Welding Tips and Tricks

Now with already 28 months under my welding belt. I should be able to weld sheet metal relatively at 28 months but it shouldn't be a crab shoot. Little did I know that was not my experience in the slightest when I welded this 12 guage with 16.5 volts, 30 CFM, hovering under in and above two on wire speed. All things considered it came out like this. I am grateful that when I MIG weld thicker items like 1/8th inch to 3/16 I don't have this issue as often. Now what could I be doing wrong?

Turn up the volts. I don't know what "north of two" means on your dial, but I'll explain that in a minute.

The excessive spatter in the first picture, along with the cold-lap, tells me two things; Your voltage and wire speed do not match the material, and whoever is "teaching" you this is a moron.

For each setting of wire speed, I suggest using a scribe to make precise marks. ("Two on the wire speed" is meaningless, even if we knew what machine you're using.) Then, with the gas off, cut your wire short to the tip. Using a stopwatch, hold the trigger exactly 10 seconds. Measure the wire that came out, in inches, and multiply by six, so you have "inches per minute". Mark that on your dial. You can then release the feed rollers, and back the wire up to repeat at the next mark, so you don't waste wire. You need to know IPM, if you want solid advice on how to adjust.

Knowing whether you're using .023, .030, .035 etc. wire is also important information.

Again, just looking at your results, the voltage is too low.

Steve S

What he said. And you're plowing too much wire with too little heat.

Tipping it at about 45 deg or even 90deg. and running down hill helps a whole lot on thin sheet (once you get the other settings within range).

Good lord, you're going to school for welding and in 28 months they have not taught you to properly set a mig?

Here's the short version:

Wire feed speed (WFS) is your amperage. The faster it comes out, the more amperage it takes to burn off.

Volts get dialed up to make it weld properly.
Not enough volts give a tall ropey, cold looking weld.
Proper voltage widens and flattens the puddle so it wets out properly.
Too much voltage widens and flattens too much with lots of spatter.

Properly balancing amps (WFS) and voltage gives the nicely wetted out puddle you are looking for.

Btw, the shielding gas is in cubic feet per hour, CFH.