Ate Good morning all,I've had another go at welding again today down the shed but I don't know if I'm getting any better or worse ,I know it practice practice but I just can't seem to get a constant sizzle I've taken a few pictures so you can tell me what you think .
Mig used is clarke 150 te turbo
8mm wire
Co2 pub gas
On 1mm plate
Front
Some nice welds and some cold welds and if the spatter has not been cleaned off they are very tidy for co2.
If your Clarke is anything like mine then wire speed is such a delicate adjustment it is so easy to be a touch out, mine is so delicate to adjust I can't do it with my welding gloves on, the smallest of movement between the 7 and 8 marks on the dial can make a major difference, resulting in finding the 'sizzle' a bit of a nightmare.
have you tried practicing on thicker plate? Its alot easier to get to grips with as you can drank the power and feed up and not have to worry about blowing holes.
the ones that haven't penetrated through to the other side are cold. The ones you can see from the back are pretty much what you want on that thickness, plenty of penetration but no blow through
I've found that practice runs on the face of metal that's placed flat on a metal topped work bench can look good on both sides because the work top can act as a heat sink. But once you move on to welding 2 bits of metal together away from the bench the excess heat is no longer drawn away from the work piece and the weld pool can soon blow through. The obvious tip is to practice while keeping the work pieces 'up in the air' by supporting one or both on something non flammable and/or by using a magnetic alignment tool. It's been suggest to me that magnets can cause problems with modern switch mode machines. I couldn't say whether this is correct or not.