A friend loaned me his MIG to practice with. My formal training consists of a buddy telling me "make it sound like frying eggs". I would like a little more than that. For sheetmetal (57 F100 thick sheet metal) what would be good settings. I think it is loaded with .135 wire. Does that sound right? It has a argon and Nitrogen gas mix I think. What should the reg be set at? OK You see how little I know so in twenty words or less teach me to weld.

Ooppps I forgot I'm practicing on some 3/16 thick box tubing so I'll need settings for that too. Also how do you know if the wire speed is too fast or slow?

 

Every welder is different for settings. Try to look on the inside cover door and see what the recommendations are. As for frying bacon, its more like a hmmmmmmmm or soft buzz. Try to use the smallest wire possible like .023 with gas CO2/Argon-
75%Argon/25%CO2 . Keep your nozzle clean also. Buy an anti-spatter spray or gel such as Nozzle-Kleen or cheap alternative like Pam cooking oil spray. This is necessary to keep the gases to come out smoothly and will protect your welded pieces better.

 

Thanks,

Do I just spray the Nozzle Clean up into the cone? If I spray the Pam on the part to be welded will it effect the weld. I was told to do this so the little ***** of splatter would not stick. I have a glass beader and most stuff will be prepped that way.

 

hi, ive been welding for many years, on just about anything you can think of from body panels to trailers. mig welding is probably the most fun type of welding because it can be really simple.

first off, as for gas, the more argon in the tank the less splatter and prettier weld youre going to have, but i actually have used straight C02 for a long time with fine results. the spray stuff that hes talking about does help alot, but i dont touch the stuff because it smells awful and i hate working with it for more than 2 minutes.

second, if youre just beginning, your friend is right you need to get that frying egg sound, it will sound more like a constant sizzle. you dont wanna hear any jumping or crackling, just a constant sizzling sound. in order to get it, dont worry about what the numbers are on your power and wire speed settings, just practice on a piece of metal roughly the same thickness and run several beads until you get the welder to the desired setting.

it takes practice to just turn it to where you want it every time.
also, generally if you have a lower voltage you are gonna want a much slower wire speed, and vice versa. be real careful on thin body metal and dont stay in one spot for long at all, youll burn through it in a heartbeat and possibly warp the metal somethin awful.

hope it helps

 

sorry forgot to mention the nozzle wax, that stuff is great, it usually comes in a small container and all you have to do is dip the tip into the wax and start welding. itll leave a little bit of wax on your weld but its easy to clean off, and you can do without the fishy spray smell.