how thick do you weld with your wire feed / mig?

[kcender]

As I said,each situation is different.There is nothing wrong with Gas Metal Arc Welding.It certainly has it's place in welding.When I said I would use stick if my life depended on it,I was thinking more along the lines of heavier material such as a lug that would be supporting my weight.I should have been clearer.As for welding dirty material that is a definately not something I would recommend. Yes,I clean ALL material before I weld it.As for the debate over GMAW verses SMAW it can be debated forever.My opinion as a welder is that stick is more foolproof but slower. Done properly stick is a more ductile weld as shown by bend tests.Both finished welds have the same tensile strength provided they are done properly on clean material.Everybody is entitled to their own opinion,I have mine based on many years in the trade.

 

[gauthier]

Thats the thing,if its done right,few people do mig right one way or other. But on same thing,you gotta do stick right to,so..

But if you are going to try and do mig right,you gotta get you a machine other than a 110 volt,even if you are welding sheet metal.

Its just easier to do mig wrong than stick if you are equal in skill in both.

I've welded sch 40 gas line with mig,alot of it,I've passed bend and tensil tests on 6 inch sh 40 pipe in 45 degree fixed postion,but it took me a good bit of practice and I did have a few fail before I got it,thing is,once you get it,its not as reliable as stick or tig to stay where you need to be,very easy to make mistakes that will cause weld to fail.

 

[brain55]

I have a Red-D-Arc ZR-8 motor generator with a Lincoln LN-25 wire feeder. I have used it for everything, from sheetmetal to 1 1/2" plate. I do need to turn it way down for sheetmetal, and doing the 1 1/2" it was turned way up, and I was using tri-mix gas also. It is much better suited for 1/4" metal and up. If I had to pick between my set-up and a 110v MIG, I would choose mine anyday. It is easier to get mine to do sheetmetal, than it is to get the small machine to do anything thicker than sheetmetal.

Brian

 

[Kubota-guy1911]

lostcause wrote,

"an approximately 15 year old century 120v which i have always run on a 20a circuit, which allows a 90a rated output. i've often run the current at or near the max, and tuned down the feed speed to weld metals up to 1/2" thick."


I'm surprised you could even get a "puddle" at this current, especially turning down the wire feed speed.

Below is a weld I did on 3/8" thick steel with a Millermatic 185. My voltage setting was 1 down from the highest (our input voltage runs 253 volts) and my wire feed was set at 8 out of 10.

kj

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

There's good evidence of cold lapping there. A top view of a weld doesn't tell much, a slice through or even a side/end view would.

What's with all the "pings"? Is that flux core?

 

[lostcause]

There's good evidence of cold lapping there. A top view of a weld doesn't tell much, a slice through or even a side/end view would.

What's with all the "pings"? Is that flux core?

looks to me like an air chisel with a punch in it. that's how i often used to clean the slag off. now i use a needle scaler so i have a lot more of those markings, but they are more blunt dimples.

 

[jimmysisson]

I don't know if this is relevant or not. I have an Esab 250A mig, and am an untrained hobbyist. I find it much harder to get the settings right for small or thin material than for beefy stuff. A little bracket for a return spring will take 5 tries, where a v'd butt weld of 1ｽ" will sizzle in hot and puddle nicely first time out. Maybe the higher ranges of the welder's capacity are more what it's designed to do and that's more important to the finished weld? Having a range of wire speeds and amps make the machine more versatile but it still may have a sweet spot.
Jim

 

[lostcause]

There's good evidence of cold lapping there. A top view of a weld doesn't tell much, a slice through or even a side/end view would.

admittedly, i don't know the telltale indicators of these issues, so can you elaborate on what to look for in a case like this? in the third image i see a small line almost centered in the heat discoloration - is that what you are talking about? i was assuming that was just a view of the other side of the piece, and the discoloration was induced from the welding on the other edge. am i wrong and is that view actually of the ground down weld?

 

[Reg]

An interesting thread, even if it has suffered some arc wander due to stray magnetic fields close by (-:

I think SOME of the answer to the original question may be that many of us get oversold - and/or marketing material over represents the significance of single pass "capacity".
It is easy to think; "Yeah, I have some need to weld 3/8 or 1/2 inch stuff that I might want to weld."
Then see 3/8 or 1/2 capacity in the glossy brochure and conclude that single pass capacity is the critical parameter for a purchase decision.

So while there may be a 250 or 300 amp MIG machine standing by there is some "belief" that it is a hot melt glue gun for light work and stick is what the construction industry has used for decades, so for THIS weld that will support MY weight or MY trailer.... better play it safe and use the stick.

Stick is what a lot of us learned on, we trust it, etc.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

admittedly, i don't know the telltale indicators of these issues, so can you elaborate on what to look for in a case like this? in the third image i see a small line almost centered in the heat discoloration - is that what you are talking about? i was assuming that was just a view of the other side of the piece, and the discoloration was induced from the welding on the other edge. am i wrong and is that view actually of the ground down weld?

Well,

Cold lap is sort of like a "muffin top" where the weld spills over on the top of the metal, but isn't properly tapered to the joint edge and isn't properly fused at the toes, even though it looks "nice". This is typically due to inadequate heat and trying to make a weld wider than it should be. Even though you have heat lines, it isn't a good indicator of a properly fused weld, only tells you where the heat was directed and if it was properly centered in the middle of the weld. If you'll notice, you don't start getting the heat lines until after the edge, toward the middle of the weld on both sides. This means the heat was lagging behind the weld. This also means that proper penetration was not being achieved. The heat lines would follow the weld seam more closely if near 100% penetration was achieved.