Anything welding

Saw this innovative antenna tonight.

 

hahah that is badass!

 

Wtf??

 

Totally what I said. I guess his work tosses them from time to time-it's got some tungsten wire jammed all the way into the broken antenna. He says it works great.

 

hey guys I've got a quick question.

I've been using a millermatic mig welder for a little while and sometimes my welds come out really good, other times it pops and spits. sometimes it seems like its situations where I can't get the surface ground down real well, other times IDK what causes it. sometimes it will start popping and make little balls and then all of a sudden it will start burning great and make a nice looking weld. I've read that not enough gas causes porosity, so i've tried turning the gas up more, then turning it down a bit, all the while keeping it above 20 when i pull the trigger.

any advice is appreciated

 

I run my gas at 28. Bad ground contact comes to mind first. Or too much stick out. Could be a number of things though. I've even heard of fluctuating input amperage causing similar issues.

 

Sounds like a grounding or wire feed issue. Make sure ground connections are tight and have good contact to the work piece.
As for feed, make sure the liner/gun lead is not kinked or twisted when trying to weld and that the feed rollers have adequate tension and arent slipping.
Changing a liner if it hasnt been done for a while might be a good preventative maintenance and way to tick one of the possibilities off the list.

On another note, all the above are good on my miller 251 but sometimes it'll have a start where it tries to sputter and pop, i've found simply letting off the trigger then pulling it again it'll weld smooth and normal. I havent figured out why it does this, seems to do it every 10th start or so.

 

I've noticed the shotgun starts once in a while with both the 251 and 252 I used to use. My century welder doesn't do it for whatever reason.

 

Sounds more like you have an intermittent gas issue. Any kinks in the hose? How is the liner?

 

Are you cutting the wire between cold starts? If my wire stops glowing between beads I always cut off the little burnt tip I get much better starts like that.

 

I'm not. And I have noticed if theres a blued/oxidized ball on the end of the wire that those are the times it will initially sputter when striking the arc. I gues I should try that and see if it solves the issue, just a bit more time consuming between beads. Just find it strange as my other machines start smooth each time without cutting the ball off.

 

Any one see the new Lincoln Power Mig 210? It's a dual voltage 110/220v machine, Mig and DC stick and Tig welder. Rugged construction, 40 lbs, digital color screen diaplay. Msrp of $999

 

Saw that. The local weld shop guy started in on it pretty quickly after I got there. It must be good commission or something.

 

Yeah its second nature for me if it cools enough to not be glowing I snip it off before starting the next weld.

 

Remember, if you have switched from flux core to solid core with gas, you need to switch the polarity on the welding machine.

KO

 

Forgot how much I love my plasma.. Bumped my air pressure up by ~5 PSI - amazing how much dross that it eliminated from my cuts.

Latest project, geometric firepit.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

- I always try to grind down the area where the ground clamp will be, but I guess I should make sure the ground clamp isn't dirty and check the connections.
- I always cut the tip off the end before starting each weld. Only because I thought you were supposed too.
- I did switch from flux but I changed the polarity- I will double check though.
- I'll check the gas hose and connections.
- I'll check the liner and drive wheels.

And I'll test what Eric said about when it happens to him he just stops and restarts and it works better.

Thanks again guys. It's awesome to see the talent in here. Keep up the good work!

 

I'm having an electrician come install a 6-20R outlet in the garage soon for charging the wife's Nissan Leaf and thinking it would be good to have him put in another 240V outlet while he's here so I can hook up a welder eventually.

I'm having a hard time finding what type of wiring and outlets are most commonly used for welding and seems like there's a ton of options. Is there a standard or most common setup you guys use for powering your welder? Or do I have to wait till I buy one to find out what kind of wiring I need?

 

I've wired up a few welder outlets. 50 amp breaker, 6/3 wire, and a 3 prong welder receptacle will get you what you need.

 

It really depends on the welder. If you don't have one yet you could have him put in a 220 single phase breaker, usually 30 amps, and the standard outlet, not sure what it's called, looks like this http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...iact=rc&uact=3&dur=486&page=1&start=0&ndsp=18. I ran 6 awg. If you need to change the breaker or plug later all the hard stuff was already done.