Welding Woes, welders please chime in!

Why do you say that? The Hobart 140 is a great welder, its a Miller machine with different sickers. Mine even has a miller gun. I can weld all day with mine and it never gives me a problem.

It looks to me as though your wire feed is too high. I keep mine at about 30 for almost every heat setting. I have found it works the best. This should help you with your high profile too.

The splatter issue is gas related. When you open your gas tank are you just opening it one or two turns or are you opening it all they way till it stops? You need to make sure the bottle valve is open completly. With the valve only open a few turns it might not be able to keep up with the demand.

Also how tight do you make the nut that holds the compression spring against the wire wheel? You don't need to crank down on that at all. Just tight enough where it won't rats nest on you.

 

is the roll of wire old? does it have a rusty side? i had a roll on my backup welder rust slightly on the top of the roll from sitting in the barn welded like that.

 

Couple of things come to mind looking at the pics. The weld seem kinda of ropey. That usally means not enough heat or too much wire feed speed. Try adjusting accordingly. One weld is nice and clean and the other with the spatter would indicate poor gas coverage for some reason especially if it was done at the same time. Like mentioned earlier check and make sure you dont have a fan or wind blowing away your shield gas. Ive had argon / Co2 mixes turn to crap when the bottle pressure gets low. After you use up the high pressure argon mixture there some liquid Co2 in the bottom of the bottle which turns to gas when the bottle is near empty. Co2 alone gives more spatter and a taller stringer bead as well. The last thing is did you clean the metal with any type of chemical? It could cause contamination and spatter but usually leaves a black soot as well. good luck...

 

whenever I see welding splatter (the little balls of wire that run parallel to your bead) it has been from incorrect polarity but your first horizontal bead looks great. are working with clean metal?

 

Metaltwister beat me to it. Your bead looks cold and you are definately getting intermittant gas. You said you have the gas at 15 but how much gas do you have in the bottle. I am leaning towards a low bottle. But like stickwelder said that liner if worn out will cause wobble.Have fun.LB

 

well to start off with..................

you mentioned your regulator is set on 15 PSI. the problem with using a regulator that reads in preasure is not what should be used. it should be replaced with a flow tower. the flow tower is factory set at a low preasure ratting. the gas control comes from the needle valve that controls the rate of flow through the clear graduated tower with the ball in it.
when a preasure regulator is used there is a very high risk of the amount of gas coming out of the nozzle on the gun to blow the arc apart and what i see there is excessive splatter along side of the weld. the flow tower should be set at no more than 15 cfh. the amount of gas at that rate will give a nice soft cloud to protect the arc and will not blow the arc apart. what i recomended is for a situation where there is no wind or anything that could disturb the gas flowing from the nozzle. if there is a fan blowing air close to the area, either shut it off or turn it away from the work area. if this welding is being done out side, then set up a shield as a wind break and protect the area from the wind. the flow rate can be increased to about 20cfh but not more because the same thing will happen and start blowing the arc apart.

the engineers for the manufacturers got a brain fart some years ago and figured that the regulators would be cheaper to supply instead of a flow tower. the majority of production facilities that have people that know what they are doing won't allow gage regulators to be used. the average person that has never been through a formal training program will not know the difference. that is not good. everyone i come across that wants help getting started welding i look at what they have and the first thing that goes in the scrap barrel is the regulator that came with the machine, and we go to the welding supply and they purchase a flow tower and then i show them how to set it up.

regulators are for regulating preasure, flow towers are for controlling the amount of flow so as not to cause problems.

the next time you visit someone in a hospital, look at the flow towers that are used for controling the oxygen to a patient. if there were regulators too much preasure would be administered. controling the flow is far more precise.

any questions contact me

 

Definitely looks gas related. Is there a stone filter in the gas regulator where it connects to the bottle or in the line? I've seen those plug up. The gas can't flow fast enough. It comes out good for a while until you run out of volume in the system.

Take the wire out. submerge the tip in water, pull the trigger and see if the flow stays the same or starts flowing and slows down.

If it's before the regulator, it should show up on the gauge. You probably wouldn't notice unless you look while the trigger is pulled. If it's after the regulator, the gauge pressure will stay up.

 

Raise the heat, slow the feed, try to not over run the cycle and try not to exhale at the work. My brother has troubles with that, he could fog a window from across the room in the desert.

 

What does he use for a helmet? Doesn't he burn his face?

 

6-7 more pounds of gas, turn the feed down a little and make sure to push the gun rather than pull the gun to help shield the gas. 2 feet of weld at a time will also put a lot of load on your size machine, maybe cut it down to 6 inch staggered passes and let them cool before continuing.

