Welder - Should I Upgrade??

[LD1]

I almost forgot, If none of the above work for you, its probabally just a junk piece of crap welder, and I know a guy only one state away who could haul it to the dump if you want

 

[greenmule]

20-25 CFH is about normal I guess,unless your outside or in a windy place.

Maybe your equipement is[rusty/dirty wire,gun cable conduit,gas leak somewheres,nozzel all pluged up] causing it.

Are you grinding off to shiney metal,if metal has oil,torch will burn it off.

Alittle hole every now and than kinda goes with the mig,but if your getting a whole lot of pinholes,its something causing it,kinda gotta do a process of elimination.

 

[carpenter383]

I don't know what the mix of argon/co2 is because the tank was already full when I got the welder. I've had it a few years and am still on the same tank if that tells you how much I weld. I ground the metal first with a grinder. and I believe the pressure was around 30 on the tank. I moved pretty slow holding the gun about an inch from the material. The heat was on the highest setting too. I learned to weld with an arc welder, I'm better with an arc welder than this wire welder. I can hear gas coming out the gun if I pull the trigger but am not welding. I think maybe I should clean the nossle as suggested before
View attachment 127110

View attachment 127111

 

[Egon]

Talking about pictures fellows, thems that you are showing are not the right ones!

I don't know about 99% of the time being able to grind your workpiece clean

Some fellows welding pipe spend more time grinding than they do welding. When they get tired of grinding they get the helper to do it. Usually they seem to move on to other jobs on a regular basis so they do get a lot of experience.

 

[greenmule]

Well,you got to have a combination pressure gage and a flow meter,[the gage tells you how much pressure is in the tank,the flow meter tells you how cfh,][how much gas is coming out,not how much pressure its coming out],so,would guess you got that.

Like said,you got to trouble shoot,look for leaks,is wire been setting out for years rusting?,etc,etc.

Air blower does wonders sometimes,but if your wire is all dirty and rusty you need to get you a new roll,just got to eliminate.

 

[J_J]

I don't know what the mix of argon/co2 is because the tank was already full when I got the welder. I've had it a few years and am still on the same tank if that tells you how much I weld. I ground the metal first with a grinder. and I believe the pressure was around 30 on the tank. I moved pretty slow holding the gun about an inch from the material. The heat was on the highest setting too. I learned to weld with an arc welder, I'm better with an arc welder than this wire welder. I can hear gas coming out the gun if I pull the trigger but am not welding. I think maybe I should clean the nossle as suggested before
View attachment 127110

View attachment 127111

You failed to mentioned if wire was coming out the nozzle. If the wire is melted to the nozzle, take it off and install a new one. With the nozzle off, and you pull the trigger, does wire feed out the end. Check the leads under the lid where you switch wires, depending whether you are welding with flux wire, or MIG wire. Check the power rollers, and check the drag on the spool. Maybe the liner needs cleaned out.
Tell us your symptoms, and maybe we can find a solution for you.

 

[carpenter383]

I've changed tips and put a new roll of wire on. I'm not sure what the leads under the lid are supposed to be switched to, but assume they were correct when I got it. Yes it feeds wire, but sometimes it gets stuck and or dosen't feed smoothly. If I keep the cable straight it does alot better, but if I have the cable at much of a bend it dosen't wanna feed good.

 

[JB4310]

pic of what I was talking about

Yup I can see now, it took a good bite.

For me I'm just gonna stick to the stick, I've got a 110 wire feed but hardly use it since I'm mostly welding heavier materials over 1/4" usually old unclean metal and alot of that outside.

Can't imagine myself buying a 220 mig unless it was one of those can't refuse it type deals. If my 30 year old buzz box ever craps out I will upgrade to one of these AC/DC units with a higher duty cycle. Though I don't pay much attention to duty cycle on the thunderbolt, it says 10-15% duty cycle but I weld with that thing flat out for 20 minutes straight sometimes, and it doesn't seem to matter.

JB.

 

[J_J]

I've changed tips and put a new roll of wire on. I'm not sure what the leads under the lid are supposed to be switched to, but assume they were correct when I got it. Yes it feeds wire, but sometimes it gets stuck and or doesn't feed smoothly. If I keep the cable straight it does alot better, but if I have the cable at much of a bend it doesn't wanna feed good.

It sounds like you need a new liner. To keep the liner clean, they make some small sponge balls that go around the wire before it goes in the liner tube. One of the sponges is a cleaner, and the other is a lube. Check it out. Do you have the correct tip for the wire you are using.

The other thing is roller pressure, and drag on the spool. I use the 11 lb spool, and spray the roller with silicon. If you have rust spots on your wire, you might as well throw it away, it will just cause trouble.

 

[J_J]

MIG welding

Reverse polarity is used for all MIG welds. With RP the electrons travel from cathode spots on the negative work to the positive anode on the MIG wire tip. The RP electrons impart the majority of the arc energy at the MIG wire tip, melting the wire in a consistent manner.

Flux core

Straight polarity the electrons travel from the wire tip to the work, with the majority of the arc energy now in the metal being welded and thanks to the conductivity of the base metal that heat is quickly dispersed. Straight polarity does not provide a stable arc and for most applications the lack of heat at the wire tip can cause insufficient energy in the weld leading to lack of weld fusion especially on parts > 1.5 mm.