Why are my welds garbage, dammit

[jekquistk5]

Guessing your gas was too low, tip was bad, or your wire speed was too slow. Or a combination of both. When welding upside down most times you have to bump your gas up a bit. Argon is heavier than air so it sinks fast. Bump up the gas and give it a go.

 

[4X4HIGH]

I should say, that top weld is my second pass. There is a flatter one under it.

1) for shiggles, I put a new 35 tip to replace the 30 I was using. Wire is 30.
2) polarity is correct
3) super clean ground, fresh ground steel
4) Yes, using extension cord, awg I dunno, cord is at least as thick as my thumb
5) With or without cone/tip, the wire feeds smooth, no hiccups. Wasted a lot of wire checking that one.
6) Been using the machine for some time now. Maybe 1.5 rolls of flux (the silver stuff) and 1/4 roll of steel. Before that, it was Olanchamedic's welder, but damn near new when I got it.
7) At one point had gas up to 18psi. Gauge only goes to 20


After all this checking, it continued to do the same thing. So I got fed up and wanting to finish the project I switched out the roll to flux core, changed polarity, turned gas off, and burned some hot beads with nice bluing. Hitting the tabs with a mini sledge, ~5/10, 10= swinging for your life, they didn't budge.

I'm wondering, does it matter that my bottle spends its live horizontal? Also, I was grounding on the tabs, if that maters.

The bottle should be vertical or close to it.

 

[K5 Jess]

Sounds like flux core got the job done for you. My 110 has been picky as hell lately too. Couldnt figure it out, then realized that resting or touching the nozel on whatever I was working on made it run like ass and lay down crap that looked like your pics. My 220 doesnt care much about the same lazy technique.

 

[yellowK20]

are you welding outside with solid core wire?? the wind could be blowing your gas away

 

[K85 Octane]

I was welding outside but can't remember any significant amount of wind. Even with the bottle laying down, I always had constant gas pressure, but I'm going to try again on something later to keep the bottle upright. 20psi is the highest I can read on my gauge, I'll try that too. As far as keeping the tip off the metal, I normally run about 3/4"-1" spacing.

I don't know much about wire selection, might need to try something different for this thickness steel. I didn't have any problems with some 1/8" pieces, but this axle stuff is 1/4" minimum and a lot bigger (not sure if that affects the ground or not, the size of the object being welded on, but the ground was only 2" away from the welds)

 

[diesel4me]

I was going to say you may have exceeded the duty cycle of the welder,it'll lose power after the transformer heats up,Wasted Wages said it already though...the gas bottle should always be upright,not horizontal too,I bet that hasa lot to do with your problem...now it'll need the tip cleaned or replaced,and the liner checked for any snags in the wire delivery..

 

[wasted wages]

Read this thread....a lot of good info about the limits of 110 volt welders and the power requirements to run them....

My guess is that you have a lot of voltage drop using an extension cord..especially if you have it plugged into a household circuit that has 14 gauge wire in the walls...

If you have a dedicated 25 amp breaker and receptacle at the panel and are using #10 or#12 wire for your cord then that is good....anything less and I bet you have voltage drop....

What is the duty cycle on your machine?


http://weldingweb.com/archive/index.php/t-9920.html

 

[ryoken]

I do know it's dangerous to keep/use acetylene tanks on there side...

I highly doubt that's a gas issue..... it looks like it was having a current issue.. but either way ya got it done, maybe fart around with some scrap stuff one day and see if you can figure out what the issue was..

 

[bradshawtech]

Only oxygen bottles or argon can be used laying on their side.

Your 75/25 bottles have liquid in them when full and if that liquid can get to the regulator it could blow the diaphragm or worse.

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

My $100 harbor freight special 110 mig w/flux core has its limitations, but I "CAN" weld that thickness. Might not have the penetration, but it'll lay a bead on it. Infact I did so this week on my wood stove, which parts of it are nearly that thick, but I was going for 'sealing' not a nice strong weld.

All of the suggestions are great, but I'd also like to know how fast are you moving when welding?

 

[Stomis]

My $100 harbor freight special 110 mig w/flux core has its limitations, but I "CAN" weld that thickness. Might not have the penetration, but it'll lay a bead on it. Infact I did so this week on my wood stove, which parts of it are nearly that thick, but I was going for 'sealing' not a nice strong weld.

All of the suggestions are great, but I'd also like to know how fast are you moving when welding?

Your movement speed is a really good point. I absolutely crawl with my 110v welder at my place versus using works 220v miller. I was so baffled when I first started using the miller at work as to how fast you had to move that I kept bunching up huge globs of weld until I got used to it.