 

Looks like to much wire homie you could try dialing down the wire and a touch more heat also try pulling at a consistent speed

 

Since arc settings and gas flow are constant during the course of the weld, nothing else will cause a change in the bead in the middle of running a bead except irregular, inconsistent wire feed.

Bob

 

so are you pushing or pulling, i think your pulling, pulling tends to mound the bead up while pushing makes the bead lay flatter, and as other have said a flow meter will tell you exactly how much gas your getting instead of quessing with a PSI meter.

 

Are any of you guys actual boilermakers? Some of the responses makes me wonder..

A regular is fine, you DO NOT need a flow meter. As for the gas, 12 - 14psi is fine. Running up to 25psi like someone said is fucking absurd and a waste of gas unless your welding in a paddock or 5 stories high on the outside of a building. Seriously, i don't know who told any of you to do that..

One tip for the gas is that you might set it to say 14psi, but when you weld it drops. Hit the trigger on your torch while you watch the gauge and see if it drops, then as you tap the trigger adjust until its between 12 and 14 psi while the trigger is depressed. That will let you know how much gas is flowing when your actually welding.

As for the wire speed and amps, i believe that the amps aren't high enough. I don't know what a 42 wire speed is but put your amps up a bit and then go from there.

Excessive spatter (not slag, slag is for stick welding..) is due to a too high a wire speed because its pushing more wire than it can melt into the weld pool.

As has also been said, a mig weld MUST be pushed. Check that your earth is on clean rust and shit free steel. Also make sure your welding tip isn't too far from the work. If you have it too far away you'll get excess spatter and a crap weld.

I generally use a tip size one up from the wire size i'm using. Example, if i'm using .9mm wire i'll use a 1.2mm tip.

Hope that helps.

 

I have used both and if set correctly I get the same results. I usually weld inside out of the wind and with clean tips and cups and push not pull, I set my pressure about 20 something depending on any wind conditions that might blow in when the doors open.

 

if you do not have a flow meter and do not want to spend the money but still want to be sure your getting the correct amount of gas you can buy one of these.

http://www.arc-zone.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7909

 

I thought that the electrical current on the mig ran through the contact tip and the contact with the wire was super important. Woudln't using too large a contact tip give poor performance. I'm not a boilermaker.

 

I had a similar problem in that some days my welder worked well and other days not so well. I eventually figured out that when the welder was plugged into the wall receptacle it worked properly; when I was using my cheap extension cord it was dropping the voltage into the machine causing cold welds. After buying a proper (expensive) extension cord the problem went away.

 

There's enough wire/amp related advice so I won't repeat. There's another niuance to mig welding that wasn't completely mentioned, and one other that was briefly touched on. I've noticed for decades that when you're mig welding and the whip, or gun lead, is near or laying on the ground cable, weird shit happens. Inconsistant performance and control being the most common. Also, any additional bending of the gun itself at the work will bind the wire enough to cause erratic feed results. As far as gas flow, I'm always at 20 on a flow meter. Any less caused issues, any more wastes money. That's all I got. Boilermakers? I chipped a tooth once on my 1st try so I stick to shot then beer. Works for me...

 

I agree with above, and make sure your wiring from your breaker box to your welder is grounded the whole way. You have to have a good ground and good power.

 

check your polarity... it comes out of the box backwards for flux wire. If you never reversed it for the gas, it likely is wrong.

otherwise it just looks cold.

 

ok......school is in session..............

to start off with the wire feed process that is being discussed here is a relatively simple procedure and process.

this process started out commenly known as short arc welding. it was called this because like all forms of electric welding it a controled short circuit.

in this particular process the filler metal esentially has an unlimited amount od filler wire to run continusely until the spool runs out. with arc welding the filler material comes in a pre cut length with a flux baked on the outside that is the flux that establishes the controled atmosphere.

now;

there are certain things that have to be set up and properly adjusted in order for this process to function properly. this is not like arc welding where the machine is turned on and a flux conered rod is put in a holder and an arc is established.
there a couple of things that must be checked, the spool of wire is mounted on a spindle and there is a spring loaded brake assembly that keeps the spool from free wheeling inside the cabinet and creating what is commonly refered to as a birds nest. next is the drive assembly that takes the wire off the spool and there is a tension adjustment that holds the wire on the driver wheel and pushes it through a tube and at the other end is a devise called a gun. this gun has a trigger and it operates a switch which inturn activates two things, the selonoid valve that permits the inert gass to flow and also activates the drive motor to feed the wire that is fed into the arc to be deposited in the arc to form the bead. the tube the wire travels through is called a liner and around that liner is copper wire that is the power to the gun to complete the circuit. and around all that is a rubber hose that has the inert gass in it that is brought to the gun and the nozzle to produce the atmospherical condition to prevent contamination.

