Welding Tips and Tricks

I am hoping this is a simple question to answer, but I haven't found out how to correct it on my own.

At work, on certain settings. Usually around 250-300 amps I get alot of weld spatter. It's a Lincoln Power Wave 455 with the remote gun (whatever they call it).

I am usually welding 1/4" to 3/8" mild steel. Using the "rule of thumb" that 1/4" is .250, I should be welding at 250 amps and fine tune from there. The welds look great, but the spatter is an issue. Welding 1/16" parts at low amps, no spatter. Welding too hot for the material (300+), no spatter.

What should i try?

Cars.

'Globular' transfer mode does leave some spatter.
After you kick into 'spray' transfer, the spatter should stop.

Are you running .035" or .045"?
Are you using 90/10 or 75/25?

Tanks.
Alexa

Alexa wrote:Cars.

'Globular' transfer mode does leave some spatter.
After you kick into 'spray' transfer, the spatter should stop.

It has to be in spray mode. It welds fine at other wire speeds. Just have an issue with it in the upper 200's.

Alexa wrote: Are you running .035" or .045"?
Are you using 90/10 or 75/25?

Tanks.
Alexa

Not sure about the gas, but it is plumbed to all the machines in my "cell" of about 50 welders. Some are Lincolns, some are Millers, but all use the same gas.
The wire is .045 and is in a HUGE spool on a pallet. Everyone is using the same Lincoln brand wire (don't know the name off the top of my head).

I would love to take notes and pictures but I would be fired in a second. Anymore than looking at your cell to see the time, and you will be talked to.

This is one of those welders that automatically changes the voltage when you adjust the wire speed. One would think it would be close, and it does give me a nice weld, but I need to learn to adjust the voltage to get rid of this problem. Or so I think that the voltage is the key to this issue.

Cars.

Fine tuning the voltage is important.

=============

However, look carefully at the arc, and listen to the arc, while you weld.
As you increase the amperage, try to note at which amperage, the quality of your arc changes.
This change of arc characteristic should correspond to when you no longer have the spatter.

This change of quality of the arc, is the change of how the filler metal is transferred to the puddle.
For .045" wire, at the lower amperages, up through approximately 200 amps, the transfer mode is called 'short circuiting'.
For .045" wire, at approximately 300 amps, the 'spray' mode kicks in (depending on the gas mix ###). But in between these two modes of transfer of filler metal to the puddle, you have a short range of amperages that produce the 'globular' transfer mode. The situation you described, make me think that you are running within this 'globular' range, which has a tendency to produce spatter.

=============

(###: for that reason I was curious what gas mix you were utilizing)

Alexa

Assuming short-circuit welding, excess spatter generally indicates the wire speed is a bit high for the power setting.

Note I said, "generally". Often, an increase in OCV or decrease in wire speed will solve the problem.

Once you find the problem, whatever it is, post up! Inquiring minds want to know.

Steve S

Turning the wire speed down should take care of most of the spatter. I don't know if this is true or not, but I have noticed a slight increase in spatter if the nozzle tip is clogged with gunk. Keeping the nozzle clean seems to help, but I don't know if that's an actual cause of more spatter.

Other Steve

Hey,

If the welder wont let you turn the wire down, because of the synergic set up. Select a slightly lower setting than you want and the just increase your.volts a little. Same results.

Mick

weldin mike 27 wrote:Hey,

If the welder wont let you turn the wire down, because of the synergic set up. Select a slightly lower setting than you want and the just increase your.volts a little. Same results.

Mick

Good point, Mick... I did a little research on that machine, and my advice doesn't fit with the STT capabilities. Your explanation does.

Steve S

Hey,

We run Synergic migs at work, they are kind of a pain in the ass because the sweet spot isnt as variable as one might like it. Especially when the machines are a little worn out.

Mick

Thanks for the advice. Shift starts in 4 hours so I will get a chance to try a few of your ideas.

Let us know how it goes!

Your solution might help another.

Steve S

I spent 9 hours welding the same part last night... so I took over for the day shift guy. I wiggled the voltage around a bit to see what would happen on a few of the parts, but for the most part I didn't do anything to make a huge difference.

I am still just trying to understand settings. I was welding clean 3/16" steel (tractor battery boxes). Consisted of about 5 fabricated parts, 3 bungs, and 11 weldnuts. Pretty typical of what I weld each day. From what I have read, I should be starting my wire speed at 187 and tune from there, but the day shift had it at 285 at 24 volts and the weld look great, so I just went with it. There was a little spatter, but not the type that is a pain to get off the part. It acted like it cooled before it had a chance to stick on good. Much finer than I normally get. It was hot... great penetration

We had a great night and were gaining big ground on the fab dept. The next couple nights we should past them in production and be able to slow down and test a few settings out.

Didn't have much supervision last night so I tinkered around a bit last night. Still haven't found the magic formula of Wire Speed v/s Voltage but I did see something that I didn't know last night.

I was pulling the trigger on some scrap I found (not easy to find at this job) and kept an eye on the welding unit. While I have it set at 280ish on the display, when the trigger is pulled it drops to 180ish! So all along I have been welding close to the amperage I should have been.

While not a Nobel Prize winning discovery, I learned something today!

I really wish they would let me play after hours but I guess they hired me as a welder. Not to learn how to weld. Good thing I have learned the art of blowing welding smoke up their ......