mma inverter

[clem dog]

When i came home today my dad had a new toy for me to play with. Not as much new as new to us. This came from a cousin who apparently bought it to do a small job but discovered it kept blowing the small 13 amp fuse in the plug he had fitted when he turned the welder up above 120 amps, Therefore he thought the set was faulty and my dad gave him a "token gesture" for the welder

I tried a few beads on it but all I had was a 6013 4mm rod which, in my opinion would have been better suited to upwards on 200 amps.

I have never done a lot of welding with a dc welder before and was very impressed with the arc starting abilities of the set.

I only tried one rod because I was afraid of blowing the fuse in the plug, but i took a few pics just to show you how terrible i really am.

Comments please (and be kind!)

 

[weldingscotty803]

dont look too bad, ive seen worse,
try doing it with a full rod for each bead. maybe 10- 20 rods later you might be a bit more confident.
try altering the settings too. start at about 100amp then move up in 5 amp increments up to about 140. use 1 rod on each setting just to get to know the settings etc

 

[simon718]

i was gonna buy the slightly bigger brother of that, which was advertised as a scratch start tig, glad i went for the weldequip option now still, im sure its a nice little stick box mate, miles better than my powercraft

 

[clem dog]

dont look too bad, ive seen worse,
try doing it with a full rod for each bead. maybe 10- 20 rods later you might be a bit more confident.
try altering the settings too. start at about 100amp then move up in 5 amp increments up to about 140. use 1 rod on each setting just to get to know the settings etc

I was using the set at about 100 amps there and the only way i could get enough heat into the work was to weave a bit. When i was running the straight beads the arc length was hard to control as the deposited material built up to touch the rod and i had to lift a bit to stop the rod sticking.

On one bead i angled the rod into the work a bit and this helped me as the pool seemed to be blown back a bit from the rod but the penetration seemed to be worse.
Any ideas? Gareth

 

[simon718]

100amp is lowish for a 3.2 never mind a 4mm rod mate have you no smaller rods to try it with?

 

[clem dog]

Unfortunately Si thats all that was available for me tonight. I think they would be best run at about 170/180 amps and higher if you can, but thats my opinion.

Also is it just me or does there seem to be a lot of spatter with an inverter or would that be on account of the low amps?

 

[simon718]

low amps probably mate, if you like ill send you up a handfull of 2.5mm rods to try it with? DC should have less spatter than AC, what polarity were you using?

 

[Paul.]

Unfortunately Si thats all that was available for me tonight. I think they would be best run at about 170/180 amps and higher if you can, but thats my opinion.

Also is it just me or does there seem to be a lot of spatter with an inverter or would that be on account of the low amps?

Inverters are very smooth, your spatter is caused by having to hold an excessively open arc to keep the arc going, as simon says your amps are far too low for a 4mm electrode, get some 2.5mm E6013's run them at about 70 to 80 amps, keep a tight arc or touch weld with them, you probably wont notice any difference with polarity on a rutile electrode, but read the manufacturers recommendations on the pack,

 

[clem dog]

I think th rod was in the positive terminal on the welder but not sure. would that make an awful difference? want to get better at this as i intend to make roof trusses for a garage out of rsj and dont want trely on the old boy! Plus i have gates to make for a cattle house and i need to justify a mig welder that im currently saving for. Unless i can get weldequip to do a good deal for me sooner