Just for example lets say 3/16ths to 3/16ths material which is the thickest I feel comfortable welding with my 110v w/ fluxcore, Ill weld a deep 6in pass in about 45 seconds. With the 220 at work I can literally cut the time in half.

 

[Fordum]

OK, I know this is stupid, but I have fixed a lot of stuff that other folks could not fix by asking the obvious.

You keep talking about your gauge going to 20 lbs. If this is just a semantics problem, fine, but your gauge should not read any "lbs".
It should be a glass tube with a little ball that goes up and down. If so, then never mind.
That 20 is actually CFM instead of lbs, and is OK. But, if you have an actual pressure gauge on there and its reading 20 lbs, then you have a major blockage in the hose somewhere.

Having said that, you may have a pressure gauge that reads 20 lbs when you are not welding.
That is OK, but you really should get a flowmeter type if you are going to do gas shielded welding.
Its gas flow that counts, not static pressure.

But, I would forget about gas problems as the cause. I have welded with solid wire with no gas before and it did not look anything like that.

No, that is classic too cold or too slow a wire feed.
Actually, I'm gonna go with too cold. That could be caused by bad ground, wrong setting on the machine, low power to the machine, or bad contact with the wire.

That melted bent piece of wire says that it was feeding out faster than it could melt.
I suspect a contact problem somewhere. Since the flux wire worked, what is different between the two other than flux?

Bet the wire size is different.

Also, how do you change polarity? That might be the problem. Some machines have a switch, some just swap leads.
Either way, it might be a bad contact.

If the wire sizes are close, and you want to try, leave the machine set the way it is, and go back to solid and gas.
It will weld just fine with the wrong polarity. Just not as good welds. But, they will be a heck of a lot better than what you were doing.
If you get decent looking welds that way, leave everything alone and swap the pol back and see it it starts doing it again.

Note, I did not do the welding with no gas on purpose........Forgot to turn on the bottle........

 

[MrSchaeferPants]

I absolutely crawl with my 110v welder at my place versus using works 220v miller.

Yup crawling sums it up. I don't even look at where my wire is, so much as my puddle being drug behind. If I move even a little too fast, I separate from my puddle and have to go back on it and spend time warming it back up, even that 1/2 second, just to start moving it again. One day I'll have a quality mig.

 

[rdn2blazer]

Power source has alot to do with it as well. I had a Lincoln SP175+ at my last machine shop where I did all the welding & machining at the shop. Our building was 440V and we had a big 440 to 220 converted for our mig welder. That machine welded better then any mig I have ever used. I sold my old SP100 110v welder and bought a brand new Miller 180.

I have to use a heavy duty extension cord to reach my K5 for cage welding and what not. Although it welds great, it would not burn like the Lincoln at work. I never ran an extension cord with it. We had about a 10ft cort to plug into the 440V socket and the stock cord on the welder, so it saw ZERO power loss no matter how thick I was welding.

I have welded 1/2 thick plate to 1/4 @ 90 deg with it and it welded fine. How much penetration I got I don't actually know of course but the heat disipation on the 1/2 and 1/4 plate was good. Nice and purple. Through my cord I know I lose alot of voltage. It still does what I need to do though.

 

[Stomis]

Yup crawling sums it up. I don't even look at where my wire is, so much as my puddle being drug behind. If I move even a little too fast, I separate from my puddle and have to go back on it and spend time warming it back up, even that 1/2 second, just to start moving it again. One day I'll have a quality mig.

The speed you're welding at is an indication that you know how to properly flow the puddle and set the machine to dig into the work. Dont think its because the machine is bad or cheap, its because its a 110v machine and what you are welding is on the limits of its capability, although I would consider your example of this 1/4in tab to that 1/4 cover out of this welders range without a bevel cut and some preheating but thats neither here nor there with your problem.

The learning curve for a 110 versus a 220 machine is totally different. With a 220 machine turned up a little hot any dolt can lay down a structural sound weld if someone else sets the machine up on something like 1/4 in to 1/4 in. It might not look pretty but its not hard.

Now on a 110v machine it takes a little more finesse to know when your puddle is at the right state to move forward, how far to move, how far to half circle movement your puddle from base to work etc. all because there isnt an exorbitant amount of heat to throw at the material to band aid user error.

 

[jekquistk5]

I use to think I could do everything with my hobart 140 or my works 170. I could but it was time consuming and painful. Now that I have a miller 211 holy cow what a difference. By the way why not remove the cover and it will solve your upside down issues.



Today I welded the anti wrap bar crossmember. Welded it up single pass not even maxing out the welder, and it was quick. I did not bevel the edges it just ate right in. I will never weld with anything less than a 200 amp welder ever again. Thats .203 wall tubing, no gap between them.