Welding Tips and Tricks

Bought this cheap $500 180 amp junior burger mig/tig/stick and a reel of 0.8 ( 0.30) flux core (cause gas is 300 bucks)
Anyhow I'm lucky I'm not Japanese or I'd commit hara kiri by now.
Ive watched over and over all of uncle Jody's mig videos but nothing helps.
all parameters i.ve tried result in microscopic beads and to attempt building a decent size bead man its like,....like,....waiting for xmas.
the op manual suggested parameters mean nothing and say 19 volts/ 250 ipm it spits n farts and leaves what looks like a bad solder job.

for it to SOUND right, like a constant buzz and not splat,splat,splat, the tip is buried in the puddle !!!
IS THIS TO BE EXPECTED ? Until I learn ?
it has taken about two feet of snot (and two tips, and 20 feet of lost wire) and still the bead looks like a paint run.

heres the welder advertised on Ebay tho' i didn't buy from this mob.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bossweld-18 ... 2272577149
Its a great sticky welder and I'm hoping the MIG problem is just me and not the machine.

Are MIGS always that loud ? AND SO BRIGHT I CAN'T SEE THE WIRE FOR THE LIGHT SHOW ?
THANK YOU .

Sorry to hear it's not going well but Mig is easy - you just need someone that can weld to set the machine up - then it's like caulking with metal ! - as it's a new machine I guess we can't rule out it's faulty but I doubt it - first thoughts are how are you sticking a contact tip to the work ? flux core wire needs a minimum " burn off " length to allow the wire / flux to get hot enough to work prior to hitting the puddle so CTWD is usually around 1/2 > 3/4" - next try some other wire I seen some on Ebay & in big box stores that plain won't weld no matter what - also .8mm is an oddity that seems to have more issues than " normal " .9mm - I know this does'nt sound that big a jump in size but it does make a difference - try to get a brand named wire in .9mm - next you have the polarity so wire is negative right ? the welder can do either so can use solid or flux wire - last thought is a bit random - if you have no weld & a massive light show it's not possible you have a wrongly labelled spool of wire that's not flux core ? maybe even aluminum ? that would do exactly as you describe - if you can post a picture we could tell you more - no one will be negative here however it looks.

i would get a bottle of gas and hard wire.
yeah i know its expensive (you should see the price on this side of the ditch!) but its much easier to dial in.
with mig its all about dialing in the settings.

flux core can be really picky on settings especially thin like 0.8. with flux core the flux replaces some of the metal so the wire acts like its a lot thinner than it is. you may be running way to hot. the one i have here runs at about 14v 5.5m/min 12mm stickout and its kinda touchy. tweak the inductance a bit as well.
did you swap the leads over for flux core? gasless fluxcore requires electrode negative.

Watcha welding size of metal? type ? Position ?

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Post actual pictures of all the settings and the physical set up. In other words, pics of the mounting of the spool of flux core wire, the drive roller your using, etc etc etc.


Also, your vision needs to be 100% taken care of for you to make any progress. With flux core, this is more or less what you should be seeing (the weld bead is going "away" from the screen, if you will).






If you can't see it like that, your welding helmet is not darkening enough, or it just sucks. We don't have anywhere near enough information to really help you diagnose your issues. Once you put it some good descriptions, then things will start to clear up once you get good suggestions.

Oscar wrote:Post actual pictures of all the settings and the physical set up. In other words, pics of the mounting of the spool of flux core wire, the drive roller your using, etc etc etc.


Also, your vision needs to be 100% taken care of for you to make any progress. With flux core, this is more or less what you should be seeing (the weld bead is going "away" from the screen, if you will).






If you can't see it like that, your welding helmet is not darkening enough, or it just sucks. We don't have anywhere near enough information to really help you diagnose your issues. Once you put it some good descriptions, then things will start to clear up once you get good suggestions.

H'mmmmmmmmmm....I'm having similar problems but it's mostly the vision thing. I use gas and can get a pretty decent bacon sound going but until I get some sort of bead down I cannot see where the work seam is. Before the arc starts, I can see fine, see everything. Once the arc is going, the seam disappears (like in a t joint). I can crank my helmet up/down to where the arc is super bright, down to where it's really faint but the work seam gets lost in the arc or darkness. I've tried moving the work around the garage to change the lighting. Even tried outside in direct sunlight. Once I get something down, it creates enough shadows along the work that I can somewhat get something which could be debated as a weld.

If I tilt my head or the gun to where I see just a sliver of the pool and not the wire, it almost becomes doable.

My eyes are old and tired! I wear glasses and have a cheater lens but I've never had a problem with clarity.

My lens is green and I'm wondering if a change to a blue would help. I've watched the videos for the true color /4c tech helmets but for what amount of time I weld, really can't justify the expense!

