MechaFurby
Member
- Messages
- 13
G'day.
I had been posting elsewhere on here trying to select a welder. In the end I concluded that I had to throw most advice away on what to buy simply due to what was available. However what to look for in a welder helped me out to no end.
I got a WeldMaster 185c Spool(Australian mfg. Trade quality. The spool means it can have a spool gun connected) and I love it. I can tell it is a quality machine, even though the idiot operating it isn't quality.
I got it as a pack with welder, gasless wire, reg and hose.
I have been doing minor jobs with the gasless for now as my garage is full and it doesn't have power yet. The weld quality leaves a lot to be desired. 10x stronger than anything my arc could do but I'm really struggling with the settings.
It has the voltage control knob with 6 settings, and the wire feed speed which is labelled from 1 to 10, but it is analog.
All I have really figured out so far is this:
I have to find the right wire speed for correct penetration of the metal. slower is less. Faster is more.
If the wire vapourises turn down the volts. If the wire is pushing the torch away and not keeping a consistent arc, turn up the volts. If penetration is not correct, repeat process.
I'm sort of getting a feel for where the settings should be, I think. Am I using a valid process for figuring it out?
I was playing with laying welds on some 2mm? box section a couple of days ago. I found a setting that gave roughly the right penetration, and the pool was maybe 7mm wide and pretty flat. It would also blow through if I was too slow. The weld was making more of a Shhhhh noise than crackling.
If I wanted a narrower pool / bead with the same penetration, what would I have to do?
Another question. Does the 4.5kg spool happen to have capacitance due to its size?
Sometimes when I don't have the trigger pressed and I touch the wire to the work piece it makes a single spark.
One last question. A lot of the nozzles I see look shiny / chrome, like the one used as a logo for this site. Mine seems to be made of thick copper. I'm not complaining. It's good and seems to be pretty much indestructible. Just curious about how common that is?
I had been posting elsewhere on here trying to select a welder. In the end I concluded that I had to throw most advice away on what to buy simply due to what was available. However what to look for in a welder helped me out to no end.
I got a WeldMaster 185c Spool(Australian mfg. Trade quality. The spool means it can have a spool gun connected) and I love it. I can tell it is a quality machine, even though the idiot operating it isn't quality.
I got it as a pack with welder, gasless wire, reg and hose.
I have been doing minor jobs with the gasless for now as my garage is full and it doesn't have power yet. The weld quality leaves a lot to be desired. 10x stronger than anything my arc could do but I'm really struggling with the settings.
It has the voltage control knob with 6 settings, and the wire feed speed which is labelled from 1 to 10, but it is analog.
All I have really figured out so far is this:
I have to find the right wire speed for correct penetration of the metal. slower is less. Faster is more.
If the wire vapourises turn down the volts. If the wire is pushing the torch away and not keeping a consistent arc, turn up the volts. If penetration is not correct, repeat process.
I'm sort of getting a feel for where the settings should be, I think. Am I using a valid process for figuring it out?
I was playing with laying welds on some 2mm? box section a couple of days ago. I found a setting that gave roughly the right penetration, and the pool was maybe 7mm wide and pretty flat. It would also blow through if I was too slow. The weld was making more of a Shhhhh noise than crackling.
If I wanted a narrower pool / bead with the same penetration, what would I have to do?
Another question. Does the 4.5kg spool happen to have capacitance due to its size?
Sometimes when I don't have the trigger pressed and I touch the wire to the work piece it makes a single spark.
One last question. A lot of the nozzles I see look shiny / chrome, like the one used as a logo for this site. Mine seems to be made of thick copper. I'm not complaining. It's good and seems to be pretty much indestructible. Just curious about how common that is?
