just watch the puddle and take your time, mig welding is easy. Once you set your heat, consistency- the same movement from beginning to end will give you a strong, good looking weld.
just watch the puddle and take your time, mig welding is easy. Once you set your heat, and wire speed.consistency- the same movement from beginning to end will give you a strong, good looking weld.
theres a little more to it than that. things like condition of parts is also very important. mig guns have to b taken care of. But if you know how to weld. Just mess around with it you will pick it up. The first time I had a MIG gun in my hand was taking a weld test.
it also helps to practice on good machine too ! often what happens is somebody decides they wanna start mig welding and run out and buy one those cheap 110v 130a mig welders and just get frustrated , if you decide to buy a unit get at least a 170a 230v one , more user friendly by far
I have a 240Volt, 200 Amp Lincoln Mig. I'm fairly good stick welding. My Wife bought me the Mig for Christmas. My first time using it was today, I made a bracket to install a Salt Spreader on my quad. The welds are very strong, just not that pretty. I think I really need to just keep using it. What's the best technique with the gun?
This might be a dumb question to some of you but I know you can buy a spool gun and use a mig to weld aluminum with 100% argon. But can you just mig weld with 100% argon to avoid buying 2 tanks?
Ya got it backwards, 100% argon works with steel. It will work with aluminum also but the arc tends to wander. To weld aluminum use helistar,or a argon/helium mix to stabilize the arc and it also provides a little more cleaning action. Correct me if I'm wrong, been a little while since I've been away from the welding industry.
The most common shielding gas for MIG welding aluminum is 100% argon. Flow rates of 20 to 30 CFH (cubic feet per hour) are acceptable. C25 or argon Co2 mixes are not acceptable.
I've used 100% argon on on mild steel, odd puddles and drooped seems on overhead welds.
100% argon is for TIG ( heli-arc) . For MIG, you need 75/25 mix, argon/carbon dioxide. This works for all metals, but helium makes a much cleaner weld. It also costs a LOT more than a mix. The biggest step welding al is to get it clean.
You can also use tri-mix for al, also quite pricey compared to 75/25, just depends on what you're building,I.e. a bumper vs an oil cooler.
For the welding procedure, once you know how to control a puddle (no cold lap, correct voltage/speed etc.) all welding is pretty simple.
For a quick lesson to save some time on appearance and overall weld quality.
1. Pull (drag) a stick. Of course this goes out the window on vertical/pipe.
2. Push a wire. This applies to aluminum, carbon, shielded gas and flux-core.
The best way I can describe to weld with a wire feed .045 gas shielded....cut and fill. By cut and fill I mean move forward quickly to intentionally undercut, then back to fill the preheated (cut) area. This pattern will vary with the thickness of the base material as well as the voltage/wire speed settings.
Ditch the 75/25 and go to 98/2 shielding gas. If you know stick welding it will be like going from a 6013 to a 7018 rod. The c-25 is good for dirty trashy metals that are in poor condition, however it splatters like a mofo and is just junky in general. The 98/2 will weld exceptionally smooth with very little splatter and a more smooth and consistant puddle. The 98/2 must be cleaner, anyone that welds for a living has enough sence to clean and prep the area to be welded in the first place.
Do not allow the wire to feed to quickly, the sound of splattering cold weld with too much wire speed sounds definitive. sounds like chit. Try to use more of a spray transfer method, there is no popping sound and the wire is being fed slower with higher heat. This makes the best penetration, smoothest quality weld. You will know when the wire is too slow, burnt to the tip, then step it up from there.
ugly puddles and welds dont matter as long as you have good penetration.
that is why they made grinders, to made ugly welds look pretty.
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