TheGman wrote: I've watched the videos for the true color /4c tech helmets but for what amount of time I weld, really can't justify the expense!

Then suffer. lol.. You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good helmet, but 1/1/1/1 lenses really are better. Also of paramount importance is impeccable inner and outer clear lenses. Can't stress that enough, especially when your eyes are old and tired.

TheGman wrote:

Oscar wrote:Post actual pictures of all the settings and the physical set up. In other words, pics of the mounting of the spool of flux core wire, the drive roller your using, etc etc etc.


Also, your vision needs to be 100% taken care of for you to make any progress. With flux core, this is more or less what you should be seeing (the weld bead is going "away" from the screen, if you will).






If you can't see it like that, your welding helmet is not darkening enough, or it just sucks. We don't have anywhere near enough information to really help you diagnose your issues. Once you put it some good descriptions, then things will start to clear up once you get good suggestions.

H'mmmmmmmmmm....I'm having similar problems but it's mostly the vision thing. I use gas and can get a pretty decent bacon sound going but until I get some sort of bead down I cannot see where the work seam is. Before the arc starts, I can see fine, see everything. Once the arc is going, the seam disappears (like in a t joint). I can crank my helmet up/down to where the arc is super bright, down to where it's really faint but the work seam gets lost in the arc or darkness. I've tried moving the work around the garage to change the lighting. Even tried outside in direct sunlight. Once I get something down, it creates enough shadows along the work that I can somewhat get something which could be debated as a weld.

If I tilt my head or the gun to where I see just a sliver of the pool and not the wire, it almost becomes doable.

My eyes are old and tired! I wear glasses and have a cheater lens but I've never had a problem with clarity.

My lens is green and I'm wondering if a change to a blue would help. I've watched the videos for the true color /4c tech helmets but for what amount of time I weld, really can't justify the expense!

I have been having similar issues, and yes I do wear readers under my helmet. Something that has helped is running a line of soap stone just outside of the weld area to help keep me on target.

For the hell of it try welding without wearing glasses under your hood. Just use the cheater lens inside.

I wear trifocals and can see much better without wearing glasses under the hood than with them. I just use a 2x cheater in the hood. [emoji106]



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I would add supplemental lighting to the weld joint if you are having trouble seeing. Even better would be to weld outdoors on a bright sunny day. Just cover the back of your hood with a towel or something to keep the sunlight out.

I find that MIG welding is the hardest process for me to visualize because there is so much light to dark contrast between the arc the weld metal. If I turn the shade color up, I can't see where I am going, if I turn the shade color down I can see where I am going but the arc is just to intense for me to work that way. Adding extra illumination in the weld area solves that for me. My helmet is Lincoln Viking 3350 4C with the 1/1/1/1 rating. A good hood helps, but the extra light probably helps more for me.

Interestingly I don't have this issue when stick welding. I think the arc on short circuit MIG is just brighter or more concentrated or something.

As mentioned in my original post, I don't weld enough nor really have the $$$ to justify a super-duper Buzz Lightyear welding helmet. So.....I went on Amazon and looked at the multitude of helmets available....after reading the many reviews.....I wound up getting a True color 1/1/1/2 helmet within my budget and within the limits of my wife not kicking my ass for spending $$$$$$ money. And since it's from Amazon, I have 30 days to try and dislike it.

I played around with it today and ...., True Color is awesome. I know it may not be as good as the $$$$$ helmets but for me it's way better than my old helmet. I'm going to Velcro a black cloth to it to block out the light because the lens reflects a lot more light that the old helmet. I also believe that I can do away with the cheater lens because the clarity is so good.

I haven't fine tuned it to get it just right but........I'm happy!

Louie1961 wrote:I would add supplemental lighting to the weld joint if you are having trouble seeing. Even better would be to weld outdoors on a bright sunny day. Just cover the back of your hood with a towel or something to keep the sunlight out.

I find that MIG welding is the hardest process for me to visualize because there is so much light to dark contrast between the arc the weld metal. If I turn the shade color up, I can't see where I am going, if I turn the shade color down I can see where I am going but the arc is just to intense for me to work that way. Adding extra illumination in the weld area solves that for me. My helmet is Lincoln Viking 3350 4C with the 1/1/1/1 rating. A good hood helps, but the extra light probably helps more for me.

Interestingly I don't have this issue when stick welding. I think the arc on short circuit MIG is just brighter or more concentrated or something.

Yup, I've been slowly coming to that realization as well. MIG is definitely tougher to nail down the "just right" scene with regards to lighting. What kind of supplemental lighting do you add on? Tri-pod mounted LED lights? I've thought about using those, but they'd have to be seriously bright to even show up once the lens darkens.

