MIG settings help

[Jeddy]

G’day. Very amateur (first time) welding for a home job of an outdoor cabinet frame.

Have a Bossweld MST185, looking to determine optimal settings for MIG welding 2mm mild steel.

Using speedshield argon with 0.8mm ER70S-6 wire.

Welds so far don’t seem to be clean or consistent at all - a lot of grinding has followed… Wondering what recommendations you guys might have for settings on gas flow rate, wire speed, voltage, and wave control (main settings on welder that I can see).

Can’t seem to find a consensus on charts online, other than trial and error. Anybody have a good recommendation on a starting point for settings so I can fine tune the technique knowing I have it set right?

Thanks in advance

 

[GrahamGKD]

Hiya and welcome.

Did you look here already?

Failing that, folk will want some pictures of the results you are getting to be able to suggest which way to adjust things.

 

[Morrisman]

Cleanliness is important, so grinding before you weld to clear and mill scale or rust is essential.

And a good earth connection to bare metal too.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Using speedshield argon with 0.8mm ER70S-6 wire.

Speedshield 5/2 or Speedshield Argon?

You want Speedshield 52 - not argon.

Jack

 

[Jack Ryan]

Anybody have a good recommendation on a starting point for settings so I can fine tune the technique knowing I have it set right?

I don't know if there is a chart behind the wire feed cover but there are some suggestions in the manual - have you tried these?

It is not the usual chart, but it gets there.

For 2 mm mild steel and 0.8 mm wire:

Chart on page 29 (the green one) says (approx) 125 amps is required. That seems reasonable as a rule of thumb suggests 40 amps per mm.

The chart on page 30 says that for 125 amps, you need a voltage of 19 and a wire feed of 4 to 7. Perhaps start at 19 and 6 and trim the wire speed for effect.

Take some clear close-up pictures.

(I'm guessing you have looked at some videos and know something about cleaning, fitup, torch angle etc).

Jack