Mig Welding - My Experiences of Late....

[tone]

hi

My technique with the handpiece was ok (apparently) and the difference was amazing upon my second attempt.

We discussed the benefits/disadvantages of drawing the hand piece or pushing the hand piece. He was happy for either to happen, whatever I was comfortable with, BUT you tended to get deeper penetration with a drawing hold. I am a natural 'drawer' that is the hand piece is pointing back towards the weld as I move my hand. In his opinion there was no 'correct' style, whatever worked best for the application and the individual. The text book says that pushing or square to the weld plane is the 'correct' style. Whatever.

the correct way is to point the tip in the direction you are going
back hand or dragging should be use when using fluxcore
backhand when mig welding will cause a lack of fusion on the toe of the weld

cheers

[tone]

Gas pressure, yeah..uhm.. no idea what it should be ..just enough..?? Cleaned my gauge glass (oops bad huh?) and set it to about 12 to 15 psi.

hi

the gauge is not showing psi it is showing volume l/min

cheers

[fabr]

What do you Tig everything Master?

TIG and stick.

[Bugpac]

hi

the gauge is not showing psi it is showing volume l/min

cheers

CFH, Cubic Feet per Hour for us Normal fellas...

[thedoctor]

I just purchased a new mig. I had one that I used to build gates for my fence company. I welded .055 wall galvanized tubing for 10 years. I used staight CO2. I tried argon CO2 mix once, I burned up tubing. I have been playing with new mig. I have been getting those lousy rope looking welds. I tried changing heat and wire speed. I ran out of the wire that came with the welder, it was .023. I had sold my fence company 2 years ago and hadn't used a mig since then. I remembered I always used .030 wire and ran pretty high heat when I built all those gates. I bought some .030 and cranked up the heat. Some of the welds look as good as my tig welds. Tim

[matt(boily)]

There seems to be the conception that people think that MIG welding is easy to do. In a way it is. But for the people that use it day in day out there the ones you should ask if its easier. I actually think that stick welding is the easiest of them all. To lay down a sweet MIG(especially doing heavy plate) its a fine art.

I work with all types of welders. MIG/TIG/Stick/Flux Cored. Your standard industrial welders. I can get one setup in a flash and running so sweet you couldn't hear it welding the most you hear is the Gas.

I'll share the things i've learnt over the years. Forgive me that its been repeated

1) Clean liners and correct tensions (Spec has the right idea)
2) Have tip cleaners on you. When the wire balls up on the tip you should clean it and it'll stop the wire from stopping half way through a weld
3) Keep the gas shield collet clean. This will keep the gas flow even and stop restricting it causing porosity. Tip dip is ok but i can't be bothered with it. If you set your machine up well you shouldn't get spatter.
4) Gas flow should be set 12-16Lmin in an enclosed area. Any more your just wasting gas.
5) Once your setup here you should know some basics with what welder your using. You will get different results from different welders. The amp range will help determine what to set your machine up for. Here is a basic rule i follow

Welding 3mm plate running .9mm wire single phase welders

160-180 amp machines - 7/8 of the amperage/wire feed will be needed to produce cleans welds
190-220 just under 3/4
220 - 250 1/2
250 - 320 just over 1/4

Thats for good penetrating welds
6mm plate double it. 

6) I found that depending on what you feel comfortable with that pushing (as opposed to dragging with stick) produces clean welds. But not as deep penetration as dragging. You get a real nice bacon crackling sound when pushing(higher amps and you don't hear anything at all) But this is more than enough for buggy building. I had to repair a rock breaker arm the other day. Welds didn't even hold it. Clean broke off. They were MIG and pushed(i knew who did the welds) Mine were dragged and they bent the arm the next day(bloody wankers operators break everything)

7) When welding above head adjust the wire feed to suit. Your fighting gravity so a little more wire feed helps.

8 ) Keep you handle at about 45* each direction. Similar to stick.

9) Have about 12mm of stick out. This stops the chance of the wire balling up on the contact tip.

10)I found that before laying a run down that giving the wire a quick burn(arcing the wire so it gets some heat in it) helps stop the weld from raising at the start of a weld. You might need to clean the excess wire off but with practice you shouldn't get any.

11)Finally practice, practice, practice and practice some more. It takes time but you won't regret it.

[Reidy02]

There's some good stuff in there Matt thanks for sharing Mate!!

[tonka]

weldingtipsandtricks.com!!!! great site for stick mig and tig,
one tip i took to heart was to buy a cheap autodarkening welding helmet.
good info matt.

[cleppla]

excellent website. I spent half the night there reading!.  Great info


Chris