Thin metal and plug welding sanity check

[Lufbramatt]

Hi all, feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with this. Been learning to join thin metal together (1mm) using the thin metal technique (overlapping tacks) and also plug welds.

Welder is a Portamig 185, argoshield light and 0.6mm wire (came with the machine).

After lots of fiddling and getting stuck for a while with tall welds with inconsistent penetration, I found yesterday that the welds were much flatter and better penetration if I turned the voltage up (setting 6 of 12) and the wire speed down (speed 4 of 10, think the feed is semi-synergic on the Portamig so in theory you can leave it on 5 all the time). This gave a smoother sound too. Resulting welds looked just like the pics in the tutorial.

Previously I had the settings much lower so it seemed counter intuitive to get better results turning the voltage up? am I on the right lines?

 

[Rusty31]

I found this pretty odd also, turning up the power is the last thing on your mind lol. Its a funny old game is it.

 

[Lufbramatt]

Good to hear I'm not going mad then, PDG that makes sense about needing the power to melt the metal quickly. Had a frustrating day yesterday spending about 5 hours trying to make repair panels fit nicely so in the end went back inside the garage and practised welding to get my mojo back so it was good to end the day on a high.

 

[chunkolini]

More power and maybe move faster. Made no sense to me at all when I started. But the results speak for themselves.
it can help to quickly pulse the trigger as well so rather that separate tacks they flow into each other. Hard to describe the action best tried on scrap metal first.