27 replies to this topic

[madtoranajzedded]

Hi guys.finally got some gas for my new
lincoln 180 c mig .ive played around about an
hour with just doing spot runs etc and just
want to know if im close to the ballpark with
Gas setting,mig settings.gas and technique.
bare with me im only a novice so go gentle..
Gas mixture is 5/2 gas is on 11 1/2 L/M .
Firt pic is 4 runs away and to me.top pic is
same settings doing circles lol as first spots
Seem abit too small.
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[madtoranajzedded]

Penetration
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[madtoranajzedded]

Mig settings
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Edited by madtoranajzedded, 18 August 2016 - 04:36 PM.

[madtoranajzedded]

Actually the 2 in middle of 4 runs are
towards me.😅

do i have to turn gas setting off after
each use..cheers maz

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[madtoranajzedded]

Cool Thanks Mark 👍

Edited by madtoranajzedded, 18 August 2016 - 06:58 PM.

[CYCO355]

Has yours got a chart on the inside of the door?
Makes it easier for a novice like myself.

[mick_in_oz]

You should always shut the tap on the bottle when done.

 

You could shut the tap on the bottle and pull the trigger till the gas stops if you are concerned about the pressure on the diaphragm, will save readjusting the reg every time yo use it, turn wire speed to low to save wire perhaps.

 

I never bother, only ever shut off the bottle, leave it till next time, been fine like that for the last 15 years...

[mick_in_oz]

Another tip, put a small plastic cap with an oily rag in it, inside the wire compartment, will stop the wire corroding when the rainy weather is about, or maybe due to high humidity depending on where you live.

[madtoranajzedded]

Hi Cameron..yes it does i turned the wire
Feed up .5 to what is reccommended .
i seemed to weld better at that setting.
When i spotted i had the torch vertical front
view but side on was like 15% angle.
Every spot is like a second .i seem to spot
better away from me than towards.

Hi Mick..will take your adice on both tips
We have been getting wicked frosts here
Shed get heaps of moisture inside .it needs
some kind of insulation to stop it so will
def put cap with rag in there....thanks

Edited by madtoranajzedded, 18 August 2016 - 08:42 PM.

[tuxedoss]

Looks like you've pretty much got it sorted, got the same lincoln and on D tend to use around 3 rather than 2. You'll also find doing runs like you have on a piece of steel is far easyier than doing a butt weld on same thickness steel with a bit of a gap. You have to be real carefull on D or you'll be making holes, if you just doing short spot welds you'll be ok but anything longer you will want to bring it back closer to C

[madtoranajzedded]

Yeah sort of i havnt been happy with the
height of the welds..i tried what you said
and had a go with but welds just using grinder
With a 1 mil gap..started burning holes on
C so went to B on volts and turning wire feed
down to like one .5 and my welds wernt
Penetrating and quite small so i went back
to D and turned wire speed up to 3 and still
needed more volts so ive gone up to D .5 and
are penetrating better and welds flatter to
how i want it...i think im getting closer
to having a go on a car panel.i have played
around with myfathers cig 200i but the wire
Feed was up the shit .im starting to love
playing around with the lincoln..they're
pretty good little unit.im finding laying 3
or 4 spots at a time can group them better
than just singles

[madtoranajzedded]

These a on D settings on volts and 3 for wire
speed laying in small groups.top
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Penetration
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[madtoranajzedded]

settings D.5 wire feed 3 doing.still got gaps
between welds.weld is abit flatter though.ive been playing with different angles like 45 deg etc
thats what these welds were done at.i will go
back to 15 deg nxt test 😊
 20160822_144723.jpg   738.99K   7 downloads

[madtoranajzedded]

Guys.does my spot time on panel need to be
longer as some doesnt appear to be covering
the 1mm gap from behind.my thinking was to
turn mig up for more bite thinking less heat.
less time on panel
and welds more flatter it is penetrating and
some groups look good but when you turn it
over its not filling it in.im sure i need the
gap for when metal expands right??
my last one in pic the nozzle was touching
as was experimenting on 45+ deg as few clips
ive seen they were doing it.look at the first
group of 5 on right in previous pic look
good from top but different underneath

 20160822_144745~3.jpg   454.34K   7 downloads

Edited by madtoranajzedded, 22 August 2016 - 11:31 PM.

[madtoranajzedded]

My reasoning is if i dont fill those small
gaps its going to rust in there if i cant
cover,protect it with something.the areas
of concern are the sills and corner of
scuttle panel..

[madtoranajzedded]

Perhaps im asking on the wrong forum??

I will try some others if this is normal

Cheers

[mick_in_oz]

I'd perhaps try a lil more spot time, or wire, or a bit more overlap, or space the spots so that when you come back to bridge the gap the gap isn't so large and the last spot fuses all three together, you could try a touch more heat to try to get a lil more fusing behind, methinks its going to be a fiddle till you are happy, but honestly, its very very close to where you are wanting to be.

 

Thinking out aloud, the back has good penetration, but has a hollow, so this has to be a lack of material, so would suggest you need the weld to have more filler left at the underside.

[Sunbirdhater]

There's a fine line between having too little and too much penetration, nothing wrong with what you have there, I'm a pressure welder by trade and it takes a lot of years of welding day after day to control the amount of penetration you get.

The bigger the gap, the more distortion you will get as the weld metal shrinks and pulls to the center, plus more gap means more weld metal.

The only ways to limit the amount of distortion is to keep heat input down as low as possible, this a trade off when good penetration is required.

I myself wouldn't be concerned with the amount of penetration you get as when welding thin metal, the joints is usually fused fully when your travel speed and settings are spot on, if the areas that are fully fused on the other side I would not be concerned at all.

Just remember that heat input is really influenced by "travel time" this means the speed you race along at. I notice you use spot welds, good idea for a novice, but eventually you want too start putting runs down of around 30-50mm, the more experience you get the longer your runs will become.

Get the machine as hot as you can without loosing control or burning holes etc, this is how you achieve max Tavel speed, the sound of the arc should be nice and crisp, really tight sort of thing.

It's hard to pass info on about wire speed and voltage settings, as highly experienced welders generally take no notice of what setting the dials are on, they just use their ears eyes and feel.

Welding I have mastered, eliminating the distortion from welding sheet metal will forever elude me!

Hope this helps a bit

PS: welding vertical down when possible is one of the best ways to weld sheet metal, just remember to "backstep" and Keep it cool!
Oh, one more thing, all welding requires peening where possible.
Best of luck.

Edited by Sunbirdhater, 23 August 2016 - 11:59 PM.

[mick_in_oz]

I'm not doubting the skills of anyone above, but if you run a bead on panel steel with a mig it'll be a basket case after wards. Panel beaters will use spots only, as a way to control distortion from shrinkage from so much heat input.

 

Research "Planishing"

[mick_in_oz]

Some worthwhile interesting reading below, planishing, and trouble caused by running a bead with MIG and that OA or TIG can be done as a long run.

 

http://www.metalmeet...ead.php?t=12713

[Sunbirdhater]

I agree Mick, continuous runs are not for the inexperienced, but as per the last post in the above link you posted, it can be done, but your right, my opinion on this earlier was probably not the right way to advise someone starting out, yep, go with spot welding technique as per that well explained post in the link that Mick refers to.

[dattoman]

What gas are people using for their MIG's ?

I noticed at work today our welder uses CO2 instead or Argon/CO2 or mig shield... whatever you want to call it

Mild steel work