Help with welding

[LanceR]

From post #14: "From what I see the gas Elliam is using is an Australian proprietary mix of Argon, CO2 and Oxygen at 93%/5%/2% which would be somewhat unusual in the US where straight CO2 or Argon/CO2 in a 75-80% argon/20-25% CO2 would be more normal for mild steel."

I would think that if there was a gas issue he would still get a lot hotter arc than he seems to be getting. The weld profile, depth and amount of spatter might be goofy, but he'd be running a lot more heat.

I'm no expert but my best guess is that the gas he has should lend itself to a good smooth bead and minimal spatter.

Assuming he is using DCEP and that the feed rolls and gun are OK the only viable culprits I can think of are a bad ground/earth or low output from the welder itself. That's why I asked about the ampacity of the circuit he's using.

 

[cjohnson3006]

From post #14: "From what I see the gas Elliam is using is an Australian proprietary mix of Argon, CO2 and Oxygen at 93%/5%/2% which would be somewhat unusual in the US where straight CO2 or Argon/CO2 in a 75-80% argon/20-25% CO2 would be more normal for mild steel."

I would think that if there was a gas issue he would still get a lot hotter arc than he seems to be getting. The weld profile, depth and amount of spatter might be goofy, but he'd be running a lot more heat.

I'm no expert but my best guess is that the gas he has should lend itself to a good smooth bead and minimal spatter.

Assuming he is using DCEP and that the feed rolls and gun are OK the only viable culprits I can think of are a bad ground/earth or low output from the welder itself. That's why I asked about the ampacity of the circuit he's using.

I agree. The gas does affect penetration, but not a lot. Just like welding with a strong wind, slightly less penetration but welds look like crap with pin holes in it. I'm kinda curious if the connection between mig gun and welder output terminal is clean as well as ground as you mentioned before

 

[cjohnson3006]

When using welder, is ground too hot to hang onto? Also if you have access to voltmeter, check voltage output on wire coming out of mig gun.

 

[boykjo]

Yep, shielding gas may be the culprit.

I use
75/25 Argon/CO2