Welding Tips and Tricks

i'm taking a 6g 2" mig test hopefully soon. i'm mostly a tig and stick guy. which is good cuz i'm foing the same test with those as well. but wondering what the volts and wire speed should be. i'm thinking 16 or 17V with about 165ipm. i know stainless runs hotter and you have to use less amps, or volts in ths case. am i right or even close? i'm hoping i can run the root down, well all the passes down for that matter. but i'm not sure. i just know i'll be stacking beads just like stick welding. this will be x rayed! so what would be the best way to run if they let me do it how i want? its also 1\8" gap on all. anything you guys can tell me will be greatly appreciated. thanks in advanced. Hammer

I have never mig welded stainless steel, but I have used stick and tig. So my advice on this type of test would be to try and run it uphill. I dont know exactly what kind of test your taking, but the chances of them letting you run downhill seem pretty slim to me, and you should probably try to find this out beforehand, becuase uphill and downhill have considerably different machine settings and techniqs(spll?).

But I say try and run it uphill becuase downhill, especially with super runny stainless wire, is probably going to cold-roll and leave a lack of penetration. of course your probably worried that with an 1/8 inch gap the penetration will dig in and burn through, which is a legitimate concern.........

I find that with mig its all in matching wire setting with technique, and thats the key here too I think. what they are, i dont know. maybe someone else will, so heres a *bump* up on the forum.

-rick

oh and www.miller.com has a half decent chart of mig ipm/voltage settings for different wires, check it out.

sorry, i figured the way they worded it it was a mig stainless. but its a tig. i've been practicing on 160 2" mild steel. i have to do a stick mild, a tig mild, and a tig stainless. i didnt think 2 years of being down would throw me off so much, but i was wrong. thankfully shit worked out to where i dont have to take the test for a while. ( waiting on medical ) so it gives me time to pratice, thank god!!!