Newish to MIG

[dave1888]

I have just started using my Berlan BMIG140 in anger, i paid £50 for it a few years ago and taken a Welding course in 2010. Anyway i have been playing around with the settings on the machine to see what it does and to be honest i dont know if I'm setting the thing up right or not. By looking at the pictures can anyone give me a guide as to what I should set the machine at for welding 1.5mm to 2mm steel tube and plate.

I have calculated the wire speed as follows, 4 = 1.5m, 6 = 2m, 8 = 3m and 10 = 5.7m per minute.

 

[mike 109444]

No ideal as to the settings for your welder But you might want to put a meter on it to figure which of the switch setting are which, namley Low = ,Med = .High = Highest =. Then you can practice on some scrap metal of the thickness you mentioned. From that you should be able to judge the penitration of the welder and make up a chart such as Med + feed 4 = 1.5mm and so on. As most welders differ between manufactures it would be difficult to get the correct settings streight off. Just try and post pics, then menbers on here will guide you as to "power to low" or "wire feed to fast" ect

 

[dave1888]

Done some sample welding tonight with various settings. This is what I acheived. I use 0.6mm wire.

Front side

Rear side

1.6 tube front

Rear

Sorry for the photo's being a bit blurry.

 

[Chickenjohn]

Welds look very good to me for a beginner!

It is possible that the power settings on your welder go up in ascending order of power like this :-

1 min
2 min
1 max
2 max

That is certainly how it seems to work on my Clarke, 1 max is hotter than 2 min.

 

[Iain Westland]

yea, thats the way my Clarke worked as well John.

 

[s410man]

when you say you have claculated the wire speed do you mean you have used a internet chart or a stopwatch

if a chart then it may be off but they still look great welds

could almost be over penetration but the pic is a bit blurry

 

[dave1888]

I calculated the wire speed by pressing the trigger and counting 10 seconds then multiplying by 6 to get the per minute speed.