Hi,
First off, many thanks to member Richiew for selling me an excellent little welder.
(Clarke 151TE)
I've finally got around to giving it a bash, on some 2-2.5mm thick angle, starting out by leaving it exactly as demo'd on 3mm box - full power, 0.8 wire, wire speed 6-ish, 5% Argon mix gas.
Overall, quite pleased with my first efforts. Fairly even beads, no major grief. The only thing I seem to be lacking is penetration into the metal, even leaving a c. 1mm gap between pieces doesn't seem to get the weld fully through the material. There's about 1 noticeable POP a second while welding, but doesn't seem to be any unevenness in the bead that isn't down to me being a bit inconsistent.
Laying beads flat onto solid metal shows a "shadow" of the weld on the reverse side, but no actual bead.
I've had a play about with power (down) and speed (down), and get similar results, a weld that looks good, maybe a bit tall but not bad, but doesn't seem to penetrate far enough.
So, which direction should I be going? Power's already full up, wire speed seems pretty close. Would a lack of gas flow cause this? Moving too fast?
First off, many thanks to member Richiew for selling me an excellent little welder.

I've finally got around to giving it a bash, on some 2-2.5mm thick angle, starting out by leaving it exactly as demo'd on 3mm box - full power, 0.8 wire, wire speed 6-ish, 5% Argon mix gas.
Overall, quite pleased with my first efforts. Fairly even beads, no major grief. The only thing I seem to be lacking is penetration into the metal, even leaving a c. 1mm gap between pieces doesn't seem to get the weld fully through the material. There's about 1 noticeable POP a second while welding, but doesn't seem to be any unevenness in the bead that isn't down to me being a bit inconsistent.
Laying beads flat onto solid metal shows a "shadow" of the weld on the reverse side, but no actual bead.
I've had a play about with power (down) and speed (down), and get similar results, a weld that looks good, maybe a bit tall but not bad, but doesn't seem to penetrate far enough.
So, which direction should I be going? Power's already full up, wire speed seems pretty close. Would a lack of gas flow cause this? Moving too fast?