Newbie's actual first welds.....crap

[slurrymonster]

Hi everyone.

I'm using a Clarke 160TM (badly so far!)

I'm just trying to figure out how this MIG welding works, I've read some useful stuff on here but I just wanted some diagnosis of my first welds.

I'm using clarke 0.8mm welding wire and the scrap pieces are various thicknesses.

The decent-ish looking welds are some TIG I was doing previously.

I seem to be getting a lot of burn-back and these ball things.

Please help me diagnose my crapness!

Cheers

Luke

 

[cumbriasteve]

I think it is all down to wire speed and a little bit down to power. Burnback is usually too slow on the wire feed...up the speed until you feel it pushing the torch away from the steel then back it off slowly.
If you have a dual purpose MIG..gas and gasless make sure the polarity is correct, disty linings don't help either, neither does any rust on the wire...not saying you have either but worth mentioning.

 

[cresad67]

Hi

By the looks of it you need to have a play with the wire speed and power settings depending which pic you look at. eg. pic 3, more power needed - no penatration.

Adam

 

[Lewis Medlock]

eg. pic 3, more power needed - no penatration.

F£&k my old boots, how thick is the plate in pic 3??? That would be a great weld on thinner steel

All the best, Jim

 

[cumbriasteve]

Also..you have a fair bit of soot around.. insufficient gas flow? should be set at about 10 if your regulator is accurate, you should be able to feel it gently on the face and hear it.. careful you dont send a foot of wire down your ear canal..tends to sting a little.

 

[Sparkey]

Also..you have a fair bit of soot around.. insufficient gas flow? should be set at about 10 if your regulator is accurate, you should be able to feel it gently on the face and hear it.. careful you dont send a foot of wire down your ear canal..tends to sting a little.

EH? WHAT DID YOU SAY???
Hehe, yeah what settings are you on? Shielding gas flow should be around 10 liter per minute (lpm) What kinda gas are you using btw?

 

[slurrymonster]

F£&k my old boots, how thick is the plate in pic 3??? That would be a great weld on thinner steel

All the best, Jim

It's probably about 12mm, I thought it might be good for laying down some welds.....maybe a little too thick then?

Also..you have a fair bit of soot around.. insufficient gas flow? should be set at about 10 if your regulator is accurate, you should be able to feel it gently on the face and hear it.. careful you dont send a foot of wire down your ear canal..tends to sting a little.

The regulator I've got has only got the one gauge for the bottle pressure. I'm going to get one of those flow meters which goes on the end of the torch from weldequip. Hopefully that should help as I've got no idea at the moment. I'll try the face welding tip though lol

EH? WHAT DID YOU SAY???
Hehe, yeah what settings are you on? Shielding gas flow should be around 10 liter per minute (lpm) What kinda gas are you using btw?

I'm using BOC argoshield light.

Thanks for all the advice. As for settings, theres three things I can change on the welder, a voltage type adjustment which has three positions and a min/max switch and I'm set to 2 min and also a wire speed which goes 1 -10 and I'm on about 5-6 at the moment.

Thanks

Luke

 

[cumbriasteve]

The problem with wire speed setting is that it may not be running at setting 6 if the rollers are dirty and slipping or badly adjusted, or it is having to push itself through dirt in the liner...a blast through with compressed air sometimes clears a lot of dust out.

 

[slurrymonster]

The problem with wire speed setting is that it may not be running at setting 6 if the rollers are dirty and slipping or badly adjusted, or it is having to push itself through dirt in the liner...a blast through with compressed air sometimes clears a lot of dust out.

I think I set them up hastily so I will have a better go at getting the tension right. It did seem that the wire might have been jerking a bit...

 

[slurrymonster]

So I took the wire feed mechanism apart and it turns out I was using the wrong tip. The one I had installed said 11-23 on it and another one in the box had 0.8 on. Since I'm using 0.8 mm wire I figured the 0.8 tip was probably the one for me. The wire feed is much smoother now. I had another crack at some welds.

Front

Rear

Front

Rear (weld is by the upright with the hole in it)

Front

(still the front - actually welded these two together!)

Rear

And finally one of my regulator - in the current absence of a torch gauge I've got it wide open!

I'm worried about the brown charring on the welds. I'm not cleaning the metal before I weld though.

 

[overload]

Looking at the last pictures, I would leave the machine settings alone for now and just concentrate on the welding.
Metal preparation i.e cleaning etc should be done before you start to weld and try to be consistent on moving the torch as you weld.
You may also need to change your position of how you hold the torch and looking at the weld the same time. It's very important you see what you are doing when welding!