New Welder

[Jaybr]

Went out to test another piece and get some pics.

May have found my problem, I had forgotten to set the regulator and gas was wide open.

Adjusted gas to 19psi and reset welder back to auto settings, but now I’m out of gas.

Did a few spots with no gas and got similar results as before . The larger bead was with spot set at 2.3 seconds then I turned down to 1.5 sec for the others

As you can see, didn’t get much penetration and easily snapped the peices apart.

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[nvrstuk]

Really looks like a heat/speed issue.

Get out of "auto" set and dial up he voltage till you burn thru in appr. 2 sec. Then back it off. You will also know if you're voltage is waaaay too high if your wire feels/looks like it isn't making contact with the surface. This means your way too high voltage wise also.

Pics again.

 

[Jaybr]

It will be Monday before I can get more gas and test again.

Not sure what wire feed not making contact with the surface looks like but my wire is burning up short


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[nvrstuk]

There ya go. Turn wire speed up a little if you can see/feel the "wire is burning up short"

 

[Yeller]

Too much gas and not enough both cause a lack of penetration. Too much cools the puddle and keeps it from penetrating, it also blows porosity into the weld. Too little/none the puddle balls up due to the presence of oxygen, making porosity and a complete lack of penetration.

I have not played with autoset on Lincoln, but with miller is pretty spot on.

I genuinely despise the flow meters that just have a dial, they are just a wild ass guess. Ones with a floating ball are much better. If you really want to know if it’s right you need a flow meter that measures the flow at the nozzle, that’s the only way to know for sure.

My profession keeps requires that I be a welding issue diagnosis nerd, and usually over the most phone

 

[nvrstuk]

I can't get my flow to be "that wide open". I can see how if you went thru a tank of gas in those few spot welds that you could cause that much cooling. That's crazy!

 

[Jaybr]

I can't get my flow to be "that wide open". I can see how if you went thru a tank of gas in those few spot welds that you could cause that much cooling. That's crazy!

Thankfully it wasn't a full tank, when I first glanced at it one of the dials was pegged wide open and I thought it was bad, the other was sitting on 20 which is where I had my flow set. I had forgotten that I swapped the regulator with the new welder and when I went back out and turned the gas on I saw that wide open valve jump up from 0 and realized what I had done. By that point it was too late on my gas bottle.

 

[Mikes Early Bronco]

You may know this since you worked with the 180 but clean clean clean the metal your welding. After sanding, I use acetone and it helps quite a bit.

That practice stock looks thick enough to bevel the mating edges. That might give you more penetration.

I like the Lincoln 210 a lot. It’s a little beast of a unit, but you may want to ditch the stock regulator and upgrade to something nicer. The paper backing (that the numbers are printed on) has curled and makes contact with the needle, rendering it very inaccurate.

Good luck!

 

[Jaybr]

You may know this since you worked with the 180 but clean clean clean the metal your welding. After sanding, I use acetone and it helps quite a bit.

That practice stock looks thick enough to bevel the mating edges. That might give you more penetration.

I like the Lincoln 210 a lot. It’s a little beast of a unit, but you may want to ditch the stock regulator and upgrade to something nicer. The paper backing (that the numbers are printed on) has curled and makes contact with the needle, rendering it very inaccurate.

Good luck!

Would this be better or is there another you recommend?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VYN0GG/?tag=classicbroncos-20

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[Jaybr]

Got a new gas bottle today and played around with the settings again and still not getting what I expected.

Maybe my expectations are misguided?

I was hoping to butt weld the 2 pieces together, grind the weld smooth and still have a relatively strong seam.

What I’m getting after grinding is a really weak seam that I can easily break apart.

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[Yeller]

That’s thick enough it needs a bevel

 

[omureebe]

Best thing I did after buying a welder was taking one-on-one classes at a local welding shop. I think I paid something like $100/hr and went four times for two hour stints for four consecutive weeks. It gave me the time to practice at home in between classes from 3/16" down to 20 gauge. Got me to the point that I can dial in my machine as well as my technique, at least good enough that I feel like I know enough to make decent welds for an amateur. That was the best investment I made.

 

[56f100bbw]

I went to a local community college that taught TIG welding. the best thing I ever did I never mig now

 

[Jaybr]

I've thought about taking a class, will have to see what I can find in the area.

Solved my issue for now, it was the wire. Not sure what this is for, but I picked it up at the gas supply where I bought the welder and told him what I was welding. Picked up a roll of Lincoln L-56 this morning and ran a test this evening. Just tried to burn a hole in the 16 guage sheet and couldn't do it, held for probably 10 seconds, cranked up the voltage and wire speed and tried again with same results. Then I switched to the Lincoln wire and it didn't take long to blow a hole.

Set the spot timer and welded up another seam, ground it smooth and it's solid as a rock.

 

[Yeller]

Glad you figured that out, there are some very crappy “equal to….” Wires on the market, they have all tried to get us to buy them, easy answer is no, every time we try something else it fails and costs us a fortune, so we just don’t anymore.

L56 is the best there is for hand welding, I’ve tried them all. I just ordered 10,000# of L59, L56 modified for automated welding, in 500# drums and 1500# of L56 for hand welding in 36# rolls.

 

[Jaybr]

Glad you figured that out, there are some very crappy “equal to….” Wires on the market, they have all tried to get us to buy them, easy answer is no, every time we try something else it fails and costs us a fortune, so we just don’t anymore.

L56 is the best there is for hand welding, I’ve tried them all. I just ordered 10,000# of L59, L56 modified for automated welding, in 500# drums and 1500# of L56 for hand welding in 36# rolls.

All I’ve used up to this point is Lincoln L56 but this is what they had at the welding shop. I assumed since they deal with commercial they carried good stuff.

Are there other reliable brands of wire you like?


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[Yeller]

On my home machine I’m currently running some Esab ER70-6, which is the same spec as L56, it welds fine, just looks odd, it’s grey in color, not sure where it came from, probably got left by a vendor and I took it home. When I opened it I thought maybe it was a flux core dual shield, which is a flux core wire that requires the use of gas. I haven’t done anything light gauge with it yet, just heavy steel in spray arc. Lincoln and Esab seam to be the best, but I don’t consider them interchangeably equal but for most things an acceptable substitute. For what I do for work, our liability is too high to experiment. If it fails to weld properly we can flood a building, if it fails during operation people can die so it’s just not worth it. We weld fire sprinkler pipe, which is a life safety device.

 

[Jaybr]

My first sheet metal patch

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[Mikes Early Bronco]

Would this be better or is there another you recommend?

http://[URL]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VYN0GG/?tag=classicbroncos-20

[/URL]


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That one looks like a higher quality. I just glued my backing down for the time being. I’m going with a different flow meter next. https://bakersgas.com/collections/all/products/victor-0781-3657

 

[Glass Pony]

Really looks like a heat/speed issue.

Get out of "auto" set and dial up he voltage till you burn thru in appr. 2 sec. Then back it off.

Pics again.

That quote brought back some memories of a welding buddy I worked with.
When we were at the plant somebody would ask him an amperage setting and he would say, "Turn it up until you can't stand it, and then back it down 5 amps."