How do I get rid of " the worm"?

Shield Arc · Jun 10, 2012

I do read every once in a while where someone will get a bad bottle of gas. I've never had it happen to me.
Only problems I've had in the past is with 100% argon Tig welding aluminum. Once the bottle gets fairly low you need a re-fill when welding aluminum, but Tig welding mild steel this is not an issue, you can drain the bottle completely empty.

cowski · Jun 10, 2012

not enough gas...

LD1 · Jun 10, 2012

If you are sure you are getting gas FLOW at the nozzle, it could be a bad spool of wire.

cowski · Jun 10, 2012

question are the porous welds made at start up? you may not be giving the gas enough time to flow at start up.

kysteve · Jun 10, 2012

cowski said:
question are the porous welds made at start up? you may not be giving the gas enough time to flow at start up.

Try changing the tank out.i have this happen sometimes and it is from a bad tank of gas

ericher69 · Jun 10, 2012

A few things I always do with any MIG welder

1. Turn bottle on and wire speed to minimum pull trigger and listen for gas coming out (count of 3)

2. Clean, brush, grind, degrease metal

3. Tack (adjust wire amperage accordingly)

4. Close all windows doors

5. Weld

It seems that you are getting an awful lot of "soot" on some of your welds like when burning paint or grease

Hope some of this helps

TraderMark · Jun 10, 2012

Thanks again guys.

Sheildarc: I've done exactly what you mentioned about listening for the gas flow. I can definitely hear the "whoosh" when I first pull the trigger but my hearing isn't that great after 25 years of being a heavy equipment mechanic. It's difficult for me to hear much after the initial whoosh. I did seal a one gallon Ziploc bag around the nozzle as best I could and then pulled the trigger. The bag filled, but I have no idea how quickly it should have filled.

The things I've tried that HAVE helped are:
1) welding hotter than recommended. Chart says to weld .125 @ high range #2 with 48 wire speed. I went to high range #3 and 45 wire speed and that helped.
2) running gas reg @ 35 cfh instead of recommended 20 cfh.

The last pic I posted that shows a lot of soot... I can't figure out where the soot came from. I used extra care to remove rust and paint with 4-1/2 grinder and flap disc. The gusset was actually new steel though I've had it for several years. I watched closely as I prepped that piece to make certain that I got even the old mill scale off.

I'm going to.go back to square one and follow all the advice here and see what happens next weekend.

Stay tuned! !!

Shield Arc · Jun 11, 2012

I read somewhere how to test the amount of gas flow, but for the life of me I cannot remember how!
I'd turn the CFH of gas back down to 20. Too much gas can cause turbulence, and give you the same results. Only time I run 35 to 40 CFH is with certain dual shield wires that manufactures suggest.
I still believe you are not getting enough gas around the weld zone. My gut tells me you have a loose hose or bad O-ring, most likely between the solenoid, and gun connection. Or, and I've seen this before, the gun is not shoved all the way into place, which reduces gas flow. But to be safe I would switch rolls of wire!

undercut · Jun 12, 2012

So what's with TIG gas lenses? Do they help reduce turbulence? I'm having a hard time thinking that something that helps to reduce turbulence can possibly help when there is so much hot gas being produced when welding. Sorry, I'm pretty green when it comes to arc welding with a shielding gas.