MIG weld penetration advice?

[MintKel]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on the forum and hoping for some advice on penetration.

So where to start.. I'm currently welding for a company and they have agreed to put me through a coded weld test end of next month, which I have never done.

The test is a fillet weld on 10mm mild steel, with a 6-8mm leg length (not sure yet) with a stop start in the middle. The welder I'm using is an old 350 amp machine but the voltage reader is faulty, so I have to use the amperage gauge. I personally like to weld at around 270 amps on 15mm steel and thicker stuff. The wire is 1mm diameter and we use cougar 5 gas (85% Argon I believe).

What I would like to know is.. Is this amperage too high to be spraying the weld on 10mm steel or would 250 amps give me sufficient penetration for a 6-8mm fillet?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I really don't want to fail the test!

Thanks

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum:

As a self taught welder I have never been through any course tests, well I think I did sometime back when dinosaurs were roaming the earth.

There will be others along soon hopefully who can advise better than me on test conditions/welding.

Good luck with the course.

 

[MintKel]

Thanks cumbriasteve!

 

[Richard.]

Those sort of thicknesses and currents are not what I get involved with now (thank god)
If you can achieve a decent 6-8 MM. fillet on 15mm thick plate with those current settings then I see no reason why it won't work on 10mm. Buy a welders gage and practice the joint then measure them up.