Hi all, first post so I hope it's in the right place.
I don't do a lot of welding - only when something needs repairing - so I've been happy with the double sized CO2 disposables until now.
Me and the kids have started fabricating a chassis for a field buggy and so a proper bottle was the order of the day and I went for an Argon/CO2/Oxy mix that apparently is the same as Argoshield Light - (WeldUK £90 including ownership of the bottle).
It seems to have changed the nature of the arc completely - instead of there being a bright loaclised arc at the end of the wire, there seems to be a "jet" of arc about 10mm long (more like a stick weld arc) which means that with the shroud about 5mm from the job when I finish a run, the wire is only just visible from the contact tip.
There also seems to be more heat - my welder is only 140A and I used to run it at full power to weld 3mm sections - I've had to knock it back one setting because it was blowing holes.
I wondered whether this was the purpose of the oxy in the mix because it seems counter-intuitive to me to include oxy in a gas designed to keep oxy away from the puddle.
Any wisdom appreciated.
I don't do a lot of welding - only when something needs repairing - so I've been happy with the double sized CO2 disposables until now.
Me and the kids have started fabricating a chassis for a field buggy and so a proper bottle was the order of the day and I went for an Argon/CO2/Oxy mix that apparently is the same as Argoshield Light - (WeldUK £90 including ownership of the bottle).
It seems to have changed the nature of the arc completely - instead of there being a bright loaclised arc at the end of the wire, there seems to be a "jet" of arc about 10mm long (more like a stick weld arc) which means that with the shroud about 5mm from the job when I finish a run, the wire is only just visible from the contact tip.
There also seems to be more heat - my welder is only 140A and I used to run it at full power to weld 3mm sections - I've had to knock it back one setting because it was blowing holes.
I wondered whether this was the purpose of the oxy in the mix because it seems counter-intuitive to me to include oxy in a gas designed to keep oxy away from the puddle.
Any wisdom appreciated.