Portamig 185 instructions on VOLTS

[Weldinator]

HI,

Im having a little trouble finding out what fine and coarse volts to use for 0.8 and 1mm steel thickness steel.

Iv done the mig calculator but that says nothing about the fine and coarse volts and the instructions for the Portamig are pretty useless to be honest, not very clear.

Can anyone advise me on what fine and coarse volts are for what steel thickness etc ?

I just need to know the basics about the volts for ease of use and save time.

Cheers.

 

[George641]

Course 1 Fine 1 for paper like metal
Course 2 fine 6 for as thick as you think it will do
You should be able to work the rest out having a play

 

[Weldinator]

Is the first one you posted good for 0.8 or is that for finer thickness steel ?

So i take it as, coarse 1 fine 2 would be for 1mm ish ?

TBH id rather just rev and rib without having to keep testing them all, i have a fair amount to do without testing it. The instructions should imo have the settings shown for each type of thickness above and more. The work im starting with is lap welds on the above thicknesses.

I just need an around about figure as i know that finer tuning might be needed.

 

[cumbriasteve]

I have the Portamig 235 and to be honest I found any written guides pretty useless, the settings certainly did not turn out right for my machine.

Afraid it is practice and learn your machine, the good news is it does not take long and you tend to be able to flick a switch fast to a setting without thinking about it after a while....I weld a large range of thicknesses and must change my settings several times an hour...I don;t even know I am doing it now.

0.8 wire is normally used for the thicker range of materials, 0.6 being the most common for car thickness.

 

[Luke]

Start on 1 1 and see what happens? That's where I'd start for 1mm.

I'd be using 0.6mm wire for that sort of thickness as well.

 

[michael1703]

for 0.8 steel, fit 0.6 wire, coarse 1, fine 1

This is only ok if its paper thin and you can have a slow travel speed to get the penetration.

get plenty of scrap and get some practice welds and jot down the settings

 

[michael1703]

p.s. you need a bit more tension on the wire feed on 0.6 on low amps too

 

[Weldinator]

Thanks for the advice.

BTW i meant 0.8 steel thickness not wire thickness, i already have the 0.6 wire for this job.

Ok then ill get some practice in on Friday night, it will be my first time use on my new machine. Then i will do the cars welding on Saturday.

Its funny how each machine works differently to another and i suppose it all depends on the electric currents etc as well.

Cheers.

 

[Wozzaaah]

You're thinking way too much about this. Just get on and play with it!

Let us know how you get on and show us some pics of your results.

 

[gavuk]

This is from my thermal arc ,may give you some clues ,although I'm not sure of the portamigs voltage and wire speed,in comparrison ,

 

[Weldinator]

Great thanks, i will post some pics of the job when iv finished it. Ill post them on my other thread from when i used the hired welder.

Thanks for all the guidance on where i should start with the volts etc.

 

[Weldinator]

Portamig practice welds

Here are my better practice welds. I did some welding on the car already and they are a little high but has good penetration.

I found that i was no close enough even though i set the wire length at the recommended length the forum advises. So when i got really close these are the welds i managed to do.

The first pic is the welding i tried with 3mm onto 1mm steel and tbh i think they are good ones.

Let me know what you all think of my welds now ?

Cheers.

 

[Weldinator]

Any thoughts on my recent welds ?

 

[Weldinator]

Anyone ?

 

[keith19]

Hi Weldinator,

Probably nobody has posted comments because there's not a great deal to point out and give any help on.

The top pic welds look generally okay for joining 3 mm onto 1 mm (a curious combination to start practice with, I must say), apart from the end weld on your left-hand side as you view the pic; this weld on the curve is clinging to the top 3 mm sheet, and has hardly touched or penetrated the bottom sheet. The 2nd pic down confirms this. You have to watch this on curves especially when welding thick to thin, the curve subtly changes the torch angle and you have to change with it, or the arc just flares across to the thickest metal.

3rd pic down is well good enough where the welds are continuous; the breaks might be frowned upon in MOT repairs these days, depending who looks at it.

4th pic welds again look quite reasonable, as do those in pic 5. Some might say that penetration is not brilliant in some of the pics, but we are talking bodywork thickness here, so it's not critical, and the line between excellent pen and blow-through on 1 mm metal is very thin indeed.

If these are some of your first welds with the Portamig they are pretty good, partly due to your good quality machine, no doubt. Get in plenty of practice in all positions before following them up with the real thing in the same positions on the car. It's a good start, anyway, so well done so far!

 

[Cortina Mungo]

Those look ok to me. I also have a portamig 185 and use it on my resto project. I too found the portamig instructions left something to be desired. I am welding about 1mm thick steel and 0.6 wire.

 

[Weldinator]

Thanks guys :-)

Yeah i know the curve in the 3mm has not touched the sides so to speak and i have practiced with a hired welder before i bought this one but these welds are my first with the Portamig welder and i did start with the 1mm to 1mm first but i posted the 3mm to 1mm first, sorry.

I thought that the 1mm to 1mm welds had burned the edges of the top layer too much ?

I did practiced with the 3mm to 1mm as thats what i should be welding on my project car, ill be welding some strength plates in.

I have already done some welding on the car and penetration is about the same as the above pictures. This car had spot welded seams anyway so im sure the mot tester wont mind a little break in the welds even though i have fully welded along the lines in side the car, however. The problem i had was welding under the car, for some reason it would not weld very well even though i tried to keep the same distance and tech. I can only have the car a certain height due to axle stands so room is limited and my oh my do i hate welding masks with a passion. So there are a few breaks in the welds on show but i think ill use sealant to hide them.

Also i dont have much scrap steel to practice more on in different positions and the car has some positions that i cant really do apart from on the car its self.

 

[keith19]

I'd agree fully that welding under the car in a d-i-y situation is no fun. I've always found contamination of the metal or weld area, or back of the weld area, is the biggest problem. Trying to clean up real good with only an inspection lamp is difficult; times I've thought I'd got it clean when it wasn't, and it's only after you start to weld you find it isn't. I must say I found a 500 watt halogen lamp a good investment for getting the metal clean in difficult areas. The heat coming off it is nice is cold weather, too.

 

[matt1978]

What you musn't do though guys is confuse a instruction manual for the machine with a guide to mig welding.

I have never seen a Portamig instruction manual before, but it doesn't mean that its a bad manual just because it doesn't state what voltage settings are good for welding which thickness of material.

The power settings would be different depending on what wire diameter, sheilding gas, material, joint configuration, welding position etc etc