Can't keep the arc going

[ado15]

Hi everyone, newbie here

I have bought a mig to use on the body of a car I’m restoring, but I’m having problems.

I’ve been welding with an arc welder for many years, but this is the first time I’ve used a mig welder. I have a new Sip 80 Mig Gas (Manufacturer say’s it’s ideal for car body). The gas is Argon/CO2. It has two settings low and high to control the speed of the wire.

I have tried both high and low settings and turned the gas regulator to half to one full turn as instructed in the manual. The scrap piece of metal I’m testing on is 18 gauge, and the area I’m welding has been ground back to bare metal. When I pull the trigger I can hear the gas coming through and the wire is feeding, but I can’t seem to get it to arc with a continual flow.

Here’s what it looks like

Any advice will be much appreciated, Thanks guys

 

[bawjaws]

are you using a disposable bottle? if so then you will have to turn it up pretty much full pelt before it gets to the right flow, other than that your moving way to fast, and yout torch shroud should be about8mm from the workpeice

 

[malcolm]

Looks like the wire speed might be out. I'd heard the SIP 80 doesn't have control for the wire speed so that's not all that useful as suggestions go. Won't be much good for bodywork if the wire speed isn't adjustable either.

Errr... Can you send it back and get a nice little Clarke 90?

 

[ado15]

Cheers guys...I've turned the gas on full pelt on the disposable bottle, and I've managed to fine tune the speed of the wire feed via the pressure on the feed wheels. Still nothing doing so I've contacted the company I bought it from and now waiting to hear back from them.

Wishing I knew of this excellent forum before I bought the welder that doesn't do what it say's on the tin

Thanks again for your help guys

 

[weldequip]

You could also be too far away from the workpiece there Ado; try keeping around 5-6mm wire stick-out from the end of the torch & maintaining that distance.
weldequip