So I buy my new Lincoln 135 after doing some reseach and found this one will suit me just fine. Ive welded before, so I get the drift, but I will admit Im a bit rusty. However, Ive never had this problem. I'll let you know right now, im using flux wire only because I havent gotten my bottle yet and was itchin to re-learn how to weld again. Anyways, Im scratchin my head on this one. See pics. Ive tried gun closer, further, slower gun movement, faster and everything in between. I read and RE-read the manual, and EVERYTHING is hooked up right. I have a few welding "how-to" books here, and from what I read, its all ok. The welder is awesome and I can tell its working fine by wire feed and sound. Im convienced its the operator, but Im clueless as to what Im doing wrong. I had a 0.2 MM pully. I set it on C - 2.5. Tried a exhaust piece, and set it on B - 1.5. It doesnt have the nice crackle buzz sound. No glowing puddles and no penetration. Any help would be appreciated. Ask questions. Happy to answer to figure this out. Thanks
Try giving it a bit more wire-speed. The voltage may need to go up a little with it. And then practice, practice, practice...... To be honest though, I never got on with fluxed wire. I always found I got more spatter than I did when using gas.
thats what I was told, more splatter and more smoke. But I didnt care much, just to freshen up my skills. But im not getting anything. So you think keep tinkering with different settings and practice. nothing obvious popping out that im doing wrong? other than being out of practice?
I'm no expert here but that metal just doesn't look clean enough to me, disc it back to bare metal and give it another try. Also are you using an extension cable to your welder, looks like its running way below power, plug straight to source or use heavier cable and fully unwind. Good luck.
you feed rate is WAY too slow, specialy for flux core... that stuff eats itself up in my experiance. for the exhaust piece, (and just about any sheet metal 18-20 gauge) i'd use heat setting "B", and feed rate of about 4.5, prolly a lill faster but thats gonna vary by machine ,,, for the pully, heat setting "C" and start messin with the rate at about 5.0 or 5.25 let us know how ya come out
thats the dern flux... messy stuff, but great penetration. was the biggest reason i got rid of my flux welder and got a hobart handler 140. never looked back.
yea i stuck that pully on the grinder for a good while so we had pretty metal. you can see it kinda in one of those pics if you click on it. I do have it plugged in the wall, however, i did raise an eye brow cause it was a bit loose for my taste, maybe try a different outlet(?)
you had the heat range right,,, just not feeding it fast enough,,, it "ate" the wire faster than it could keep the heat in the weld puddle its like riding a bike,,, it'll come back
sounds more like it fiddy. i noticed it almost "hopped" it would arc and id be waiting for the next hit. looks like ill have to up the power and speed that wire up a bunch huh?
i'd stick with the heat setting you were running, and just bump the speed. should be fine. MIGHT need to run it hotter, but not by much.
shit, ill try that right now. I work tomorrow and its 12:30, but ill give it another shot! haha Its killin me I cant get it, lol Thanks a lot
If you think THAT"S BAD, it's 1230 here and I think 2-3 hours ahead where Fiddy's at. I think I need to go back to welding 101..... xxx
yup... its late,,, or, i could say early and make myself feel better hehe,,, the pain killers wear off every 4-5 hours, so my neck wakes me up. still all things considered, i couldnt sleep more than an hour before the operation, so im in high cotton now
dude, HERES how late it is: I go out and try everything. Finally give up and decide, before I go, im gonna take that spool off and see what*****ty brand this is. Well, who cares about the brand, its NOT flux, its alunimium wire!!! They must of stocked it wrong and i didnt even look. So i feel like a complete dip*****. and to make matters worse AND to prove how late it is, i go get my step ladder to check if this aluminium stuff works. after a few attempts, i reilize, this isnt flux aluminium, it needs gas!! Im going to bed now hahahahahaha
That's great. Love posts like this, and everyone chimes in. Then I go out and check my Lincoln 100. Looks good, but............................... (I cant afford the gas set-up now, so I'm welding my m/c fender slow and easy) Oh, yeah, I am using the flux-core they gave me, and it's all I've ever used and learned on. Works good, and I have had success in doing body panel sheet-metal. Can't wait to get the gas hookup though. Goodluck! Erron ps, it's 330am here in nor-cal, I am digging the welding on my Triumph so far, wanna do more, and I am gonna call in sick! Later
I was just going to say it looked more like an aluminum base metal and here to find out you had aluminum wire. Some exhaust piping has an aluminum mixture in it. What gave it away was the lack of any puddle at all and more importantly the black carbon left on the base metal. Sometimes having the polarity set incorrectly will prevent you from puddling. Your not going to believe the difference when you finally get the right stuff.
are you certain the polarity of the welder is correct for the flux core? inside the lincoln welder two cables attach.. open the lid and check it out.. flux core is ground positive.. solid wire is ground negative.
