New to me "JUNK $75.00 '97 ESAB Migmaster 250 " Let's get it working again... HELP!!!

[N2 Welding]

same welds from previous post cut and etched.

I think soutthpaw is correct when he said he thinks my technique is probably my main issue. I am having as I always have had a problem positioning my self so that I can see everything I need to see in order to aim the wire right where it needs to be.

[MinnesotaDave]

All those straight lines, zero depth of fusion, are how mig gets such a bad name. But you probably knew that.

For vision reasons, I often do a straight push so I can see specifically where my arc is biting in.

Works good for me and some guys I know with even "older eyesight" tell me it's the only way they can see anything.

[soutthpaw]

That's why I like a weave, circles, triangles, ee's or some other movement. I can see the base metal melt at the toes and root. Straight stringers have never been my friend. If I do them, I usually run hotter than suggested.

[MinnesotaDave]

That's why I like a weave, circles, triangles, ee's or some other movement. I can see the base metal melt at the toes and root. Straight stringers have never been my friend. If I do them, I usually run hotter than suggested.

Right, hot is the key

[N2 Welding]

I am holding the gun right handed. Was moving the puddle from left to right. Should I be moving the puddle from right to left? Maybe that will make it easier to see the puddle and the joint the wire is feeding into. I'll go give that a shot with some .023 wire.

[Bonzoo]

Yup.Quick.If you don't pull fast enough you damn near burn through.A circle jerk would certainly blow holes. I do a lot of thin box tube like that for tables, shelves and crap.
Mostly 1.8 mm = 14 1/2 ga. I use the same settings I would for 1/8 flat/horiz with a bead being manipulated.

[Bonzoo]

Sorry. Jumped the gun.
You still messing with 1/8 ? I hope not with the .023. Thats a pain.You need a bunch of heat and some cursive.
With 030 try bumping up to high 2 and start a lil over 4 on the wire and tweak a bit for mix

[N2 Welding]

I see how easy it is for .023 to birdnest lol. I had to at least try it. I did my best with .023 and I am curious to see what the cut and etch looks like. Lets see if I can upload images from phone. We have family feud on the main tv my pc uses as a monitor so stuck on phone.

[N2 Welding]

Right, hot is the key

I like this because it definitely drives in pennetration however I am not able to dial in the beads as close to spatter free with the hotter setting.

[soutthpaw]

That machine does not have induction control so that makes it harder I'd clean the spatter afterwards and focus on getting the weld I wanted. 5th street Fab has a good video on movement and setting the the welder. The only difference is I start high wire speed and back off. That way I don't melt into the tip with too slow a speed



And he uses a top to bottom circle, I use a bottom to top circle because I like the way it fills the root, and I can see it a little better. See what works for you

This instructor has some good videos too

[N2 Welding]

thank you souttpaw. I'll watch those vid's when I finish with this post

Here is what the cut and etch looks like for the last 3 coupons. .023 is the least when it comes to penetration as suspected it would be. But at least I was able to run it and know the machine is working

I did .030 push then pull then .023 circle e's

[N2 Welding]

I am thinking of making a cheating crutch that holds the nozzle at the right height/angle with wheels so I can easily roll the gun along the joint.

[Dan]

Looks like you are carrying way to large of a weld puddle for the material thickness. This is probably due to traveling along the joint to slow, and possibly using to large of an oscillation. Unless you are running extremely hot settings, both of these can lead to poor fusion/penetration issues. Definite issue with your gun angle between the vertical and flat plate. Do you have the arc dialed in to were it rides on the leading edge of the puddle. If you get the wire speed dialed in a touch to high the puddle can get a little to far ahead of you.

Unless you can read the weld puddle real well the cursive "e" motion is a poor habit to get into using, because it can easily lead to lack or inconsistent levels of fusion along the weld joint. As small as the weld needs to be for 1/8", the cursive "e" motion definitely isn't needed for 1/8".

