New Welder, some questions

[Fubeca]

Well, I finally got a real welder.


So I built a quick and dirty welding table


I am using 92% Argon 8% CO2 and am having a bit of trouble with the short circuit settings. If I use the settings for C25 it doesn't work very well. What is a good rule of thumb? Should I increase or decrease the wirespeed and or voltage? None of my short circuit pics worked so I'll have to try again.

Here is my first attempt at spray transfer, I had to crank it up quite a bit.





It is on a 40 amp breaker instead of the recommended 60 amp. How dangerous is this?

[Planet X]

Yeah baby

Long as the wire is sized for the 40 amp breaker it is fine-I run off of 50amp breaker. If you draw enough juice the breaker should trip. And again as long as the wire is at least # 8 you should be fine. Others know more on this question,look forward to checking out their information.

Are you using .035 wire? L-50 or L-56?
98/2 is a low energy mix-should be good for spray & pulsed welding on clean metal-ie. grind off mill scale.
It is also a great choice for 'metal-cored' electodes, however these wires really are an expensive solution for a non-existant problem The gas when used with short circuit settings would work best on metals .080 and thinner.

Here is a sc setting; WFS 210 Volts 17.
Chances are you will need to reduce volts to 15-16 with mix you are using.

[Dan]

If you want to short arc anything thicker that sheetmetal you really need a gas mix that contains a higher amount of Co2. i think PlanetX misread the gas mix that you are using, however his statements are still true. Your 92/8 co2 gas mix is a low energy short circuit transfer mix that can start causing you lack of fusion issues on material as thin as an 1/8".

BTW, are you left or right handed? The reason I ask is because if you are right handed you are pulling your spray arc weld, when you should be pushing the weld. As PlanetX stated you need to remove the Millscale from your base metal. Mill scale messes with the spray transfer arc and how well the puddle wets out.

It looks like you are welding on 1/4" thick material. If so, for spray transfer if your running an .035 wire try around 24 to 26 load volts, and around 400 to 420 IPM on your wire speed setting

[Fubeca]

Thanks for the info guys. It was late and I was getting lazy so I stopped grinding the mill scale -- I'll work on that. I am right handed and was probably pulling -- again, lack of focus.

The gas supplier said this was the only mix he had with a >80% argon and said I wouldn't notice a difference with the short circuit welding.

If I can get something like 90-10 or 85-15 will that be a better all around gas or do I really need two gasses if I want to SS and spray?

[fatfrank]

Fubeca,

Looks like corners of the angle around the bottom of your table is pretty sharp. I think your shins would thank you if you dulled them up a little.

[Planet X]

Originally posted by Fubeca
Thanks for the info guys. It was late and I was getting lazy so I stopped grinding the mill scale -- I'll work on that. I am right handed and was probably pulling -- again, lack of focus.

The gas supplier said this was the only mix he had with a >80% argon and said I wouldn't notice a difference with the short circuit welding.

If I can get something like 90-10 or 85-15 will that be a better all around gas or do I really need two gasses if I want to SS and spray?

90-10 & 92-8, will yield same results-more or less.
Any Argon/Co2 mix, between 15% and 20% Co2 , will be the best multi-purpose mix to short circuit & spray arc , steel type metals.

Conclusion; For steel/stainless welding. 1 bottle of argon/15-20%co2. & 1 bottle of argon/3%Co2. will do it all..
If you are not welding a great deal of stainless nor a great deal of thin sheetmetal than you can do without the 97/3 mix.

ps. .080 is about 13 to 14 ga. 'thick', what I was trying to say was anything thicker than this using Short circuit settings may have fusion issues...
This, rule. is with optimum weld deposition rates-generally we, weld too slow and deposit too much weld anyway so chances are you will be able to get away with it until.. you use this mix up. Using Spray, you will be able to ensure good penetration on materials 1/8 and up anyway.
If you have any tool budget left- Ed craigs- Manual and robotic Gas metal arc welding including pulsed gmaw, Training book would absolutely be a good investment.

But most of the crucial stuff in it Can be found on his sight and weeding through the 'question' section he has there for free.
Don't be to hard on your gas salesman- they generally are paid for crap and use gas manufacturers sales literature for tech knowledge

[Planet X]

Originally posted by Dan
If you want to short arc anything thicker that sheetmetal you really need a gas mix that contains a higher amount of Co2. i think PlanetX misread the gas mix that you are using, however his statements are still true. Your 92/8 co2 gas mix is a low energy short circuit transfer mix that can start causing you lack of fusion issues on material as thin as an 1/8".

BTW, are you left or right handed? The reason I ask is because if you are right handed you are pulling your spray arc weld, when you should be pushing the weld. As PlanetX stated you need to remove the Millscale from your base metal. Mill scale messes with the spray transfer arc and how well the puddle wets out.

It looks like you are welding on 1/4" thick material. If so, for spray transfer if your running an .035 wire try around 24 to 26 load volts, and around 400 to 420 IPM on your wire speed setting

Dan, I just did a bad job writing what I was trying to say-you however did a good job of it ,thanks for keeping me on my toes

[Fubeca]

Yeah, they are pretty sharp. It is still a work in progress. I just snapped that picture after I slapped it all together. I might have to shorten it a little. I made it 42" tall because I'm pretty tall and I like to stand while I work.
I stole some ideas from people on this site -- thanks.

I just talked to my gas supplier and they are going to get me a bottle of 80-20 so I should be able to short circuit and spray with the same gas pretty well. I'll try and get some practice pictures up for critique

[Planet X]

Dan, hey it clicked-little slow today. Yup I screwed up the #'s of the mixes we were talking about.
'my bad'

[echo8287]

What size wire do you have going to the outlet that you have the welder plugged into? Did you run it or do you know? David

[Fubeca]

I'm not sure on the wire, it was already there. It is aluminum multi-stranded conductors, the actual conductor was just over an eight of an inch. There wasn't enough of the casing exposed to see the guage. It is either 6 or 8, I think.