FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

I dont know if its my mig wearing, interest deteriorating, or the steel I am welding but I seemed to be getting worse over the weekendwhile welding big patches into the floor.
I started with .6 solid steel wire but ran out of gas so I put on a roll of .8 flux core wich is wer things started to get worse, I was blowing holes every were so I dropped the amps to its minimum wich still blew holes every were and didnt penetrate hardly at all. I then get up and relieved some frusturation wich ended with sore toes even with steel cap boots on.
I thought it may have been some pitting left in the floor but it seems to be on the new steel as well. steel is I think about .9
has anyone got any ideas on why I am getting so bad with blowing holes through?

did you back your wire speed off when turning down the amps
hope this helps
cheers fat

Hey fccool,

I can't help you with the welding - but you do need spell check.

I cen spel reel goood if yu nede halp.

regerds
earlee

good boy for being a good speller, you deserve a scratch & sniff stamp. spelling lessons are not really what I need to get this sucker back on the road so I think I will decline on your offer.
as for the spelling not being perfect I was trying to get the message up before I got tea for myself and the kids who were screeming at me for food.
I was hoping that by time I returned my post would have been flooded with replies of usefull welding advice but then found THE ONLY SINGLE FRIGGIN REPLY FROM A FORUM FULL OF RUSTY OLD HOLDEN FIXER UPPERS TO BE FOR HELP WITH SPELLING.
does any one know of a good spelling forum, maybe there will be some users there with welding knowledge.

Hey Erlee you need to get on more forums and see just how bad people get with there spelling when typing into forums. I did pretty darn good job with two kids hanging of as I typed with the keyboard behind my head like jimmy hendrix playing his guitar.
while typing this I set the keyboard on fire and started swinging it around the room now I am going to smash it over the monitor and hope someone will give me some helpfull welding advice before this car starts sending me nuts.

btw, Thats not how you spell early.

please reply if you are a experienced welder not a english teacher.

sorry fatboy I missed your post, excuse me will I extinguish the keyboard and superglue it back together.
I have been welding at 1/2 to 3 1/4 on the speed dial, this was fine in the past but prior to I did alot more in thicker metal but with the amps on setting down from full.
I find it difficult to get a constant line at a slower speed and my mig seems to run a inconsistant speed when it is down low.
however anything is worth looking more into, do you think the wire feeding through at a rapid rate could be just pushing everything rite through the weld?
I might add that my mig automatically decreases the wire speed when the amps are dropped.

I'd be backing off the amps and wire feed then building it up until you are happy with the weld.

I went through a lot of trouble with my MIG recently, crap welds with poor penetration and spatter everywhere. Replaced the earth strap with double the original, busted the wire feed pot in the process and replaced that, the replace the inner wire feed core, new wire. It ended up being a faulty gas regulator, the gauges "popped up" when the gas was on, there was the "whoosh" of gas when you hit the trigger but I eventually found that nothing was coming out after that.
These MIGs can be tricky bastards sometimes  ::)

Is your mig a gas/gasless type?
Some bigger migs will run the gasless wire but dont have a polarity switch.
The polarity needs to be opposite for gas or gasless.
Dont understand why, just know to do it.
Sorry if I'm being too obvious.

This is true for my mig if I am using flux core wire I have to reverse the cables on the mig & reverse them back for gas wire.
Glenn

Hey Leon,

Rather than trying to lay down a big bead all at once, when working with sheet I tend to trigger the gun constantly.  ie get good penetration in one spot, wait a split second, then trigger the gun again, laying the new weld just on the back of the spot just welded. i find this reduces the tendencey for blow outs as you are laying down onto the thicker new metal.

if your wire feed is too high it will tend to build more, and affect penetration.

i set my MIG on quite high with a low wire feed and it feels like squirting on liquid metal out of the nozzle.

which way do you work the gun?  do u drag it or push it?  i push mine mostly, working the weld into the gassed area... saves gas too.

Make sure your contact tip is spatter free and clean (not crusty and dirty) and also the inside of your gas nozzle is clean.  nozzle dip guard is a good thing for this.

I dont use flux core, apparently it gives poor welds... good for emergency jobs only.

Oh i'd drop back to .6 wire too.

Cheers

Ed

Leon
      My welder is a Lincon gasless and the wire I use is .8. As stated by others check that you have changed the polarity of your mig. Then grab a bit of scrap and slow done the wire feed. With gasless it took me a bit to get used to using it, not as easy as it seems. I find that you have to do smaller amount of welding. As with the gasless wire even with the amps turned down it burns hotter. My Lincon is set at the lowest amps and 2 on the wire feed. I still blow the odd hole here and there but only when I try and weld to much or for to long I should say. Gasless wire is no good for chassy work.

Sorry about the spelling hope this helps you out in some way.

