Spattery, low penetration or blowing thorugh

[PhilibusMo]

I have a Clarke 135TE with a CO2 welding bottle trying to do some simple patches in the boot of my 83 Fiesta. I have until 4th April, when it is booked to be resprayed. The problem I am having at the moment is all my welds are either really spattery and with little to no penetration, or they just blow straight through. I have literally no idea what I am doing wrong as I have read through many threads and the tutorials on this site. I am holding the tip at about a 20 degree angle a few mm away from the metal and I have tried adjusting the power, wire speed, gas flow and the earthing point all to no avail. I am running out of ideas, and time.
Here are a couple of pictures of my mucking around trying to find a good setting earlier:

Thanks in advance for any help.
Phil.

 

[tayash]

Hi there. A little more information please. What setting do you have your machine on. (power, wire size, and wire speed). How old is the machine(Could it do with a service?e.g tip,shroud,wire liner, clean rollers.)

i am a complete novice but some of your welds look a little errartic, Is your roller on the mig turned to 0.6 or 0.8 and is this correct for the wire size you are using? or possibly your wire speed is a little high so it bounces on the sheet metal.
Also i think there might be a gas issue as some of the welds look quite porous.
I may be really wrong but someone on here will know.

I've followed a lot of advice from these guys and have managed to turn out some half decent welds. Your welding thin material so the stop start or pulse welding technique really comes into its own.

Good luck, I'm sure someone will guide you the right way.

 

[Justme]

Try using two hands to hold the torch.

 

[PhilibusMo]

I am using both hands, the erattic looking ones are where I am trying to weave to stop it blowing through, but it hasn't really been working, if I make the weaves any smaller then it blows through.
Most of those welds are on the setting 1 Maximum, if I uses 1 minimum then the welds are so pathetic they wouldn't hold a thing. I'm not sure on the wire, I am just using what came with the welder (it is quite new).
I will go have a check.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Get some thicker steel to practice on!
That stuff looks like tin foil and will be a pain in the arris to learn on, as you're finding out.
Get some steel about 2mm thick and run bead after bead using different power settings to get a feel for how machine and technique adjustments affect the welds.

 

[GrahamGKD]

Just a thought - how do the settings on the Clarke machines work - is it 1 min, 1 max, 2 min, 2 max etc. or 1 min, 2 min, 3 min..... 1 max, 2 max, 3 max - if it were the latter (like on my Portamig) then you might be jumping over a number of settings? I tried to download a manual but I couldn't get it to work.

Have you tried getting the machine set up on some slightly more forgiving thicker material first?

 

[Wozzaaah]

Graham, you may well have the answer! According to the manual the settings are 1 min, 2 min, 1 max, 2 max.

 

[tayash]

Again i might be wrong but weaving will only increase the heat and increase the chance of blow through. Stop, start on thin stuff is the only way.. Mod feel free to correct this post if i'm wrong!

 

[bigbadbugga]

Again i might be wrong but weaving will only increase the heat and increase the chance of blow through. Stop, start on thin stuff is the only way.. Mod feel free to correct this post if i'm wrong!

WHS, a series of overlapping spot welds with half a second between them (until red fades) is really the only way on thin sheet like that.

This method if fairly forgiving of settings too, as you can control the heat with the length of time you weld for on each spot.

Try it on some scrap first joining two pieces.

 

[PhilibusMo]

Thanks for that, I thought the power settings were 1min 1max 2min 2max, but you were right, 2min is less powerful than 1max. I have also been doing the small welds too and it is all coming out nicely now. I will have a practice tomorrow on as much scrap as I can lay my hands on and then a practice at pool welding before I weld on my battery tray.
Thanks very much, I now feel far more confident to carry on with the project.
Phil.

 

[shenion]

If you want to do a continuous weld and not blow through, move faster but smoothly.

looks like you were weaving too much and too fast (skipping center.)

I did not see what wire size you were using. 0.6mm really makes it easier as there is less heat.