Just purchased a Hobart 187. Have a few question.

[rogers94]

I have been trying out my new Hobart 187 mig welder. I am using 1/8 steel that I have. It seem that if set the welder up to the specs they have inside the lid it is burning to hot and tring to burn through the metal. Is it better to turn down the voltage or turn down the wire speed. I am still fairly new to mig welder and any help would be great. I have also been pulling the gun if that makes a different. Thanks

[DDA52]

Check your input voltage. The machine settings were based on 230vac input. If you are running hotter, which I suspect, you will have to derate it a tad. Try reducing the wirespeed 10%. Try not to reduce the voltage at all. That usually does the trick. Also, pushing the bead will keep you from burning through many times. It could be a combination of hot input and too slow on teh travel speed.

You are going to hate this, but I usually run the setting for the next higher thickness...and my input power is hot...246vac avg.

[Dan]

I normally have my HH 187 set up with an .030 or .035 solid wire and C-25. Set up this way, depending on the joint design and position, I mostly run voltage tap #3 or #4.

With a 240 volt input tap #5 ends up being way to hot for most 1/8" application. Personally, I feel tap #5 turns out working better for certain 3/16" applications or even 1/4" in some cases.

[rogers94]

How do you go about checking input voltage? I am using .035 wire with 75/25 mixed sheilding gas. When I was practicing I found that the #4 tap with the wire speed on 55 seemed to work the best for the 1/8 material. Also how does everyone get the nice stacked dime look on a mig machine. I sure it take practice but all I have is time and just wondering what others process were. Thanks for the info.

[tx_swordguy]

I have an HH 175 which I believe predates the 187 by a yr or two. I have wire speed on the bottom and keep it in about the 11 oclock setting and rarely move it. My voltage switch I play with dependant on metal thickness. Mine only has 4 taps but I will give you an idea of what I use. 1= sheet metal, tubing, stuff that is thin and I am worried about burning trough. 2= tubing and heavier sheet metal up to about 11 ga. 3= 1/8" stock +/- 4= 1/4" or above. This is based on .035 solid wire 75/25 mix. With sheet metal .024 wire works better and you can play with wire speed a little bit up or down depending on how it works for you. This is by no means a hard fast guide, just some beginning settings that work for starting on my machine. As for the stacked dimes, I find that it works better if the metal is clean and you drag the weld while creating little circles similar to a constant line of cursef lower case eeeeeeeeeeee. You must watch what the puddle is doing and the size of it. For me, I watch the arc only long enough to see I am still on the joint and that the metal is melting like I want. Then I watch the puddle and see how it is forming. Eventually you get where watching the progression of the arc comes out of your periferal vision. Others may have different ways of skinning the same cat. This is what works for me, but there are others with much more experience than I
Mark

[DDA52]

How do you go about checking input voltage? .


With a volt meter at the plug.

[rogers94]

Can't seem to get pic to post.