Thread: Mig Welding Capacity

Originally Posted by GZBMW

Hi all,

I have a 130 amp SIP mig, about 15 yrs old. Can anyone advise me on what penetration this welder has on mild steel. I use 0.6 wire.

Reason I ask is that recently I tried to weld up 40 x 40 x 1.5mm thick square tube but found it not able to provide enough heat to weld properly. I had it on max current. I would have thought it be OK. Compare to others who have similar capacity migs, do you reckon mine is crook?

Cheers

Something is not right there.

At full power you should be able to melt holes in 1.5mm very easily.

My DUE MIG is similar spec and I would not need full power to achieve good penetration.

I would firstly thoroughly check the earth lead and make sure all connections are 100%. Make sure you have the right size tip and its relatively new.

Make 100% sure you are on the correct power setting.

Check and inspect the 240 volt plug and make sure there is no issue there either.

What gas are you using?

Cheers

Justin

Hi Justin,

I am using 100% pure Argon. Tip is fairly old. There are 6 power settings and definitely on the highest.

cheers,

George

Originally Posted by GZBMW

Hi Justin,

I am using 100% pure Argon. Tip is fairly old. There are 6 power settings and definitely on the highest.

cheers,

George

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh 100% Argon might be your problem.

Years ago I tried aluminium welding and got a bottle of pure argon. Aluminium welding didn't work out so I thought I'll use the argon for steel.

It didn't work seemed to pull all the heat out of the weld. Crap penetration.

I just use one of the argo shield gases from BOC. Argoshield Light is what I use.

Cheers

Justin

From the BOC website:

Argoshield Light is a three component mixture of 5% carbon dioxide and
3.1% oxygen in argon. This combination of carbon dioxide, oxygen and argon,
reduces the surface tension of the molten metal, thereby increasing arc stability
and reducing reinforcement. This increased wetting action provides excellent
sidewall penetration and assists the welder to produce smooth, low spatter
weld beads using less wire than with higher carbon dioxide mixtures.

What you don't get is the wetting action with pure Argon.

Cheers

Justin

I agree
Its the gas change to an argon mix

Yeah good to check everything else too like said but although I have never tried mig welding steel with pure argon I have heard others say it doesn't work well, lacks penetration, and the bead will sit high on top of the parent metal.

Thanks Gents.

You are right. The problem started when I tried to weld MS with the new argon cylinder. When I was using argoshield supplied by the BOC mafia, all was good. The big bottle of Ar was a pressie.

Now what to do? With the Ar, I thought "great, no more extortion".

Just thinking outloud, what about bleeding CO2 with a mixing manifold into the Ar?

Originally Posted by GZBMW

Thanks Gents.

You are right. The problem started when I tried to weld MS with the new argon cylinder. When I was using argoshield supplied by the BOC mafia, all was good. The big bottle of Ar was a pressie.

Now what to do? With the Ar, I thought "great, no more extortion".

Just thinking outloud, what about bleeding CO2 with a mixing manifold into the Ar?

Bit of a bummer for you, you might have to do as I did and buy a TIG as pure argon is great for TIG work on many metals
I think it would be hard to blend the CO2 at any sort of accurate proportion without a gas mixer which as far as I know are too expensive.
It is extortion alright re the bottle hire, waiting for the day that some dude with a marketing head on them realise that there a ton of home users out there who would probably switch to using their gases if not for the bottle hire slug. i'd be happy to pay a few hundred for my own bottle and have it retested every what ever frequency required so long as it was reasonable.