now;

how to make all this work in harmony to produce a proper weld.

to start off with, once the adjustment on the friction brake is properly adjusted and the tension on the drive roller is set and the nozzle is checked and is clean and the orfices are clean so as not to interfer with the flow of gas and the contact tip is 1/8 inch inside the opening of the nozzel and there is a short bit of wire sticking out of the contact tube and the gas is turned on and the flow tower is adjusted and it is verified there is gas in the bottle and the ground is connected to the work piece we are ready to strike an arc and start welding.

the process occurs as follows;

when the trigger is pressed it activates a couple of things, first it activates the solenoid valve and starts the gas flow then the drive motor is activated and wire feeds out of the contact tip and the machine is activated and is establishing a controled short circuit.

as this activity is happening a creator is being formed by the short circuit and the consumable wire is being fed into the arc and is being melted into a semi molten state. it then becomes a globler transfer process. this is happening very rapidly and the metal is building up and filling this creator and as the operator manipulates and moves forward the bead is being formed.

when the triger is released all action stops...................

now;

that is a description of a perfect synerio.

as we all know nothing is perfect. here are some of the problems that can occur.

if the tension is too tight on the friction brake the drive motor will not feed the wire properly.

if the tension on the drive motor is not adjusted properly the wire will not feed smoothly and consistantly.

if the orfices at the bottom of the contact tube are obstructed the gas will not flow properly.

if the opening of the nozzle is obstructed with splatter from welding the gas will not flow properly.

if the ground is not securly attached there will be intermittent contacting and completeing the circuit.

if the gun assembly is heald too far from the area that is to be welded an inproper weld will be deposited.

now;

all that looked at, consider this.

in order to produce a proper bead the machine only has two settings that must be set properly.

the voltage setting. this predertermines how much electrical current is passing through the machine to establish the arc.

the wire speed. this determines how much filler material is being fed into the arc to deposit on and into the desired area to produce a proper bead.

last but not least and this is the most important part of all of this, and it is the length od the wire protruding out of the contact tip and being fed into the arc. this length is what establishes the amperage that controls the temperature of the arc. if there is too much wire sticking out, the resistance is not that much. if there is too little it will get in the puddle and the arc will go out. there is a certain arc length that has to be maintained. next the operator weather they are left handed or right handed must angle the gun in the direction of travel and position themselves so as to observe the arc and the puddle and how much metal is being deposited. when all this is performed the end results should produce an acceptable end product.

remember the basics;

THE C.L.A.M.S. of WELDING...........

C current, this is the power supplied to the unit.
L length of the arc.
A amperage, is the resistance that develops and controls heat, and the
angle of the electrode to allow the filler material to be observed as it
fills the creator to produce the bead.
M manipulation is how the filler material and the arc are moved to
produce a proper bead as the filler material is deposited in the
puddle.
S speed of travel is the most important part of all this. if the speed is too
fast not enough metal will be deposited, if it is too slow too much will be
deposited.

any questions contact me.................

 

Thanks for all of your opinions. Came home this evening welded ok for a bit and then to crap again after trying adjustments.

THEN I CHECKED THE POLARITY, I HAD IT REVERSED works like a dream now. So thanks for the info, otherwise I wouldn't have known to look for that!!!!! It's a relatively new welder, I guess someone had already set the other welders I've used up before.

 

thats great, good to hear you got it figured out and thanks for keeping us in the loop.

 

Glad you got it figured out.not only that you recieved a world of good advice.welding advice is tough when reading,easier with experience standing over your shoulder.
practice makes better.
for me perfect welds consistently are like unobtanium.

 

how big is your welder? duty cycle maybe? hard to tell ,wire slippen,draggin in the liner?

 

this was a good read.. ive never been all that happy with my new millermatic 220.. but after reading all this im gonna try a few differant things, to get my welds better. thanks to all who replied...

 

I've experienced that type of problem when there were wire feed problems. The feed of the wire is critical to good welds. When it starts going crappy, stop welding and keep the trigger pulled and watch for jerky/stop-start wire feed.

A new liner fixed my problem.

 

make sure you are pulling trigger all the way until it stops to ensure maximum gas flow.

 

I made 220 vac extension cord from RV 30/50 amp cord I bought at Wal-Mart and just changed the ends.