[N2 Welding]

I will try my hand at strait drag and push again with your settings while moving faster Dan. I also want to try hotter settings. Those settings you mentioned are pretty good as far as I can tell. Having a stiff neck makes it hard for me to tilt my head and move to stay in an optimum viewing position. I'm trying to mix up my techniques to find what works best. Good thing the porta band, flap disk, blue scotch bright buffing pads and etching acid don't take very long to see the results of my efforts. I do notice I get lazy with keeping the gun angle exactly where it needs to be. Especially at the start of a weld. I'm not making excuses for my self. I know I have a hurtle to leap if I want to get good at this. At least I kind of know what I am doing wrong and I'm trying to figure out how to correct it. Having you guys provide suggestions and supporting me is great. Thank you very much

I feel I kind of spoiled my self with the Rebel in that it's way to easy to plug n play. Now I'm am trying to reverse train my self to dial in a puddle on a basic wire feed welder with no frills just guts. Have to say I am having fun trying and learning all these different techniques to see what does and does not work for good weld penetration. Having the ability to cut and etch helps tremendously. I have to thank Carl "CEP" for the liquid of choice when etching.

[MinnesotaDave]

Looks like you are carrying way to large of a weld puddle for the material thickness. This is probably due to traveling along the joint to slow, and possibly using to large of an oscillation. Unless you are running extremely hot settings, both of these can lead to poor fusion/penetration issues. Definite issue with your gun angle between the vertical and flat plate. Do you have the arc dialed in to were it rides on the leading edge of the puddle. If you get the wire speed dialed in a touch to high the puddle can get a little to far ahead of you.

Unless you can read the weld puddle real well the cursive "e" motion is a poor habit to get into using, because it can easily lead to lack or inconsistent levels of fusion along the weld joint. As small as the weld needs to be for 1/8", the cursive "e" motion definitely isn't needed for 1/8".

+1
Drag or push straight - nice and hot.

[N2 Welding]

On the topic of arc starts, I real don't like the slow run-in starts that produce a noticeable level of sluggish weld puddle development at the start. The Trek 180 had this characteristic, if I remember correctly, the MM 180 did too. As good and responsive as the arc starts are on the Handler 187/190, Handler 210 MVP, and Ironman 230 I was disappointed to se what Hobart had done to the Trek 180. One thing I will always praise about the SP 175 Plus that I own was how responsive the arc starts were. The PM 180C is real good in this area too. My MM 210 was a touch sluggish, the Miller Techs evidently trusted my judgment on this because they told me which pot on the control board was for ramp up. My Migmaster will occasionally give me a poppy arc start, I've tried contacting ESAB via E mail to find out if there is a pot on the control board, but no one has ever replied back. Looks Like I am going have to try and contact them by phone instead.

Dan did you ever get to the bottom of this issue with your machine? http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...01#post4426501

[N2 Welding]

I am reaching the conclusion that there is something preventing me from seeing the wire feed into the joint. I tried taking my cheater lense out of the hood and standing back a bit and it does not help. I think I will try using my HTP Striker XL hood tomorrow just for the hell of it. Got nothing to loose.

I turned up the heat to low/8/6 and that did get hot enough to give some better penetration but I could not make a consistent pass from one to the next if my life depended on it because something is preventing me from seeing the joint.

[Dan]

At 50 yrs old a well lit area is very much needed for me to have a fairly good view of the weld joint and weld puddle. A quality lens like my Miller ClearLight or Lincoln 4C help a lot too. A 2.00 cheater lens is required too anymore.

I decided to go out to the garage last night and play with my Migmaster a little on some 1/8" horizontal T joints. Since you are using a 15' Gunmaster 250 on your unit, I dug my Gunmaster 250 out of my MIG gun storage tote and installed it on the machine. Set the unit up with 12" spool of Hobart Brothers .030 HB-28. Started off with the machine set to LOW/6/5. This was not producing good results. The wire speed was set to low for the voltage. This is not uncommon for me though, with this machine, because my input voltage varies from 240-247. Ended up having to increase the wire speed up to around 5.5. The output was good and hot requiring nothing more then a straight travel along the weld joint. I was pushing the weld puddle from right to left. The resulting weld bead had a fairly flat profile to with just a slight crown to it. The spatter level was reasonable light. The spatter BB's that did exist were pretty fine in size. According to the meter on the machine, the voltage was in the low to mid 18's with the amperage in the 150+ amp range. Didn't have a single poppy arc start. Had the lower knurled V groove drive roll installed on the wire drive. My nozzle is modified so that I have a good 1/8"+ extension of the contact tip past the end of the nozzle . This allows me to hold a tight 1/4" stick out on a T joint.

