Mig welder question

S

slumlord44

Senior Member
I talked to a few friend with Migs and figured out that mine has a non adjustable gas regulator and theres all have an adjustable regulator. Will and adjustable regulator be worth the cost?I have a Hobart 110 volt mig that I bought many years back. Never used enough to get good at it. Dug it out and been using it on some sheet metal repair on a '65 Mustang. Still not realy getting the hang of it. So should I try an adjustable regulator?
 
Personally I would, being someone who used to do X-ray quality welds as well a lots of sheet metal work the proper gas flow is essential for a quality weld.

Do you know what cfm it’s flowing at?


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If there is not sufficient gas flow, it may be one of your issues of not getting the hang of it


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The expense of a regulator is nominal compared to the increased quality it will provide your welds... buy it and install it as soon as possible
 
Thats what I've been thinking. $30-&35 on Amazon shipped to my door by Wedensday. Think I will just bite the bullet and go ahead and order one.
 
If that doesn’t improve things, try looking into the ground connections, tip, liner( the slightest kink in it can alter some finicky machines) and the wire. If the wire has rust, grime, a fair amount of dust or grit, or even some bends can also hamper things


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I've just gone through the process of setting up a mig for sheet metal work. Getting the Gas flow right helped some. Get some off cuts and setup on a bench to get it dialed in.

Make sure you are getting enough heat into the weld for penetration. You'll need a tack setting and a welding setting. I find a tack setting has high voltage and lower wire speed and my weld setting is higher wire speed and lower voltage. Gas CFM for me is anywhere between 10-15 litres per minute. I turn it up when I'm linishing the weld and there are defects in it.

I find with welding sheet metal it helps to stop and let the area cool off in short bursts. Zap and watch the colour of the surrounding metal when it gets red hold let it cool off and go again. I end up over lapping little C shaped welds. This way you can get heat in to get penetration but not too much heat that you end up blowing holes.

Practice makes perfect. Cut some scraps up and practice on the bench.
 
My wire welder came with an adjustable flow regulator with no gauge. I put the tip next to my ear and pull the trigger to hear gas rushing, then regulate to a medium hiss. On my welder, I could never use fine wire, but I did rather well with .033 or .035. Like the guy above said, weld things that don't need welding to stay in practice.
 
Oh, another thing. The cleaner the materials the better, I clean my mig joints as good as I do my tig joints. Those processes are not as forgiving as smaw


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Reread post number nine. I have a book on weekend welding, for hot rods, race cars, and airplanes. The guys tig welding often wipe down the rod with acetone before welding. The book also said to always weld down. If you need to weld it, turn it upside down if you have to, but always weld down.
 
Got regulator from Amazon. Played with flow adjustment. Better. Watche a couple of vidios. Discovered that the gas shield on the torch tip was not adjusted properly. That helped. Vidio guy said the ground clamp on my Hobart was junk. Suggested replacing it or wraping it with braided copper wire. Did that. It helped. Still need more practice but it is working much better now. I am using Argon/Co2 mix. Also adjusted my helmet to the lightest setting. I can see better now which also helps. Regulaor was $25 from Amazon with glass sight tube with a steel ball in it. Decent quality and seems to work just fine.
 
I found that with my rather cheap wire feed welder, it works better on sheetmetal to "push" the stinger rather than the conventional method of pulling. I am able to see what the weld is actually doing this way.
 
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