Mig Novice

[Parm]

Ok next problem folks,

Gotta a second hand clarke 100e

Got a brand new bottle of pub co2 and a five kg roll of 0.8 wire. Set it all up so fire feeds nice and gas flow of 9 litres per minute.

Here comes the problem, when I try to weld wire just sticks to the tip.

Wire feed is at 6 and power settings are for 3mm plate, which is what I have

What am I doing wrong?

 

[mike 109444]

Could be your wire feed rate is to low and you are getting burn back.
1 Wire feeds out
2 wire hits work
3 acr strikes
4 not enough wire going into weld pool so arc is elongated and burns back to tip
5 wire now molten just outside til and sticks to the copper of tip.
6 now it's bird nest or if rollers set correct a bit of slippage and thus no feed.
With the wire feed Try working form to fast downward rather than to slow and up wards as you will feel the "to fast" as the wire will push the torch back. also get the gap between shroud and work piece correct.

 

[Parm]

O

Could be your wire feed rate is to low and you are getting burn back.
1 Wire feeds out
2 wire hits work
3 acr strikes
4 not enough wire going into weld pool so arc is elongated and burns back to tip
5 wire now molten just outside til and sticks to the copper of tip.
6 now it's bird nest or if rollers set correct a bit of slippage and thus no feed.
With the wire feed Try working form to fast downward rather than to slow and up wards as you will feel the "to fast" as the wire will push the torch back. also get the gap between shroud and work piece correct.

k will try tommorow and report back

 

[Wallace]

This may sound daft but if you have a head mounted mask, sit close to the machine and with one hand on the wirefeed control adjust the wirefeed up and down whilst welding on a piece of scrap until you get the sound of bacon frying in a hot pan!

 

[Parm]

Ok got it to work now after changing the reg and new gas line which were leaking like a sieve!!

Got it set for 3mm which is all that I have and all seems to work well with wire feed at 4, according to the instructions it should be set at 8

Noise is more bacon frying in a pan of popping candy, not quite as smooth as it should be, neither are my first ever welds, howver there is quite good penetration.

I will get some more metal, have another go and report back

 

[mike 109444]

CO2 (which is what I use for car bodywork!) will pop a bit and give more splatter than Ar/CO2 mix so don't expect quite the same looking or sounding welds as those using mix.

 

[Parm]

CO2 (which is what I use for car bodywork!) will pop a bit and give more splatter than Ar/CO2 mix so don't expect quite the same looking or sounding welds as those using mix.

Gotta say spatter was very minimal and I was quite chuffed with my first ever go at mig, just need to practice some more and play around with settings and rate at which torch is moved along

If welds are ok I can live with the noise