Needing some welding advice

[Fiatdude]

OK -- took the new Lincoln pro mig 140 for a cruise and was trying to put some body panels back in that I had cut out when I installed the 091 .....

I've got the power set on A (should be the lowest) as recommended on the chart and I've been playing with the wire speed B U T ,,,,, I keep blowing through the panels, even when trying to tack, forget about running a bead,,,,, what have I missed here??????????? -- --

About read to try the inner shield wire without the gas just to see if that would make a difference........ I use to be able to run a nice tight pass ...... but this is killing me -- guess the power is still too high -- any thoughts??????

[dlamyle]

Have you tried increasing your stick out? If I'm blowing through, I'll do this and pulse for like half a second with a couple seconds in between to cool. It also helps to pull the weld and open the nozzle angle some.

[Piledriver]

Wire size is critical too, on sheetmetal you should be using .023" solid wire with gas if you expect to run a bead.
.030" flux core has better penetration, which is usually not a feature on sheetmetal.

Usually best you can hope for with flux core on thin sheetmetal is a long series of tack welds.
OTOH it still works in a stiff breeze.

Note: Like everything else, you get what you pay for with welders.
I strongly suggest trying to find a good used major brand, non-bottom end model.
Not a HD model either.
(Blue/Red/Maroon or Yellow=Miller/Red=Lincoln/Maroon=Tweco/Victor/Thermal Arc/Dynamics) and Yellow=ESAB)

The Chinese are highly skilled at making parts to a spec'd cost,
and perfectly capable of good quality... A large % of the "good" stuff is actually made in China.

... but the things that are not disposable junk cost almost as much as made in the USA.

[Fiatdude]

Yeah -- I had a good Lincoln 200 and gave it away to a "friend" ----- It had a really cool stitch feature on it for doing sheet metal -- I'm thinking that this unit isn't turning down like it should --- No way of telling if this is the case or not -- -- One thing I forgot about trying is holding the gun further away and at a greater angle -- was doing the pulsing thing with the trigger, but it would just hit and burn thru instantly --- No amount of grinding is going to make this look good now -- I use to have a piece of 1/4" copper that I could back something like this up and weld "to it" -- can't find that piece either -- -- Was hoping to get this all back in place today as my trans is suppose to be done late tomorrow and wanted to get it back in -- -- this is putting my tinsel in a tangle damnit

[Piledriver]

See if you can find a low mile TA 181i, seems a lot of folks bought them and ~never used them due to life getting in the way.

Has a great bottom end and top end, 10A-180A fully usable on a 100' 10 ga extension cord.

I confess I have only used my modified unit with a Firepower 250A spool gun, but the Tweco torch is an industry std and wire feed is metal:very nicely made.
(I had to change the $5 potentiometer in the spoolgun handle for remote wire speed, could have set it up for remote voltage IIRC)

Its actually a far better setup that the US spec and supports the spool gun, which the "rest of world" units do not.
The US setup will take a spoolgun too but changing the torch over takes a minute or so, still easy, but the 180A spoolgun is a toy compared to the Firepower unit.

I scored the spoolgun cheap on ebay, new/shelf wear, box was torn up. Works like a champ.

I can switch from MIG on 25' long cable spoolgun to TIG or over to a 4" or 12" internal wire spool (if I had ever bought some) in a few seconds.

I use the TIG as much as the spool gun.

I adapted the 181i and the spool gun to work together via a mix of US and "rest of world" factory parts, via a Euro connector, and TA supplied a MIG torch with a euro at no additional cost. The Firepower spool gun came with the euro connector, as it is std on the higher end Firepower MIGs.
(Firepower is also a Tweco company, not all of their gear is low end either, they still make some monster old school MIG units)

[ProctorSilex]

I was welding tin on a Hobart 180 or some close number. The thing has a horrible feeder. The wire was thick (030 or 035 can't recall) which kept the weld cold. I used the lowest voltage and a slow feed to repair a nasty crack in the rear side tin. It made a nice bead. No burn through, but I did not grind down the welds so I can't vouch for porosity.
Harbor Freight has a thing they call a weld spoon (I think but can't find it on their site now) that is a handy backing plate.

[Stray Catalyst]

Run it at the end of 50 feet of cheap extension cord and it will burn through a little less. Backing plates should be something you can't weld to the work pieces - so, brass or aluminum or similar.

[Piledriver]

Run it at the end of 50 feet of cheap extension cord and it will burn through a little less. Backing plates should be something you can't weld to the work pieces - so, brass or aluminum or similar.

HF sells a nice copper backing paddle, with a handle even.
http://www.harborfreight.com/welding-spoon-66785.html

Stickout you can control on the fly, though, allows a lot of control.
Just don't leave bird poop.
The .024" solid wire with gas allows even more control and less to fix.

[Dale M.]

Make welding spoon out short length of copper water pipe....

Dale