Could do with some help

[BrokenBiker]

what thickness material are you trying to weld? and is it clean?

if you find that the wire speed is the issue, set your power to whatever you think it needs, then turn the wire speed down to 5 (or half way), try it, it will probably arc once, burn back and stick to the tip, cut the ball off, turn it up to 6 and try again, it will be a bit better, repeat until you get a nice smooth arc and the wire is feeding so its always in the puddle and not either burning back, or trying to push the toech away...then if you go up or down the voltage, you can tweak the wire speed up or down to suit. once you get it set right once and have a few good goes at it, you will get a feel for whether it needs more or less wire, or more or less volts. its all a balancing act along with travel speed

 

[CharBennett]

I just used some scrap bits lying around, it was about 1.0mm thick. I did clean it up with a grinder. Thinking about it it was welding ok at first but I did turn the power down and not the wire speed so it may have been that.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I just used some scrap bits lying around, it was about 1.0mm thick. I did clean it up with a grinder. Thinking about it it was welding ok at first but I did turn the power down and not the wire speed so it may have been that.

1mm is fidly at the best of times, cant really get a good weld bead on metal that thin, its basically car body work gauge material and that takes a fair bit of skill.

personally id advise 3mm+, even flat out your welder would only just get full penetration on 3mm, so theres no real chance of you burning through, which means you can just set the power quite high and weld and really get to grips with what the puddle is doing and things like arc legnth and torch angle.

 

[CharBennett]

1mm is fidly at the best of times, cant really get a good weld bead on metal that thin, its basically car body work gauge material and that takes a fair bit of skill.

personally id advise 3mm+, even flat out your welder would only just get full penetration on 3mm, so theres no real chance of you burning through, which means you can just set the power quite high and weld and really get to grips with what the puddle is doing and things like arc legnth and torch angle.

 

[CharBennett]

Car body panels is what I’m aiming for. I’m hoping to weld up me old van and the worrying thing is I don’t think the sheet metal on it is even 1.0mm I think it’s thinner. It’s definitely going to be a learning curve that’s for sure.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Car body panels is what I’m aiming for. I’m hoping to weld up me old van and the worrying thing is I don’t think the sheet metal on it is even 1.0mm I think it’s thinner. It’s definitely going to be a learning curve that’s for sure

dont take this the wrong way, but you need to learn to weld to a relatively reasonable standard first, before tackling the harder stuff.

body panels can vary from 0.8-1mm, but if its rusted the odds are its going to be thinner in places and as a general rule of thumb if there is a rusty hole you can see the size of a ping pong ball you will need to cut away a hole as big as a tennis ball to find good solid metal to weld to. if you are putting new panels over existing stuff, there may be a mismatch in thickness as well which may cause minor issues.

car body work most of the time requires stitch welds or spot/plug welds, which usually consists of a run of tacks stacked on top of each other, but it needs to be slightly more than just a tack so you dont get a fish eye in each one as the weld cools.

you also would probably need a gap between the panels to avoid distortion when the weld cools which adds another layer to the technique as blowing through a body panel is really, easy, its even easier when there is a gap there.

the beauty of welding on thicker stuff first is that you can learn to weld without fear of blowing through then trying to figure whether it was down to voltage, wire speed, travel speed, torch angle, arc length, bad technique, too thin metal etc...once you've got to grips with the thicker stuff you can play with some thin stuff and most of the issues will have already sorted themselves out so then if you blow through its likely either too hot or less than ideal joint prep.

its much quicker in the long run to learn the process then do the job, rather than trying to do both at the same time

 

[CharBennett]

I was going to have another go yesterday but for some reason when I turn on my gas regulator gas leaks from torch without trigger being pressed. I lost a full bottle the other day so I don’t want to waste another one. Absolutely no offence from your post and wasn’t took the wrong way, you know what you’re on about and I don’t so I’m listening to every word you say. I really do appreciate your advice and when I get things working I’m going to send you pictures so I can learn what I’m doing wrong.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I was going to have another go yesterday but for some reason when I turn on my gas regulator gas leaks from torch without trigger being pressed. I lost a full bottle the other day so I don’t want to waste another one. Absolutely no offence from your post and wasn’t took the wrong way, you know what you’re on about and I don’t so I’m listening to every word you say. I really do appreciate your advice and when I get things working I’m going to send you pictures so I can learn what I’m doing wrong.

That will either be a stuck solenoid valve inside the machine, or if its a trigger controlled gas valve, a broken o-ring or just a sticky valve...

You can easilly check which you have buy splitting the torch handle apart. There is nothing dangerous or technical inside there, just make sure you keep hold of the trigger spring. If there is a valve directly under the trigger, that's where the problem will be, if there isn't a valve you have an electrically controlled valve inside the machine

 

[eddie49]

According to this earlier thread:

J

Thread 'Cebora 883, old timer info needed !'

Dec 28, 2019

Hey guys, hope all is well an everyone who reads this had a good Christmas. So today could not if gone any worse, as well as knocking over a tin of paint into my tool chest i discovered an issue with a newly purchased used welder. Purchased the cebora 883 pocket mig to do some welding on my land rover, had a go with it before purchasing and seemed lovely. I was going to have a quick buzz today so i cracked on the new disposable gas bottle opened the gas then all of a sudden i heard a POP and the torch casing had slightly seperated and gas was leaking. I took the torch apart to inspect and...

• Joeyg
• Replies: 9
• forum: Cebora & Snap-on

the Cebora Pocket MIG has a valve in the torch.