Cheers
Sarge

yes I did reverse the polaritry, if the doubled cable helped maybe it might help if I freshly grind a spot to clamp to.
I did find all the good welding on the car is with .6 and the stuff ups all seem to be with .8 gas and gasless.
A idiot at bunnings told me the .6 wire was $29 for a minispool so I went without but then found it at gasweld for about $9
I have to stock up on more bottles this weekend so I might get some of that stuff to put on the tip, thanks guys for the tips, Ill let ya's know the results on saturday night.
has anyone had success with fluxcore plus gas and how do you set the polaritry for that combo, I need to use that stuff up.

Leon
       Useing gas with gasless wire wont make a differance. I tried it once and the gas makes no differance at all. So save your gas and use the gaslee wire up, just have a practise first.


Cgheers
Sarge

Sounds like these disposable bottles are killing your budget, why not get a proper bottle? The E Size I have from BOC costs about $80-90 rental per year plus refills. I haven't refilled for over a year now, but I haven't been doing much body work either.

In my short lived experience I've had some trouble with the disposable bottles.  Sometimes the gas seems to come off and on intermitantly and the little regulator and valve seem pretty dicky.

Maybe the big bottle is the go?

Dave

well the salesman I bought the mig of said that for home use the little bottle would probably last a couple of years, what really pisses me of is that I could have got a big bottle now with the money I spent on little bottles, also a guy at boc gases showed me a real nice quality looking mig for only $200 more than the one I got, Ive made a pretty regretful decision.

do you guys know the cost of setting up a big bottle?

A regulator is about $120, I only bought mine a few months ago.
Bottle rent is $90-110 a year for an E size bottle I think.
Not sure on refills though, it's been a while.

yeah I went to boc and got some prices, $129 for a regulator, $60.00 to fill with Co2/Argon and $9.00 per month rental.
I decided to see if any one had a reg I could borrow or buy second hand.
I then went and bought another dispossable bottle wich lasted for about 25 minutes, I ended up going for the rest of the afternoon without gas, it wasnt real perfect but a improvement over last weekend, I am up a setting in amps and under half way on the wire speed.
The mig has 3 switches on the front wich I still get confused with.
I assume each switch ads another resistor, I dont know why they could do this with 1 simple dial.
I tried Ed Ho's method with on and off the trigger, I can see why he can use so many amps as it seems to be burning hardly any holes like this but it does take a little longer.

Leon
       If you can post pic of your mig controls (switches). I will see if I can explain them to you.

Cheers
Sarge

$129 for regulator.......anyone know who can repair these in Sydney? 1 of my guages is broken and I think it may be the cause of my mig playing up.
Thanks for the topic Leon, I have been reading (and learning) with interest.
Regards
Alex

me too, considering there is 1000's of people in the world doing up old rusty cars there is stuff all info on mig welding on the net.

With the gauges, can't you unscrew it from the regulater and then replace it.

Needed to do this in the phillipines last year with an aircraft we picked up... Try finding one over there!!!

Jason.

my panel beater uses flux wire but being a fitter welder I told him I would weld the floor pans in myself using my mig bottled argon now I ,m having trouble getting my mig back since he welded my door skins and sills flux wire dont bother

more hassles,
I have been using .6 without gas as I still havent gotten around to getting a regulator and bottle.
latest problem is the wire is melting to the tip about 9 times out of ten that I start to weld, and 9 times out of ten that it sticks the wire feed goes into a tangle.
thats why there is wire all over the front yard and half a roll over the weekend did half a patch.
being a plastic wire feed mechanism it has all gone out of shape and is now pretty hard to get to work properly, there are all sorts of things jammed in the to space things out and press on bits so the wire will actually feed through.

any one want to buy a mig, just under 12 months old, its a real ripper.
if not, does any one know why my mig has started doing this?

try replacing your inner tube that wire goes through and also make sure your wire feed to the inner core is in a  straight line (stops wire kinking) another thing to be carefull about is the wire if its got a bit of surface rust (you would think thats ok)but isn't,its a prick to feed as it acts like glue almost for want of a better description.

Hey Leon,

you could also try cleaning the contact tips or replacing them.

sounds like what you're experiencing is "backburn" where it literally follows the wire back up to the tip.

normally you can increase your feed to compensate, may just need to clean out the machine as Nicko suggests and replace the feed roller.  A plastic feed roller isnt much chop IMO, all mine have had metal rollers.

my previous MIG did this too, it would give this torch like green flame and fuse up.

higher end MIGs have back burn control settings.

HTH

Ed

It wasnt too hard to use up the last couple of rolls with it constantly jamming but I may have found the problem.
when I went to get new wire I couldnt find it due to new packaging, I asked for assistance and they showed me something looking different to what I usually get, they said that all the rolls had been getting returned becuase they were sticking due to a light film of rust, hence the new more protective packaging to stop the wire rusting on the shelf.
strangely it didnt click to me till I was using the new wire and realised the jamming up problem was totally eliminated with the new rolls wich are still only $9.95