Dave Wilson
New Member
- Messages
- 2
- Location
- Southampton, UK
Well here we are another newbie with a problem, mainly me I suspect...
I've got a Portamig 185 which I've had for a smidge over 3 years, I know this because I've only recently renewed my 3 year gas bottle hire with South Coast Welding Supplies in Andover. Relevent to this is I've just had to replace the gas bottle with Argon CO2 mix (it says so on the bottle)...
Now although I'm a complete novice I have managed to fabricate a few things such as Tool Box Trolley and a Car Spit amongst other things. So the welding may not be brilliant but its solid enough, usually.
Recently I've had problems controlling the spark, getting very spattery welds that, according to the various other threads I've read, are reminiscent of using CO2 gas, especially as I'm now working towards trying to weld car body work. As a result Ive got the welder turned down to 1 Coarse, 2 Fine, on the volt settings.
Here is and example of a test piece I did earlier today, incidentally the gas regulator indicates that I have 160 bar in the bottle and the flow rate indicates 9 l/min, which drops to 7 l/min when welding, anyway here is a horrible picture which I hope you can see ok?
Along the top are some straight welds (i.e. no weaving), the weld top right with the hole in it was done at 1 Course 4 Fine.
The next down were at the same power setting, but with a side to side weave, speed wise the weld 2nd right took about 10 seconds
Along the bottom are my attempts at plug welds done in the order indicated, welder set to 1 Course, 3 Fine.
The overlap joins across the middle were done at 1 Course 3 Fine done from left to right. wire feed was a smidge over 5 for the first weld, then 6 for the next (notice some spatter to the side of the weld) then back to around 5 and a half for the last weld. To the far right you'll notice a spattery mess which was my first attempt at 1 Course 2 Fine wire speed 5, it wasn't happy...
Weld profiles are vaguely indicate on the following picture, sorry about the quality...
Incedentally I have just replaced the liner in my Parweld torch as the original was barely letting the wire through. the welding wire itself is so shiny you need sunglasses on when you access it. Also I've been careful not to over tighten the wire feed or the spool brake, all in an attempt to ensure constant wire feed, though I'm not convinced this is the case as I can feel the torch almost twitching in my hand? Oh yes and the arc length is tight, so tight that the shroud is occasionally touching the weld.
Hit me!
I've got a Portamig 185 which I've had for a smidge over 3 years, I know this because I've only recently renewed my 3 year gas bottle hire with South Coast Welding Supplies in Andover. Relevent to this is I've just had to replace the gas bottle with Argon CO2 mix (it says so on the bottle)...
Now although I'm a complete novice I have managed to fabricate a few things such as Tool Box Trolley and a Car Spit amongst other things. So the welding may not be brilliant but its solid enough, usually.
Recently I've had problems controlling the spark, getting very spattery welds that, according to the various other threads I've read, are reminiscent of using CO2 gas, especially as I'm now working towards trying to weld car body work. As a result Ive got the welder turned down to 1 Coarse, 2 Fine, on the volt settings.
Here is and example of a test piece I did earlier today, incidentally the gas regulator indicates that I have 160 bar in the bottle and the flow rate indicates 9 l/min, which drops to 7 l/min when welding, anyway here is a horrible picture which I hope you can see ok?
Along the top are some straight welds (i.e. no weaving), the weld top right with the hole in it was done at 1 Course 4 Fine.
The next down were at the same power setting, but with a side to side weave, speed wise the weld 2nd right took about 10 seconds
Along the bottom are my attempts at plug welds done in the order indicated, welder set to 1 Course, 3 Fine.
The overlap joins across the middle were done at 1 Course 3 Fine done from left to right. wire feed was a smidge over 5 for the first weld, then 6 for the next (notice some spatter to the side of the weld) then back to around 5 and a half for the last weld. To the far right you'll notice a spattery mess which was my first attempt at 1 Course 2 Fine wire speed 5, it wasn't happy...
Weld profiles are vaguely indicate on the following picture, sorry about the quality...
Incedentally I have just replaced the liner in my Parweld torch as the original was barely letting the wire through. the welding wire itself is so shiny you need sunglasses on when you access it. Also I've been careful not to over tighten the wire feed or the spool brake, all in an attempt to ensure constant wire feed, though I'm not convinced this is the case as I can feel the torch almost twitching in my hand? Oh yes and the arc length is tight, so tight that the shroud is occasionally touching the weld.
Hit me!
), the wire is as shiny as new (the workshop has a dehumidifier...
), occasionally I think I may not be getting quite as good an earth contact as I should, I'll try to be more careful in future. The anti spatter spray is added to my shopping list. I've been trying to keep the torch cable as untwisted as possible, but occasionally.....
(whatever that maybe). I think I'm struggling a bit more than you on car bodywork, I just need to practice more I suppose.
