Welding Tips and Tricks

Guys, i need some advice how to run it better . Thank you!

Welding Parameters:
>Wire: 1.2mm
>Plate: 1.6mm galvanized steel
>Wire Feed Speed: 110
>Amperage: 16v
>Gas Mixture: Argon-75-Co2-25
>Flow Rate: 15 cfh

Problems during welding:
>Burn Through
>Wire popping

Welding Technique:
>Pulling or Drag

Welding Position:
>2F

Gas Metal Arc Welding/MIG Skill:
>Beginner
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Front side

Back side

Take a look at the welding calculator from the Miller website:
https://www.millerwelds.com/resources/w ... alculators

When I compare the specs you posted to the suggested specs, it looks like you matched everything but the voltage, so you might bump that up to 17 or 18. Popping can be an indication of slow wire feed speed, so you may want to bump that up too.

Sorry if you know this already, I don't mean to preach: when you weld on galvanized steel the fumes created are toxic. Please don't breathe the fumes.

My opinion is the wire diameter is the problem - I never had a machine that displayed volts or wire speed & only set by experience so cannot comment on those figures - there is however a minimum voltage for a given wire diameter & I think you have way too little volts for the 1.2mm - if possible I would use no bigger than 0.8mm wire on that material thickness & if you do mostly that sort of thickness 0.6mm would give a better weld - as mentioned the Miller online guide gives a good starting point - the galvanized is also going to give you problems unless ground off & even then you won't get all of it without removing a lot of thickness.

Artie F. Emm wrote:Take a look at the welding calculator from the Miller website:
https://www.millerwelds.com/resources/w ... alculators Thank You so much! for this link.

When I compare the specs you posted to the suggested specs, it looks like you matched everything but the voltage, so you might bump that up to 17 or 18. Popping can be an indication of slow wire feed speed, so you may want to bump that up too.

Sorry if you know this already, I don't mean to preach: when you weld on galvanized steel the fumes created are toxic. Please don't breathe the fumes.

@red:
mate, thank you for the advice, i'll keep this in mind.

@blue:
now, i figured out what cause the wire popping is slow wire feed speed.
when bumping the voltage to a higher value, this mean that i'll go for faster travel speed in pulling or dragging to prevent burn through?

noddybrian wrote:My opinion is the wire diameter is the problem - I never had a machine that displayed volts or wire speed & only set by experience so cannot comment on those figures - there is however a minimum voltage for a given wire diameter & I think you have way too little volts for the 1.2mm - if possible I would use no bigger than 0.8mm wire on that material thickness & if you do mostly that sort of thickness 0.6mm would give a better weld - as mentioned the Miller online guide gives a good starting point - the galvanized is also going to give you problems unless ground off & even then you won't get all of it without removing a lot of thickness.

@red:
if i increase a little voltage and some wire feed speed, this i have to be on faster travel speed to prevent burn through?

Thank you so much guys for your replys; i have learned a lot from YOU and I'll keep in mind on my Galvanized steel MIG welding.
I'll go back welding and apply what you shared.

Glad we could help you - as you already worked out the voltage was on the low side for the wire size but increasing it will result in more heat so you have to move fast on thin material - this is always challenging even when experienced- any time you try to use the minimum amount of power for a given diameter whether it be mig wire / welding rods / tig tungsten it will be harder to establish & maintain good puddle control hence my suggestion of moving down wire size to 0.8 or even 0.6 - is there any reason you cannot change wire for this job or do you normally do heavy material & it was not considered worth while to buy suitable consumables for a one off ?

noddybrian wrote:Glad we could help you - as you already worked out the voltage was on the low side for the wire size but increasing it will result in more heat so you have to move fast on thin material - this is always challenging even when experienced- any time you try to use the minimum amount of power for a given diameter whether it be mig wire / welding rods / tig tungsten it will be harder to establish & maintain good puddle control hence my suggestion of moving down wire size to 0.8 or even 0.6 - is there any reason you cannot change wire for this job or do you normally do heavy material & it was not considered worth while to buy suitable consumables for a one off ?

@red:
i always remind myself on this, mig welding Thinner materials, so thankful; sir.

@blue:
i'm on welding school, a plate welder trainee here in the #Philippines. The school only got 1.2mm wire size and Maybe for the purpose of welding training and not on doing a specific jobs as you recommend the use of small wire sizes for thinner material.

The course outline of the school start on welding >> Thin to Thick material.
Kinda hard for a beginner to start with, that's way I'm reaching out here to broaden my welding foundation and thankful for the help.

I'm currently welding the same stuff bud. What I have found is the miller calculator is a little high. Your wire speed could be a little more. But one thing is your using way too thick wire. .035 max. The thicker the wire, the more heat needed to melt it, the more amps. Go to .035", ER71-GS wire that worked out pretty decent on my project.

pavetim wrote:I'm currently welding the same stuff bud. What I have found is the miller calculator is a little high. Your wire speed could be a little more. But one thing is your using way too thick wire. .035 max. The thicker the wire, the more heat needed to melt it, the more amps. Go to .035", ER71-GS wire that worked out pretty decent on my project.

@red:
i am using the same welding calculator, yeah i guess it is really high setting what did you do in this problem?

still using .045 wire (1.2mm)

may i know your parameters in welding 1.6mm steel sheet?

when welding galvanized metal if you want to have a good looking weld you need to grind off the galvanize coating where you plan to weld it at.