Welding Tips and Tricks

I a new welder and member of the forum and need some help. I have a Lincoln ProMig 180 (220volt) mig welder with 75 / 25 gas.

I'm welding up 3/16 steel plate and running into problems. I have it set up as manual says with wire feed at 4 and amperage at highest setting. I cannot get a consistent bacon sizzling sound. I get it for a a few seconds then it pops and spews weld everywhere. any help on where to go from here?

thanks

That sounds like an inconsistent ground to me. The newer machines often have rather crappy ground clamps on them to begin with, and MIG is very sensitive to proper grounding.

Try grinding where you attach the ground clean. Jody has a great tip for MIG ground, as well, involving fine-braid copper wire, but you can get a similar effect putting some stainless steel wool (unsoaped, from the cleaning dept. at the grocery or Wal-Mart, or wherever), between the clamp and the (clean) metal to provide many contact points between the clamp and the metal.

Let us know how it goes... There are other possibilities, but this is the most likely...

Steve S

Welcome to the forum.