Welding Woes, welders please chime in!

If he was losing his shielding gas it would be chock full of porosity. Looks like you just need a little more amperage.

 

This is the second time I heard someone say turn up the heat. Amps increase with wire speed . What most mean by more heat is more voltage, correct?

 

When I used to run small pieces 10 ga to 16 ga I used 023 wire and tri mix gas and welded all day long on production runs with that hobart 140. Even on bigger machines as you close in on the duty cycle you adjust up to keep the weld consistant.

 

Amperage is expressed as wire speed in inches per minute. Amperage is responsible for the wires burn off rate and penetration.

Voltage is responsible for starting and maintaining the arc.
Voltage is also responsible for the wetting out and flow of the puddle.

Amperage and voltage are usually best set as a 10:1 ratio to each other.

For example if you use 180 on the wire speed then voltage would be 18.0 volts.

High amperage -wire speed and voltage too low will result in a high narrow bead.

More voltage will allow the puddle to wet out wider and give the weld a lower profile.

Technique with the gun will also help, I have found that pushing (gun pointed in the direction you are welding) will often help getting a flatter more blended weld.

Use some scrap metal and experiment with voltage and wire feed settings along with different manipulation techniques with the gun and you will find what works for you.

In the end what will make you a better welder is time spent burning wire.

 

the folks that have refined the welding equipment that is available today, have looked very hard and with great intensity for ways to simplify what used to be something that had more adjustable settings than there are today. the original wire feeders that i started with were the size of a refrigerator. there was four settings, the first was voltage, then amperage, then slope, and last wire speed. these were machines that were originally created in the mid 1960's. the shielding gas of choise was limited to only carbon dioxide CO2. those machines were difficult to operate because there was no room for variation. the gas used caused a lot of spatter that had to be cleaned up after, and there was not much for filler wire to choose from either. as time passed things improved and today a tig welder can be purchased that is the size of a lunch box, and a mig welder the size of a car battery.

the settings have been consolidated and there is only two basic settings now. the first one is labeled as voltage and the other one is wire speed. the amperage is determined by the length of the filler material (wire) from the end of the contact tube that is located in the middle of the nozzle that is on the end of the gun that is on the end of the whip.

the way the amperage is established has to do with electrical resistance. as the voltage passes through the internal parts of the machine it passes through a set of diodes that takes the alternating voltage and changes it to directional voltage. when electricity is not permitted to shift back and forth it gets hot and generates heat. add in the length of the wire protruding from the part called the contact tube that is positioned in the center of the nozzle. the length of the wire sets up resistance in the controled short circuit that is being used to develop a puddle and establish a controled amount of semi molten metal that instantly solidifies and bonds the desired pieces of metal together in a fusion process that is equal to or stronger than the original base material.

in todays technology what was originally refered to as short arc welding (early wire feed/M.I.G.) has developed form a semi molten globular transfer process to a spray process. this has to do with the development of mixing certain industrial gasses and the improvement of the filler metal through metalurgy. the wonders of modern chemestry and molecular engineering.

there is a few things that have to be kept in mind when running the bead and obtaining the desired end results.

i am going to mention something that really irritates certain people.

the C.L.A.M.S of welding.

following the descriptions that go with this acronym can, will, and does help and improve what one is attempting to accomplish in their endevours.

for questions or comments feel free to contact me @ www.bernieswelding.net

what i have written here is not intended as a rude or slanderous but i am trying to give the best description possible to help others develop and produce the best and safest product with an end results that is something to be proud of.

 

OK, so why were his welds humpy...?

Oh, and if you can get that Hobart 140 to run spray transfer on 10ga. with ANY gas mix, I will eat my Tillmans...

