Quick tips for a noob, pls.

[shtu]

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?

 

[BrokenBiker]

got any pics?

push is the general consensus for mig. The arc preheats the front of the puddle allowing the weld to sink in better.

your machine should handle 2mm with ease on full settings. Realistically you are looking at i think 135ish amps for any length of time which is over 3mm capability.

 

[Richiew]

Try upping the wire speed a bit. I used to run it about halfway between six and seven.
You can try slowing down your torch travel speed if you aren't getting enough penetration. That will put more heat into the weld. Most beginners move the torch too fast. Get some pics up so we can have a proper look.

 

[shtu]

Oh hi Richie.

I'll give that a shot. It's got to be me, the machine's obviously spot-on. If you looked at the welds from the top you'd think "perfect" (or "OK" at least...), it's just when you look at the back the weld hasn't penetrated through.

 

[shtu]

Ok, here's the very first welds laid, http://imgur.com/zcxa20t

As you can see, the back of the material shows the scale burning off, http://imgur.com/SbIijVu

That I could get pretty consistently.

Now, I've upped the wire speed, and just seem to get a bigger, fatter "slug" of weld on top, although the weld is now making the classic "frying bacon" sound, http://imgur.com/axHeL3i

The rear of these look much the same, http://imgur.com/Qs3sUvA

You can see I was cutting slots with a 1mm disc, and then welding over. Slowing my travel speed now means I can blow the metal out of those, so I guess it's balancing the power\feed\travel speed for that.

In every weld, the underside of the material was glowing bright orange. Sorting out a flowmeter next, though I've played with the gas up\down and didn't get much difference.

 

[shtu]

Right, sorted out a flowmeter after some fiddling with different thread sizes, running at about 10-11 litres\minute.

Definitely moving too fast, if I slow right down the weld stops looking so much like a "slug" on top of the metal, and starts to sink in, as it were. All I have to do now is move a touch faster, so I don't blow holes straight through.

 

[chunkolini]

Try posting your photos o the forum rather than using a hosting service, much easier for us nosy parkers to see what you are up to.

 

[BrokenBiker]

^^^^ very good advice, most of us tend not to click on links to other hosts, and photobucket is just as bad with embedding. I used to use it a lot but after trying to view my own post on another computer I switched to uploading direct to the forum

 

[shtu]

OK, I'll put the next lot on here.

I've had a play tonight, and noticed I was getting a better weld on one of the now-bent bits of angle i've been using. Guess I should have read the tutorials more thoroughly...

"a small gap or perhaps between 1/2 the thickness of the steel can be useful on steel thickness 2mm or above."

Guess who's been butting the metal tight. Need more scrap steel, then I'll try a gap. I'm getting closer.

 

[Jan]

When hosting on photobucket you can display the pic(s) in the response by looking at it/them in full size and then simply left clicking on the 'IMG' link box on the right of the screen to copy the URL. Now use the 'Link' option above and simply paste the link into the box and then left click 'Insert'. Job done.