Oh it's just a trailer.
Nevermind.

 

Got a flow reg. on order, should have it Monday. I'd be disappointed, but its suppose to get back into the -20 weather, and with no heat in the garage, it gets mighty cold fast. Thanks guys.

 

Ok, finally got the flow reg. Started playing around a bit. Good portion of the first welds were very porous. Made sure was getting gas to the gun, which it was. After a while they started getting better. I figured just had to purge all the air out with the CO2/Ar. Started tacking my engine stand together, everything good. Go to run some beads, and they are full or porosity again. Grind them out, do it again, same thing, slightly better. Gas is set to around 25 CFH, running around 200 IPM, Volts around 21 or so. So what am I doing wrong here? At work when we did welding, we used Miller 185 machines. You could hear the gas coming out of the gun, this unit, not so much. All steel is ground clean where I'm welding as well as where the ground clamp is.

 

take your tip apart and see if your clogged up with splatter. clean it out/replace the tip and spray it down with antisplatter.

ETA: make sure you dont have any wind that is blowing your gas away. and we also find that we get better results if the steel is atleast 50F before welding. You may need to atleast take the moisture out of the steel.

 

Will check the splatter later tonight. Welding in a garage, so wind is a non issue. I'll try the preheat later as well. Temp in the garage is the same as it is outside, so that is around freezing right now, will be better tomorrow though.

I was practicing on a piece of 2x2x3/16 angle, found that the later welds did turn out much better. Probably due to getting some heat into the steel like you were saying. I was also getting some cratering at the end of those welds. Likely from moisture coming out of the steel?

 

taking the moisture out comes from heating the steel with a rosebud. there will be a bit of condensation until the steel warms up some. looks like there is moisture coming out of the steel.

 

Maybe 25CFH is a little low, not too mention the CO2 present, not a great shielding gas(there's a lot of money out there is you can figure out how to make great welds with high CO2). I had some welds yesterday that were coming put bad, pretty porous and I cranked up the flow to 45CFH and that was all I changed and it cleaned them right up.

 

Get a bottle of 75% AR 25% CO and set it at around 20CFH if you use 45cfm you will go through a bottle bout every minute.

 

Guess it depends on the size of the bottle and your resources. In my situation increasing the shielding gas flow was the only thing that fixed the weld quality. Use a 75lb tank.

Indeed, "45 CFM" would not last long

 

Tate,

here is a link to Airgas.com click on the Mig wire link this should help..I am not familiar with your set up..does it have pre and post flow timers?? Mine are set at 3 seconds . this allows a purge of the lines and an inert gas cooling ..try leaving your gun in place after you release the trigger to allow the gas to cool the weld.. Hope this helps and I can relate to the temps -30 so far here this winter..
Download the pdf guide as well it has a lot of info in it..
http://www.airgas.com/content/detail...=7000000000164

 

what distance is your cone from the work surface?

Idealy is about 1/2"

 

sounds to me like the leads are backwards. when you weld with out gas the positive from the gun goes to the neg on the machine, but when you weld with gas its pos.-pos. and neg.-neg.

 

Checked the tip, pretty clean. The gas I'm using is 75% Ar, 25% CO2. The cone is usually about 3/8" from the surface, although I hold it closer when doing corner welds (cone is probably 7/8" in diameter).

Colo River Ram, I don't think it has timers. It gives a a good burst first, then goes to the reg flow rate. I didn't read you link yet, but I'm about to. Thanks.

 

any luck tate?

 

Haven't gone back out yet, probably just wait till morning and give it a shot. I'll check into my online manual about switching leads. I was talking to Dodger Bomber about this, he mentioned the same thing. I didn't see where to swap leads, and the unit is electronic, so I figured it would switch itself. Will look into it and update. Thanks again.

Just went and checked, wire is connected to the positive terminal.
Other thing I was reading, the electrode tip should be out past the nozzle a bit. Mine is recessed about 1/4". This part of my problem?