 

well choose a seasoning that will make them paletable.........

the way to make your HOBART 140 do spray is to start off with the following.

start off with 70S6 .023 wire, then have a a cylender of the following gas custom blended, 75% ARGONE, 22% CO2, 3% O2. the argone is the shielding gas to support the arc, the CO2 creates the penitration required to produce a creator for the filler wire to fill and bond the desired pieces together, and the O2 is there to increase the temperature of the arc. the purpose of increasing the arc temperature with the smaller diameter wire takes the controled short circuit and heats the usual sized semi molten glob to a higher temperature and as it transfers from the wire feeding into the arc to smaller globs and that is how the spray mode happens. the percentage of oxygen is there to raise the temperature of the arc with the smaller wire. using the smaller diameter wire takes less amperage to make it melt. adjusting the wirespeed and the voltage and the amount of exposed wire protruding from the end of the contact tube that creates the resistance to make the amperage causes considerably smaller particulate of semimolten metal.

there will also be a noticable difference in the sound of the arc. normally it is a snaping sound and there is a visable sighting of the semimolten droplet going into the puddle. with the spray mode there is a hissing and the transfer of the semimolten metal is in a flaired shape. with the right manipulation of the gun and giving the edges of the puddle to fill with a very slight side to side movement the surface of the bead will have a feathered edge and the crown of the bead will be a bit flatter and there will not be the noticable curfs that are normally there on a finished bead.

most welding supply shops will not produce that gas mix in small quanties. i have three 240 Cu.Ft. gas cylenders and in order to get what i want i had to order it in quanity. besides the cost of the cylenders it is about $100.00 perbottle to refil. i came up with this mix when i was welding for the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY when we were experimenting with mixed gases to increase product quality and productivity to reduce the amount of welding rod that is consumed.

 

New guy here !!! but I have been welding for 28 years! try the gas pressure at about 20-25 and preheat the joint with a torch before welding! 10 guage is pushing the machine to the limits a long drop cord will make for amp drop too so try to be close to the the outlet! hope this helps!

 

i would also factor in your gun angle to materials being welded,although not always possible.it does dramatically affect the appearance and quality of the weld.

 

If you read the theory behind the wire speed and voltage you can figure out how to flatten the weld. Use less wire speed and more voltage and manipulate the gun to get the results you want (flatter beads)

As far as eating things,you have nothing to worry about. The gas mixture posted by our deluded friend above will not even come close to initiating spray transfer.

Even with small wire the 140 does not have a hope in hell of generating the required levels of arc voltage and wire speed needed to get even close to a true GMAW spray transfer mode.

He has been sniffing too much low hydrogen welding fumes and maybe even fiberglass dust as he pops new bodies out of his "Milk truck mold"

 

I have a hobart 140 check the drive wheel mine wore out pretty quick also had a gun liner that would randomly pinch the wire when in a certain position i think i must have droped somthing on it. Another thing is the ground clamps that come with these machines suck get a good one. Ive noticed the regulator that came with it worked fine until the bottle got low not empty but low seemed to be inconsistent i replaced mine only cuz i lent it out and it came back broke but before that i always just exchanged bottles a little early. Hope all this helps and for the people that are telling him to turn up the heat 4 is the maximum for this machine witch he says hes running it at but it does look like your wire speed it to high and for these smaller machines cleaning is a must keep a clean tip and always bevel heavier material ive had my 140 probably 4 years now its been good to me ive got lots of hours on it.

 

1.Cheap wire is inconsistent in diameter and makes for inconsistent wire speed.
2.Splatter comes from moving to slow and or to much wire speed
3.“Pushing” will always make a flatter bead / weld
4.Insufficient shield gas will make a bead that looks like lava … I see none of that.
5. Are you using an extension cord? …. don’t unless its large gage wire.

 

Did you guys notice that the problem is solved? Read his post that I quoted above. It was the polarity, and now it is working great.

Brian

 

I bought a Creftsman welder that did the exact samething. After trying everything, I noticed that the wire drive motor was changing speed. After I finished all the work on my car I took it back and they refunded all my money. Then I noticed all these welders along the wall. They all were bad. Too much back tension on yoru spool?