New welder... new welds

[scotto75]

Hi there,

I've recently changed my welder. Was originally using a Sureweld Monomig 101 but with little success on anything over 1.5mm. I now have a Clarke 100EN Turbo and have had to start over again with the settings using 2mm stuff. I've finally got the welder behaving, having replaced the wire liner, swan neck, tips, shroud, earth cable and clamp, but could use some pointers as to what I may be doing wrong or could do better.

The below pics are of a butt weld on 2mm steel. I had the power on the highest setting, 2 MAX, and started with the wire feed on 7, and run a few beads on the sheet as I lowered it until I got a nice sound. I ended up with a WFS of 3. I started on the right and pushed the weld using a slight angle to the right but with the neck 90 degrees to the work piece. The tip was a couple of mm inside the shroud, and the CO2 gas was set to 15lpm.

I have a few of questions....

1 - How does it look? Does it look like it's penetrating properly? I beat it pretty hard with a club hammer and it didn't break.

2 - When it was cooling, there was a pinging sound with little bits flying off. Is this normal? Not sure if the gas is too high and this is causing air bubbles?

3 - When I was welding I was getting a nice sizzle, but the sound would almost stop for a second every now and then. The weld and puddle didn't seem affected when the sound changed. What would this mean?

4 - I have been using a circular motion and was moving faster than I am used to. The weld looks a little wide. Should I try using 0.6mm wire on a lower setting, or is using 0.8mm on 2mm the best way to go?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am teaching myself and have no other place to go for advice. All constructive criticisms are welcome!

 

[Sparkey]

Hello Scott!

1. It looks like the setting is a bit too high for your wirespeed, the beads are a bit too flat. At some spots it's even penetrating too much.
2. The pinging sound is normal it means that the material is cooling down after being welded. Your gas flow rate should be around 10 lpm for indoor use. (liters per minute)
3. I'm not sure about this but the sound changes when you move the torch slower or faster, i'm sure one of our more experienced members know...
4. Don't weave when your getting started like this, you will smear your weldpool around and it does NOT make your beads any stronger.
0.8 wire is fine for this...
Try welding a bit more, and not only flat like this, have a play with the new kit!
Don't worry there are never stupid questions, only stupid answers!
Hope this helps!

 

[Kent]

Don't weave unless you have to! Turn the gas down the weld looks a little cooked but it's hard to say is it at all porous if you grind it down?

 

[scotto75]

Thanks for the quick responses.

Sparkey - your advice is appreciated. The manual says I can also use the next lowest setting, 2 MIN with 0.8mm on 2mm steel, so I will try tonight with a lower gas flow and not using any weaving. I'll give it a few beads and try to report on my progress with a couple of pics.

Kent - I'm not sure about porosity. I'll get the grinder out and take a pic.

Thanks again!

 

[scotto75]

Just To clarify, when do you weave?

Welding thicker to thinner I guess?

 

[Kent]

Just To clarify, when do you weave?

Welding thicker to thinner I guess?

Nope. Only to fill a bigger space say a big open gap. Or to control a vertical etc
Weaving spreads the heat and is harder to get as good a penetration on thicker stuff as the arc is all over the shop
Getting stuff to hot increases the heat effected zone and can lead to failure in this very area just off the weld. Over cooking a weld can also create problems within the weld itself as it's still cooling after the shielding has gone

 

[scotto75]

That's great, thanks Kent.

Well, I got an hour in tonight to have another go. First, here's a pic of the weld I posted above having been grinded back.

I did a few passes with the grinder and it looks pretty solid inside.

I also had a go changing the powers setting down to 2 MIN, the gas reduced to 10lpm and didn't weave... and this is the result on a sheet of 2mm steel with 0.8mm wire (ignore the ones at the top of image!).

I still had the wire speed on 3, but took my time pushing the pool from right to left. It sounded and looked a lot better, so keeping the everything the same I tried a butt weld to compare with the one I did above on 2 MAX.

The first one on the right went okay, but the rest I struggled with. They didn't seem to penetrate enough. I had to get the torch close to the puddle and kept getting the wire to stick to the tip. Half way I also had a problem with the wire feeder.

It feels like it's a progression, but not sure why the welds on the sheet are better than the one on two separate sheets?

 

[scotto75]

Just reread what I wrote above and it doesn't make much sense. What I meant to say was......

Why would I be able to lay some okay welds on a 2mm sheet, but then have trouble welding two 2mm sheets together, even though the settings have not changed?

(I think that makes more sense!)

 

[Sparkey]

Just reread what I wrote above and it doesn't make much sense. What I meant to say was......

Why would I be able to lay some okay welds on a 2mm sheet, but then have trouble welding two 2mm sheets together, even though the settings have not changed?

(I think that makes more sense!)

Haha that's simple Scott! It's because you change the welding position! The beads still look a bit "puffy" to me but that's maybe because you took your time...try to move the torch a bit faster maybe? Anyhoo, just continue to play with the kit it will be a great practise for you and you will become better and better every time!

