Couple questions

[grim_d]

Hi all,

I finally got the last piece of the puzzle yesterday (gas) so today I had a good go at trying my hand at welding.

My first question is about gas, I went for the hobby option of a 10L cylinder filled to 137bar, confirmed by my regulator, by the end of today, about 7 hours with pretty regular welding it was down to around 75 bar, this seems excessive to me, is it? Flow was set to 10L/m.

Second question is about suitable wire thickness, I started out by using what was left of the 0.8mm wire that was in the machine, this penetrated 2mm and 3mm steel no problem as you would expect.

When I moved onto the 0.6 wire I struggled to get full penetration on 2mm sheet with a butt weld, turning power and wire speed up to almost max helped but not much, is this bad technique or is 2mm pushing it a little with 0.6mm wire? (The power and wire speed calculator suggest I can do 2mm with 0.6 at way less than was possible)

Machine is question is a Cebora stag 186 - 28-185amps.

By the end of the day I had produced this... A tool bogey, my shed mate had been wanting a small cart to put tools and bits on when working on the car, so I made one, not perfect but I am more than happy with it.

3mm box section with 2mm plate underneath, should be fairly strong.

 

[shenion]

You will need a real high wire speed and power setting on 3mm with 0.6mm wire. Some machines can't go fast enough. Sounds frantic and can have more spatter.

I use 0.6mm only on 1mm or less. Anything above, I use 0.8 or 0.9mm.

10L at 137 bar is 1370 liters. At 10LPM, that is 137 minutes of welding. you will get a bit less as the flow tends to be higher at first.

I started with a 80CF tank and moved up to a 125CF after it lasted me only a few months. The cost difference here was minimal (no rental), just the difference in price on buying a cylinder and a few $$ more to fill.

The cart looks good. i have made a few to hold my wire feeder and plasma cutter. I just did a bunch of short welds about every inch for the sheet rather than waste gas doing a full weld.

 

[grim_d]

I'll need to get myself some 0.8 wire then for the thicker stuff then!

If it wasn't my first real go at welding I would have probably stitch welded it like you say but ran full seams on it to practice.

Gas doesn't seem to go very far then, I will see how long this one lasts me then maybe move to the higher pressure cylinders on rental. Not a lot of no rent choices where I live.

With the amount of weld I lay today I could probably finish all the welding on my car so it may go further than I think when I use it as intended.

Thanks for your reply. Very helpful.