I also gave a 12" spool of .035 INE a try. I was seeing some real nice arc quality from this wire. I've forgotten the wirespeed setting, but I remember the voltage was set at Low/6. Once a again with a straight travel the weld beads had a fairly flat profile with just a slight crown. Spatter was fairly light again. Out voltage and amperage was close to the .030 values.

What are you using for an etching solution?

Understand, I don't consider the Migmaster 250 arc as the best ever. You get it dialed in right it is pretty darn good though. At this point my favorite machine arc quality wise is probably my Multimatic 215. If I play with it enough I can get some pretty impressive results out of my Fabricator 211i.

[Hobbytime]

I am reaching the conclusion that there is something preventing me from seeing the wire feed into the joint. I tried taking my cheater lense out of the hood and standing back a bit and it does not help. I think I will try using my HTP Striker XL hood tomorrow just for the hell of it. Got nothing to loose.

I turned up the heat to low/8/6 and that did get hot enough to give some better penetration but I could not make a consistent pass from one to the next if my life depended on it because something is preventing me from seeing the joint.

if its not bright and sunny out, I usually have a spot light shinning where im welding to see , along with cheater glasses, its too hard to weld with braille you burn your fingers too much .......

[N2 Welding]

Yeah my eyes are not what they use to be. Had cataract surgery in both eyes which helps but now have to have reading glasses for anything up close. I will try a bright led spot light today.

[N2 Welding]

I was using some Hobart .030 got off Amazon and turned the heat up to med 2 speed at about 6.0 and heat is way up but can’t seem to get the penetration on some little ol 1/8” T joint. I managed to burm the knuckle on my left middle finger through my fencer gloves.

Using the HTP Stryker is working out a bit but not in a way you might think. It is lighter so less strain on my neck. I am using my reading glasses instead of using a cheater and they work good if I keep them all the way up on the ridge of my nose. I also put on a hoodie to cover the back of my hood to reduce glare inside the hood. I am seeing the joint much better now but still am not getting the penetration even though the weld looks ok but far from it. I’ll edit this post with a pic in a few minutes.

[soutthpaw]

Not a fan of Hobart wire myself. Though I don't think that's your issue I like ESAB Spoolarc 86. Where in CA are you located?

[MinnesotaDave]

I was using some Hobart .030 got off Amazon and turned the heat up to med 2 speed at about 6.0 and heat is way up but can’t seem to get the penetration on some little ol 1/8” T joint. I managed to burm the knuckle on my left middle finger through my fencer gloves.

Using the HTP Stryker is working out a bit but not in a way you might think. It is lighter so less strain on my neck. I am using my reading glasses instead of using a cheater and they work good if I keep them all the way up on the ridge of my nose. I also put on a hoodie to cover the back of my hood to reduce glare inside the hood. I am seeing the joint much better now but still am not getting the penetration even though the weld looks ok but far from it. I’ll edit this post with a pic in a few minutes.

I don't know know what you mean when you say your heat is up but you can't penetrate.

Penetration is gained from amperage, which is wire feed speed.

Voltage is adjusted for a proper bead at that wire feed speed. Voltage does not control penetration.

[N2 Welding]

I am in Stockton CA. My 10# spool of INE .030 was getting a bit low so I decided to burn the Hobart. I don’t care for it much either. But since I am just practicing and gave up on spatter control and focusing more on penetration I figured I would waste the Hobart.

Dave I try to keep the wfs dialed with the voltage so it won’t sputter too much from being either too slow or too fast. Not quite understanding how the wfs controls amperage when if I don’t have adequate voltage the wire will just stub and spatter clumps of wire all over the place. If the voltage is too high the wire will burn back to the tip. Confusing.

[soutthpaw]

Maybe I can pay you a visit next time I drive to LA. Late May or June sometime.