 

[Kent]

Travel speed torch angle and where your feeding the wire into the puddle.
If your bang up front with a correct speed of travel I recon they would all improve ( just a guess at what's occurring)
Feeding too far back from the leading edge will tend to pile the weld up
To demonstrate this try a drag angle keeping on the very leading edge on the same settings
My WAG is you will then start chasing a keyhole and blowing through
Angle of dangle has a big effect! Go have s play on a big pad of beads with it and forget the joints- just fill the pad like a big metal beer mat of neatly aligned beads ( starting on the outside and working in)

 

[Sparkey]

Travel speed torch angle and where your feeding the wire into the puddle.
If your bang up front with a correct speed of travel I recon they would all improve ( just a guess at what's occurring)
Feeding too far back from the leading edge will tend to pile the weld up
To demonstrate this try a drag angle keeping on the very leading edge on the same settings
My WAG is you will then start chasing a keyhole and blowing through
Angle of dangle has a big effect! Go have s play on a big pad of beads with it and forget the joints- just fill the pad like a big metal beer mat of neatly aligned beads ( starting on the outside and working in)

Hehe! angle of dangle!
It should look a bit like this:

 

[Kent]

Yeah

 

[scotto75]

Thanks for coming back to me again guys. I'm super keen to get cracking on with the project I have, and the reason I'm teaching myself to weld, but I'm not going to touch anything until I'm 100% confident in my equipment and technique. It's a little bit frustrating at times to still be fiddling around, but I am enjoying the practicing and progression, which is odd as when I was kid I hated learning anything!

Travel speed torch angle and where your feeding the wire into the puddle.
If your bang up front with a correct speed of travel I recon they would all improve ( just a guess at what's occurring)
Feeding too far back from the leading edge will tend to pile the weld up

You're right. I was probably pushing with too much of an angle. The tip is recessed into the shroud by a couple of mm and I tend to have the torch quite close to the work. Two things kept occurring, the trailing edge of the shroud kept sticking to the weld pool and the build up of weld at the leading edge was causing the wire to stick to the tip.

I'll grind the shroud back so the tip is flush with it and play about with torch angle on a bit of scrap then try the 'beed mat'. Any excuse for a beer after weld practice!

 

[Richard.]

My take on things Scott.
Your not penatrating through on the butt joints. This could be ok depends on what your after.
The pinging I'd guess is the silicon islands releasing through contraction as it cools. (Don't let it hit you in the eye)
The sound you hear is generated buy the arc transfer. (You'll be in dip transfer at those amps) by changing torch position, angle and stickout these can all change the tone of the sound. Kent makes a perfect point, the wire should always be going into the leading edge of the pool. If you've got metal running in front penetration will suffer.
The only motion you should be doing is going forward. Use your settings/travel rate to generate the bead profile. If you need more width increase voltage, more height then slow Down, more pen then up the wire feed or decrease voltage. As you've worked out all 3 need to be singing in harmony and your machine limits are what they are. 15lpm is a little high for indoors and can cause the same problems as too little gas as turbulence created by too high flow will suck in air and contaminate. Go with 10 as sparky said and you may see visual improvement straight away.

 

[scotto75]

Thanks for the advice Richard.

the wire should always be going into the leading edge of the pool. If you've got metal running in front penetration will suffer.

I've been pushing the puddle because it's allowed me to see where I'm going a little easier, but maybe I should have a go at pulling as I find my welds are better, they're just not very straight!

 

[scotto75]

If you need more width increase voltage, more height then slow Down, more pen then up the wire feed or decrease voltage.

My welds seemed a little wide and didn't penetrate enough. I've changed to the next setting down and they're not as wide and have penetrated better. Hopefully, it is now a case of honing my technique...?!

 

[Richard.]

That's text book mate well done. By taking the voltage down a notch your taking width off the arc and in turn everything becomes more narrow and focused. Penetration will then go deeper.
Most mig welders do push for exactly the reason you say. Visibility! You can push still just hang back on the angle you go in at. You don't need much of an angle 10 degree from perpendicular is ok. The trick is maintaining it which is probably where you may be struggling if things are not consistent. There is a few vids kicking about on YouTube which are always good to watch and help explain things easier than worded explainations.

 

[scotto75]

Tried again on the 2 MIN setting but just couldn't find the right power and wire combo to get a nice sounding weld. Put it up to 2 MAX and did a few runs pulling with a slighter angle and got a pretty decent sounding weld going on, then tried sticking a couple of plates together. not as good but here it is anyway...

I wobbled a bit of course getting used to looking where I'm going and the puddle at the same time.

 

[Kent]

Go off what you see more than what you hear
To be honest it takes a fair amount of experience to hear what needs changing
Don't mean don't take notice of the sound just don't go too strong on it just yet

 

[scotto75]

Thanks Kent. I tend to over analyse everything when I'm learning and not confident.