uni-mig welder trouble

[mrgrim59]

G'day all,
            hoping someone here can please help me ,i just bought a Uni-Mig inverter 190. Was told it was the best buy for working on cars, and for almost $1000 worth of welder, not that happy with it at the minute.
Running .6 wire, the trouble being, there is no penetration at all. Played with the voltage and wire feed still not playing the game  Any ideas , really cant be that hard. Never had trouble setting up a mig before. any ideas would be appreciated thanks Mat

[FCRB26]

Is your earth lead in the right hole.


What gas are you running and what supplier ?

[mrgrim59]

 Hey fchoon, i did double check everything , when as far as got the instructions out  . I was having trouble with the wire feed with the .6 wire. So i put the .9 wire in and worked fine with a great weld ( great penetration and very consistent). Anyway bought a 5kg spool of .6 wire and it feed fine (but no penetration) Gas is from supagas - supa Argon52 . Was running cig gas argoshield  light on my last welder but supagas has cheaper bottle hire per year and told supagas it was for a mig when hiring bottle. Any thoughts Will Ring Total Tools 2moz see what they think..

[john253a]

i use super argon10 and 0.8mm in mine with 0.9mm tips (0.9mm is just a bit to big for 10amp welding)

i have the unimig 240 and just just sits in the cnr collecting dust, biggest piece of juck ive ever brought($1600 when i got it) my $550 cig mig creams it in quality and duity cycle,
i also have the 180a migOmatic ($800) i use for work everyday now for the last 4year and it welds nice and get good peno up too 10mm plate (lacks peno over 10mm)

i recently brought the cig, mig/ark/tig welder for $999 on sale (normaly 12-1500) haven't tried it on mig yet weld a dream on tig up to 120amp (havent needed to go over that yet)


best bet is to read you instruction again, make sure the earth is in the right earth hole (there should be 2 earth holes)
and just try playing around until you here thoes bee's

unless you can take it back and get something better (my first chose)


edit:
after reading your post from my slow typing post,
looks like you may just need some new wheels for smaller wire or turn then around (some have twin groves)

[FCRB26]

Id say thats all that is wrong the wire feed rolls shoul have .9 one side and .6 the other side.
Make sure your tensior is set fairlly light with the smaller wire so you dont end up with a bird nest of wire .
I am just changing to supa gas we use roughlly 30 bottles a month
Mainlly argon i think i was paying 86 a bottle off coregas its not 52 with supagas.


Pete

[john253a]

i use there pure argon (plane blue) for all my s/s and mild steal welding, (mostly s/s) not sure about alloy tho

[waynos]

what are you welding ?
.6 should definately penetrate a panel if its turned up
i reckon the rollers too
maybe a kink in the liner?

[waynos]

after rereading you did niot say anything about changing rollers

[john253a]

just double my bottles and im using super argon 18, not 10

[OldGMHolden]

Correct me if I'm wrong (again), but shouldn't you have the right size tips to suit the wire?
I'm not sure about your brand of mig, but my old girl transfers the current from the tip to the wire, and if you have a larger tip there is not enough contact area with the wire, and therefore lower current, so less penetration.
Just curious.
Ol'Gaz.

[FCRB26]

You should some dont but it wanders as well..

I always change it over..

[mrgrim59]

Thanks for your thoughts guys, haven't had a chance to play with it again( been a busy crappy week).
I did however pop into Total Tools where i bought it, they printed off a lot of info, from Uni-mig themselves on the trouble shooting side of things. Hoping to have a play with it 2moz , just super keen to finish the car off. So close to rust free, is not funny, I've doubled checked the wire feed roller, definitely on the .6 side. got a .6 tip in hand piece. The bloke at Total Tools said about power supply, but why would i get great penetration using .9 ?? I've got no power in the shed as yet, feed from a ext cord from house. Got the line under ground but just waiting for sparky to connect both ends. Maybe the prob, but again why so such a good weld on .9. No idea, should've kept with my old Sip welder, i had that for 10 years with no probs. See how i go tomorrow, if not the Boiler maker from work is coming over to have a play. Thanks again,will keep you posted   

[Rod]

I don't think it is a good idea using an extension lead. From what i have read there will be voltage drop. This may cause lack of penetration. Are you able to run the machine direct from the power point without the extension lead.

[TTV6FC]

Extension leads are never a good idea but doesn't explain why it works ok on .9mm wire.I gave my brother my old air compressor which was working fine when I had it then he said it was not working (wouldn't start properly)down in his shed.Found out it was running on three extension leads over a distance of about 50m.Took it up to the house and worked fine,massive voltage drop was the problem.I'd be checking the earth lead at the socket on the welder and the tip must match the wire also.Jamie.

[Ed]

contact tips.. oops re-read the thread.

[john253a]

extension leads wont affect anything during the operation, or the weld itself, as long as the setting are set with the lead in place
but it will contribute to a lower duty cycle causing the welder to cut out earlier,

[simins]

an extension lead of inapropriate size our length will certainly cause problems due to voltage drop

[JamesLux]

Hobart 190 is better than your welder.
Read: Hobart handler 190 review

[waynos]

you bring back an old post to give nothing but a biased opinion.
shut up newbie..................

[Stewy]

Looks like lives in USA, Bet He doesn't know what an FE looks like. 

Cheers Stewy