The instructions are on the inside lid. It shows the wire set up. I have a the Lincoln 100. Great little welder for me.
http://content.lincolnelectric.com//pdfs/products/navigator/im/IM724.pdf check page 11 and 19 for polarity and heat and feed settings bill
I think "petejoe" has got it. the pipe looks galvanized to me. get another piece of clean steel and try it again. careful welding that galvanized stuff the fumes will kill ya.
I use that type of wire all the time, and it's always been tough to get the settings right. It looks like you need to get it hotter, so what I would do is go to the next higher heat setting, then if you have a constant variable speed setting( the knob just turns and doesn't click into place), find a good clean test piece of metal, and start running a bead while keeping your other hand on the speed knob. Slowly adjust the speed knob slower or faster until it penetrates correctly without so much spatter. With that type of wire, you will almost always have some spatter, but that should help you.
Ok, so today I went to the local weld shop, bought a auto dark helmet and F L U X wire! haha My other set up with the aluminuim wire was ALL wrong. Wrong wire, no gas to run that wire, and the polarity was set for flux wire. Why didnt it work man?!? haha I ran to a local metal place and I happen to know the guy that works there from way back in high school. After talkin for a bit he let me walk out with a TON of scrap metal to practice on. FREEBE! Went to the local muffler shop and picked up some tubing scraps. FREEBE! So I ran the hell out of my welder for the next 3 hours, and heres what I came up with. Any comments, suggestions, compliments, complaints?! Thanks for all the feed back guys!
POOP! But huge improvement over page 1!!!!! Yeah I was going to say after your 1st post, to lay down the stinger and please stepaway as you possess the*****. Your welding doesn't look too bad, maybe a bit cold, or you are just moving too slow and its piling up on ya. Hard to tell in pictures. Also you need to work on oscillating the stinger while still making straight forward movement. Honestly get a set of oxy/acetylene gogles, and a pencil and paper. Draw a straight line, then flip the googles on and draw the line in an occillating motion. Should look like a long curly pig tail with a line through it. Now put sunglass on underneath your O/A googles, and practice more. DO NOT LOOK STRAIGHT AT THE PUDDLE, FOCUS A LITTLE AHEAD OF THE PUDDLE AS YOU WORK. This will help you focus on where you need to go to keep a straight line.
i always watch the puddle, gives me a better idea of how my weld is penetrating... i'll run a few inches, stop and make sure im on the right "path" and go again...
Enjoyed reading these posts....my 2 cent's worth... The direction you weld in is a biggie too..a guy I worked with who built big stuff...cranes..told me to push rather than pull when running a bead...keeps the heat in the puddle... your welds are looking up..but remember what I was told back when I was learning the tool and die making trade... "even a birdshit weld is a****** to remove if you have to do it".. they get better with practice practice practice
It's looking loads better just for having the right equipment. If you start to use gas as a shield, it is best to 'push' the pool when welding as this keeps the gas around the molten area which prevents a porous weld. Keep practicing, it'll come good.
you can tell how good someone is at welding by how good they can grind... if they're REALLY good at grinding, you can bet yer bucks they're a*****ty welder!! monster, i'd say more heat, and push the torch. hot and fast is better than cold and slow...
hey thanks for all the tips and input, its helped out a lot. well... i cant really SEE the improvements, but I know itll get better. This whole time up till now, ive been doing all the previous welding sitting indian style on the garage floor. no table! so after work, i rushed to the metal guy again and got some great scraps. FREEBE! enough to build this table tonight. Its very ugly with straight up *shitty* welds, but if it can hold together long enough for me to improve, then ill make a better one down the road. i think this flux wire is good and bad to try and start welding with. its bad for all the obvious reasons, but its good i guess, cause if i can weld good with this, then welding with a bottle should be a snap, right?
The Jalopy Journal
