Total noob bought a welder. No wire speed control??

[Totalnoobster2000]

Hi all.
For some reason I acquired a 93 ford transit in the summer which apparently(according to everyone on the internet owning old cars) means that I have to learn welding now

So for some other reason I, bought a pretty random welder - not much choice in a hurry where I am at - the sherman mig 200hd synergic.

Just had my first day of practice on 1mm sheet with 0.8 wire and it was a lot of fun experimenting! Managed to run some 10cm beads that looked nice and smooth and fully penetrating. Doing burnthroughs went even better of course

The problem is that Im still a bit stupid about welding and the machine didnt come with a manual so I cant figure out how I can set the wire speed. I have 2 settings. Voltage and amperage, which I can adjust separately. The wire speed icon seems to be next to the amperage display, but cant get this display to show anything but amperage. So Im wondering if they are somehow the same thing on this machine or did I buy a really weird machine?
I set the voltage to 17.5 and amperage to 54 to get the best beads on 1mm steel. Cranking the voltage higher starts to burn through too quickly as does upping the amperage. Do those numbers make sense?

Sorry if stupid questions. Ive been searching and reading a lot but still a bit confused. Maybe I should return the machine on the basis of no manual (even though it actually seems to work quite good in the hands of a total noob)

 

[Barking Mat]

Does it automatically select wire speed, if you have no control over it?

Welcome to the forum...

 

[Totalnoobster2000]

How do I know that? It doesnt seem to push wire out when not welding. Only when I feed it via dedicated feed mechanism - holding the trigger for 3 seconds

 

[mdr]

Welcome.

Sherman seem to make so many MIG welders this may or may not be your model. Seems to have a smart database that adjusts the volts and wire speed together but a press of the main knob allows control of volts and then another press allow control of the wire speed. The video below may help.

Skip to 50 seconds in to see the controls for volts and wire speed.

 

[Totalnoobster2000]

This looks to be exactly the welder I have! How did you find this?

So according to your answer and the video the current is the wire speed.

 

[mdr]

How did you find this?

Internet ninja and level 5 googler!

So according to your answer and the video the current is the wire speed.

I'm sure someone with more experienced here may correct me but I see volts as bead appearance (sort of) and wire speed as amps/heat/penetration. I wait to be corrected though! I don't know much about MIG to be honest.

 

[Barking Mat]

How do I know that? It doesnt seem to push wire out when not welding. Only when I feed it via dedicated feed mechanism - holding the trigger for 3 seconds

Pictures of the welding machine, and your welds would help.

 

[Robert Mullins]

Synergic migs that I've used(not through choice) have only the voltage switch, the machine having a preset wire speed set for that voltage;

 

[chilskater]

AMP is the wire speed... if the materials is 1.2mm thick, voltage is 17-20 volts & Wirespeed 2 1/2 or 3 on Miller machine...
In Mig welding, AMP reading will come out once u start weld... in Arc welding, Voltage reading will come out when weld... that what the trainer told me last weekend

 

[Ed.]

Setting the "amps" when using MIG should not have any effect as the amps are dictated by the wire speed and the voltage set. If there is no wire control knob/switch then it must set the wire automatically, when using the TIG or MMA(stick) function, that is when you set the amps and the voltage adjusts automatically to suit.