What am I doing wrong??

[Clarky]

Well after just over a year of buying the Clarke 160TE I finally got round to buying the agroshield light gas bottle so I could have a play.

My runs on a sheet "seem" ok but when I tried to weld two bits together I had varying results. Sometimes I would do a nice run, then I'd burn a hole in the two pieces.

If I hold the trigger down and do a run it pulses, is this right too?

Settings were:

Power: 1
Max/Min: Min
Wire feed speed: 5
L/PM: 8-10

Here's some pics too

Top of joined pieces

Bottom of joined pieces

Top of another join with straight runs either side

Bottom of same

Still off for another week so plenty more time to play

 

[irondarren]

I am just wondering if you have the wire speed a little to high, its when you say pulsing. On your little clarke unit i doubt there is any power smoothing (capacitors) on the bigger machines capacitor banks smooth out the DC output power when it is converted from AC, in reality i doubt if many people would notice the difference, and in truth im not really sure it makes that much difference when welding at low amperage. The pulsing you feel im sure is something to do with to much wire. try turning it down to 4 and see if its better

 

[zardoz]

At this stage of the game its best to try the each of the power settings, with different wire speeds. As Darren says the wire is to fast for the low power setting. Also you are probably moving the welding gun along too fast.

 

[ozzman]

erm i would try cleaning the steel till its shiny, mig's dont work very well if all surfaces are not perfectly clean and shiny.

you will no if the wire feed is to fast, as it will just 'stubb' into the weld pool, produces a stabbing sound or it will push the welding torch away from the workpiece.

 

[FireStorm]

going to say to me it looks like the wire speed is to fast e.g pushing into the weld pool as above.

dunno if your using both hands to steady yourself... i've got same machine and i don't have that sorta problem

 

[Clarky]

Cheers guys,

back out tomorrow to try different speeds and power.

iirc I did try wire speed 4 but that's when I burnt holes in the 2 pieces of joined metal (I was using a butt clamp to help me gap correctly).

Michael

 

[Ron Brown]

Some great advice so far. I was wondering if you are concentrating on keeping the width of your bead and puddle correct. If you watch your puddle and try to keep it even all the time, this should help you correct burning out by noticing your bead getting wide and ready to burn through. Opposite is a thin bead meaning you are probably going to fast and not enough material deposited. If you have to go fast or you will burn thorugh means you are to hot. This will (may) show a bead pattern that loks like arrows. By keeping the bead an even width I think something like 1 & 1/2 half times the width of the material being welded. Watching the bead and puddle all the time helps me produce strong correct beads.

 

[Clarky]

Right, cured the pulsing......... had to tighten the wire clamp slightly.

Decided to try and get the welding right before trying to join to pieces.

My second attempt looks like this.

3 rows of welding down, 3 rows up and so on.

Michael

 

[irondarren]

much better, try to concentrate on keeping the run as even as possible. Keep your movement/travel speed the same then you should end up with a perfectly even bead