Welding Tips and Tricks

I my quest to get better at welding thin material I tend to forage through old junk. Today I have been working with some small square steel tube from a desk lamp. About 10mm x10mm by .025 inch hall thickness. It welds but no mater how well I clean it, I still get sparkles as if mill scale is still there. I have gone as far as pickling in acid.

I have a roll of .035 ER70S6 mig wire that using does this tend to sparkle? If not can you think of anything else that might cause it?

Thanks
Mark

mpete53 wrote:I my quest to get better at welding thin material I tend to forage through old junk. Today I have been working with some small square steel tube from a desk lamp. About 10mm x10mm by .025 inch hall thickness. It welds but no mater how well I clean it, I still get sparkles as if mill scale is still there. I have gone as far as pickling in acid.

I have a roll of .035 ER70S6 mig wire that using does this tend to sparkle? If not can you think of anything else that might cause it?

Thanks
Mark

The ER70S6 should not spark, Id lean into impurities in the metal your welding, who knows how good the steel is, or residual powder coating, paint...etc

Thanks I didn't think it should. I guess I will have to try cleaning better or just try a different material

Mark

Material that thin you will probably get hot enough it can suck impurities from the inside surface where you can not clean effectively into the pool where they float to the surface aided by the silicon & react with the atmosphere - gas coverage makes it worse which is hard to achieve on small square parts where the corners divide the flow & torch angle changes quickly.

Just did another one. Switched to .040 tungsten and a #6 cup and it went better. I could not see any difference in prep but almost no sparkles and flowed better.
First tries 1/16 tungsten and #8 cup since I keep reading that with a sharp point one of the larger tungsten will work well thin stock. I find the .040 seems to make a crisper more controlled arc and nicer puddle at low amps.

Mark

Have a close look at the wire. Very small spots of corrosion can sparkle little when fed into the puddle.

mpete53 wrote:Thanks I didn't think it should. I guess I will have to try cleaning better or just try a different material

Mark

As anyone who has ever tried to weld on galvanized can tell you, junk gets impregnated into some metal no matter how much you try to grind it off or clean it. For practice you should be using the cleanest metal you can find but I understand it's not always possible. Still good practice though because you might have to repair something one day that's not clean. If there is any contamination in your metal, the tig arc will tell you about it...then you get out the mig...it doesn't care.

AndersK wrote:Have a close look at the wire. Very small spots of corrosion can sparkle little when fed into the puddle.

That was actually my first thought... How long has that MIG wire been sitting in the open air? The copper cladding is micro-thin and is not long term protection from the elements.

Also, exnailpounder, Icantellyouwhatthatsayssoyouowemeabeer. I'll collect on that, next time I come to Chicago.

Steve S

wire is clean

I have done a few more and It seem to have stopped. I cleaned the weld table maybe I was pickng up something from the table

Mark

Otto Nobedder wrote:

AndersK wrote:Have a close look at the wire. Very small spots of corrosion can sparkle little when fed into the puddle.

That was actually my first thought... How long has that MIG wire been sitting in the open air? The copper cladding is micro-thin and is not long term protection from the elements.

Also, exnailpounder, Icantellyouwhatthatsayssoyouowemeabeer. I'll collect on that, next time I come to Chicago.

Steve S

deal!