Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello all - this is my first post and I have a Q regarding regulators and a Q regarding bottle pressure. I'm using the dual gauge regulator that came with the MM211 I bought a couple years ago. The tank pressure gauge, always reads about 500# low. Each time I refill a C25 bottle, the bottle reads 1500# vice the 2000# the gas Co. says they fill them too. So...I'm thinking I need a new regulator and am looking for suggestions. I only weld as a hobby/pastime/do my own small work - I don't do anything for money and I clearly don't do any high throughput welding. I just want a regulator that I can trust. Any suggestions? Second Q. At what bottle pressure does the Mig welder just "give up" - it seems that when my bottle pressure drops to about 400# that the machine acts like there is no gas. Seems kinda weird since I'm convinced the gauge is reading 500# low, so at 400# indicated, I should still have almost 900# left in the bottle. OR, maybe I just think the machine is giving up and it's really just my crappy weld techniques that causes a weld to start going to hell in a hand cart.
Because I'm new to this art of welding, I've attached a snapshot of some work I did earlier this week - should give you an idea in regard to how well I can grind down a weld! This is a pic of 3x3 tube steel with a 3/16th end cap welded on.

Welcome!

Going off your description, it sounds like that regulator has issues. It certainly should be showing around 2,000psi when you hook up a full bottle, sometimes upwards of 2,200 for a bottle with the "+" mark. On the low end I've run MIG down until the needle is so low it's hard to read and didn't have problems. If you're getting different results and the gauge is reading 400 I would definitely suspect the regulator. If you were getting different results in the last 100lbs or so, then maybe it would make sense since some folks have had issues crop up when bottles were nearly empty.

Most people seem to prefer the flow meter style with a floating ball rather than the two dial regulator style. You can buy inexpensive flow meters on Amazon for around $30, but they're cheap imports for a reason...you can't get parts to fix them and a few folks have had them show up bad out of the box. I've probably used a dozen of them on machines I refurbished and had one that was leaking that had to be returned...the others were fine.

The other route is to buy a nice flow meter that's made in the U.S., can be repaired if necessary and is far more likely to be accurate and work for a long time. I like the Harris 355-2 flow meter and have put them on most of my machines...around $120 on Amazon, and sometimes a bit cheaper if you search around. I just did a search and found one pretty cheap on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224353304033?c ... gbEALw_wcB

+1 on the Harris. The most reliable reg I've had.

Thank you for the info G-ManBart! And to you also, Coldman for your confirmation of G-ManBart's recommendation. My order is in, getting the Harris. Thanks again.

PA2KTJ wrote:Thank you for the info G-ManBart! And to you also, Coldman for your confirmation of G-ManBart's recommendation. My order is in, getting the Harris. Thanks again.

You'll like it...when you get it you'll notice how nicely they're made. One thing I didn't mention is that they're set for 20PSI output, so when you hit the trigger/pedal they don't give a big blast of built up back pressure. That's nicer on the user end, and doesn't waste as much gas compared with the cheap flow meters set for 50PSI...a nice bonus that eventually might pay for itself.