I bought a Mig welder from Trade Tools Direct (Australian outlet) in the week and with the help of this forum started to teach myself to weld with it.
I started off with gasless wire (0.8) as I didn't want the added expense of getting a large cylinder but it soon became apparent that while my welds were quite acceptable when practicing on a piece of 1mm steel, it was quite a different matter when welding the body of my 30yr old VW Kombi van which I am restoring. Because the bodywork was so thin in some areas and the welder was doing more cutting than welding I went along to BOC and got a cylinder of Argoshield Lite and some new wire (0.8).
I couldn't believe the difference.......my welds were great if I say so myself. After a bit of fiddling with the settings all was well and my welds had great penetration, flow etc. That was until I started practicing joints. I made a series of saw cuts in some 1mm steel plate and set about welding them back up. The gap was the width of the metal blade in the jig saw, about 1mm. As soon as I started the welder began blowing holes in the edges rather than bridging the gap. I adjusted the settings again and again for a good hour but no matter how I set the wire speed, gas delivery or power it still made holes. The only way I got it welded together was on the lowest power setting together with almost the lowest wire speed and gas around 20 (whatever the gas flow measurment is - I'm not in front of it) per minute, and making multiple passes to fill in the holes made on the first pass.
I can weld on the plate at these settings fine, I have the hang of getting the weld pool going and then moving it along at an even rate for as long as I like resulting in great looking welds with good penetration, the problem comes as soon as I try to weld two things together.........HELP !
I started off with gasless wire (0.8) as I didn't want the added expense of getting a large cylinder but it soon became apparent that while my welds were quite acceptable when practicing on a piece of 1mm steel, it was quite a different matter when welding the body of my 30yr old VW Kombi van which I am restoring. Because the bodywork was so thin in some areas and the welder was doing more cutting than welding I went along to BOC and got a cylinder of Argoshield Lite and some new wire (0.8).
I couldn't believe the difference.......my welds were great if I say so myself. After a bit of fiddling with the settings all was well and my welds had great penetration, flow etc. That was until I started practicing joints. I made a series of saw cuts in some 1mm steel plate and set about welding them back up. The gap was the width of the metal blade in the jig saw, about 1mm. As soon as I started the welder began blowing holes in the edges rather than bridging the gap. I adjusted the settings again and again for a good hour but no matter how I set the wire speed, gas delivery or power it still made holes. The only way I got it welded together was on the lowest power setting together with almost the lowest wire speed and gas around 20 (whatever the gas flow measurment is - I'm not in front of it) per minute, and making multiple passes to fill in the holes made on the first pass.
I can weld on the plate at these settings fine, I have the hang of getting the weld pool going and then moving it along at an even rate for as long as I like resulting in great looking welds with good penetration, the problem comes as soon as I try to weld two things together.........HELP !