I was practising with my Clarke 130 EN (with gas) yesterday on 0.9 mm sheet steel.
I started playing with the settings and settled on min-2 for the current and was adjusting the wire speed and continuous vs stitch techniques.
from left to right 4 stitch, 4 continuous, 5 st, 5 C, 6 st, 6C, 7C, 7st, 8st, 8C.
I was surprised that I got virtually no penetration with the speed set to 8 and the weld broke very easily. Any suggestions why?
When i looked at the back, I decided the the 5 continues (3rd from left) and 6 stitch (4th from left) were probably the best.
After that I did some more welds at around the best power and started adjusting the gas - I'm still not sure how to quantify this as I bought a cheap regulator with no flow meter as I thought that I'd wait until I moved on from disposable gas for that.
I am improving as I move from left to right, but I find it difficult to find the balance between full penetration and blowing holes. ( I have worked out how to fill small holes with lots of little tacks).
Also I find going over the tacks problematic and generally end up making a bit of a mess. What's the proper technique for this?
For the first half (from the left) I was using stitch technique with the feed rate at 5.5 and the second half I reduced the feed to 4.9 and spent a bit long on each stitch.
A lot of the time I see each stitch has a concave bobbly surface? what is the cause of this?
If I spend a bit longer on each one it it fills out to a more normal looking weld. Is this the best way to approach this.
For the last few welds (on the right) I tried increasing the gap between the panels from about 0.5 mm to 1 mm and I think that helps penetration.
thanks
I started playing with the settings and settled on min-2 for the current and was adjusting the wire speed and continuous vs stitch techniques.
from left to right 4 stitch, 4 continuous, 5 st, 5 C, 6 st, 6C, 7C, 7st, 8st, 8C.
I was surprised that I got virtually no penetration with the speed set to 8 and the weld broke very easily. Any suggestions why?
When i looked at the back, I decided the the 5 continues (3rd from left) and 6 stitch (4th from left) were probably the best.
After that I did some more welds at around the best power and started adjusting the gas - I'm still not sure how to quantify this as I bought a cheap regulator with no flow meter as I thought that I'd wait until I moved on from disposable gas for that.
I am improving as I move from left to right, but I find it difficult to find the balance between full penetration and blowing holes. ( I have worked out how to fill small holes with lots of little tacks).
Also I find going over the tacks problematic and generally end up making a bit of a mess. What's the proper technique for this?
For the first half (from the left) I was using stitch technique with the feed rate at 5.5 and the second half I reduced the feed to 4.9 and spent a bit long on each stitch.
A lot of the time I see each stitch has a concave bobbly surface? what is the cause of this?
If I spend a bit longer on each one it it fills out to a more normal looking weld. Is this the best way to approach this.
For the last few welds (on the right) I tried increasing the gap between the panels from about 0.5 mm to 1 mm and I think that helps penetration.
thanks