Yep 5000 lumen LED worklights. You would be surprised how much it helps.

Louie1961 wrote:Yep 5000 lumen LED worklights. You would be surprised how much it helps.

Got it. Gotta give them a shot. Amazon?

Louie1961 wrote:Yep 5000 lumen LED worklights. You would be surprised how much it helps.

Sounds bright enough to constantly trip the auto-shade function!!!!!

noddybrian wrote:Sorry to hear it's not going well but Mig is easy - you just need someone that can weld to set the machine up - then it's like caulking with metal ! - as it's a new machine I guess we can't rule out it's faulty but I doubt it - first thoughts are how are you sticking a contact tip to the work ? flux core wire needs a minimum " burn off " length to allow the wire / flux to get hot enough to work prior to hitting the puddle so CTWD is usually around 1/2 > 3/4" - next try some other wire I seen some on Ebay & in big box stores that plain won't weld no matter what - also .8mm is an oddity that seems to have more issues than " normal " .9mm - I know this does'nt sound that big a jump in size but it does make a difference - try to get a brand named wire in .9mm - next you have the polarity so wire is negative right ? the welder can do either so can use solid or flux wire - last thought is a bit random - if you have no weld & a massive light show it's not possible you have a wrongly labelled spool of wire that's not flux core ? maybe even aluminum ? that would do exactly as you describe - if you can post a picture we could tell you more - no one will be negative here however it looks.

THANKS, BUT I DONATED THE MIG WELDER TO MY CHURCH..... and its already being productive repairing cars so I'm sticking with stick.

tweake wrote:i would get a bottle of gas and hard wire.
yeah i know its expensive (you should see the price on this side of the ditch!) but its much easier to dial in.
with mig its all about dialing in the settings.

flux core can be really picky on settings especially thin like 0.8. with flux core the flux replaces some of the metal so the wire acts like its a lot thinner than it is. you may be running way to hot. the one i have here runs at about 14v 5.5m/min 12mm stickout and its kinda touchy. tweak the inductance a bit as well.
did you swap the leads over for flux core? gasless fluxcore requires electrode negative.

Thanks TWEAKE, i gave the welder to a youngen who set the parameters you suggest and he's not had a problem with it at all.
I'll get him some gas and other wires and he might let me borrow it on weekends.

Mike Westbrook wrote:Watcha welding size of metal? type ? Position ?

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I gave the mig away and I'll stick with stick welding.

Oscar wrote:Post actual pictures of all the settings and the physical set up. In other words, pics of the mounting of the spool of flux core wire, the drive roller your using, etc etc etc.


Also, your vision needs to be 100% taken care of for you to make any progress. With flux core, this is more or less what you should be seeing (the weld bead is going "away" from the screen, if you will).






If you can't see it like that, your welding helmet is not darkening enough, or it just sucks. We don't have anywhere near enough information to really help you diagnose your issues. Once you put it some good descriptions, then things will start to clear up once you get good suggestions.

THANKS Oscar,
I bought the miggy thinking it would be cooler on the deck I have to weld on my steel yacht with the intention that if I was no good at it I'd donate it to one of my church mates. He is operating it fine unlike me. It was a great investment but I dont have time to master it so all the boat welding is stick city.

I do think my shield sucks but welding out doors around the boat it is much better than inside. reminds me I have another question for the stick section.

Oscar wrote:

Louie1961 wrote:Yep 5000 lumen LED worklights. You would be surprised how much it helps.

Got it. Gotta give them a shot. Amazon?

Just picked up a 5000 LUMEN LED shop light from Harbor Freight. $29. I had a catalog coupon and got it for $19. Haven't tried it out yet but it definitely made the garage a butt-load brighter!!!

TheGman wrote:

Oscar wrote:

Louie1961 wrote:Yep 5000 lumen LED worklights. You would be surprised how much it helps.

Got it. Gotta give them a shot. Amazon?

Just picked up a 5000 LUMEN LED shop light from Harbor Freight. $29. I had a catalog coupon and got it for $19. Haven't tried it out yet but it definitely made the garage a butt-load brighter!!!

Nice, I'll have to check it out too, thanks.

Just picked up a 5000 LUMEN LED shop light from Harbor Freight. $29. I had a catalog coupon and got it for $19. Haven't tried it out yet but it definitely made the garage a butt-load brighter!!![/quote]

Nice, I'll have to check it out too, thanks.[/quote]


Silly me, I should have added this in the last post!!!! It's good till the 30th

Can you daisy chain that shop light?

Oscar wrote:Can you daisy chain that shop light?

I don't think so.

Your not gonna get a massive bead out of .030 gasless fluxcore. It's not made for that , trying getting the mig set up going ejth some .030 and goo clean metal.

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