bottle

I dont know if it the stuff i am practising on being thin ( CAR CILL ) or its just me but is seems to be blowing wholes very easily on the lowest setting possible, and me moving as fast as possible, in fact so fast i cant get the weld very wide atall and concistent !

the settings are as follows (1 A) (2 3) (MIN MAX) I have tryd adjusting and playing as much as possible and the best i found was 1 2 min !!! Now the gas setting is a different matter i have adjusted it in all different ways and it works best at 1,2 on the above setting !


Please advice guys i am gona give up before ive started at this rate

 

[the snooper]

have you tried slowing down the wire feed depending what you have it set on
you have the power setting right at 1 , 2 , and min

 

[xpackken]

i was just about to metion that , i was using at about 6,7 ! in the clarke manual it recommends 5/6 , no i did try using it around 5/6 but it felt sticky if you know what i mean but still blew through , for the speed i was moving 7 worked better !

now i just used the wire speed calc on here and it said wire speed 2 wtf

 

[the snooper]

are you welding an old car sill
its better to practise on new offcuts until you get the hang of it
also be aware that if you are using disposible bottles you dont get very long at all out of them so if you start getting small holes in the weld and spattering a lot check your gas

 

[xpackken]

are you welding an old car sill
its better to practise on new offcuts until you get the hang of it
also be aware that if you are using disposible bottles you dont get very long at all out of them so if you start getting small holes in the weld and spattering a lot check your gas

yeah i am learning on old car sill coz thats what i will be welding in the end

id been doing this from the very begining the gas was brand new , so am still very confused

would appreciate some advice on the gas bottle setting and wire speed anyone !!!!!!!!

 

[xpackken]

ow and may i add , it was a very good solid peice of the sill , cleaned to high heaven with a flap disc

 

[the snooper]

the disposable regulators ive seen dont have adjustment just a knob to turn of the gas it should be around 10 litre per minute
if i were you i would find some different steel then compare the 2 the sill could be very thin

 

[xpackken]

yeas this one is 1-6 adjustable , as for cill i will try using something else , but i do need to learn thin metal as my floor pan on my car is 20 gauge metal !

 

[the snooper]

when welding in a new peice you can weld from new to old which sometimes helps to stop blowing through

 

[xpackken]

does wire speed on 7 sound high to u ? or might that just be my welder ? and also would 8mm wire be any different ?

 

[the snooper]

yea sounds a little high try it slow and dont move like f1 car .6 if fine for bodywork

 

[xpackken]

will slow down , and blow bigger holes i will try get an off cut of good metal !

 

[the snooper]

what car is the sill off

 

[xpackken]

its off my capri i know not the best metal also does the slower the wire speed the slower the movement ? and might it be worth doing little by little pulse welds

i will post some pics in a minute

 

[xpackken]

 

[the snooper]

can you hear gas coming from the torch and are you holding the torch too far away

 

[xpackken]

not sure about the gas , do u mean when the trig is compressed or when it actualy welding ? should it be obvious ?

i thought it would not atall if it wasnt on properly

i was holding far away at first but starting getting closer and it was better ,

 

[xpackken]

ow yeah no gas noise when just pressing the trigger if i renember rightly !

 

[the snooper]

try squeezing the trigger and listening with the power off if you hear nothing try with the power on
it could be a gas problem or the fact you have the torch too far away for the gas to have any effect

if your bottle holds 110 litres of compressed gas then you will only get around 11 minutes of welding from it at 10 litres per minute
so you could be out of gas

 

[xpackken]

hi mate i have just tryed and had a look at the regulator , there is number 1-6 on it however it only workd when fully skrewed 1 way , witch is at the point were i never had it so it looks like i have been welding without the gas

so how much will this effect my welding ? ( serioulsy)