First welds with Esab Caddy C200i

After much deliberating, i finally decided to go for the Esab Caddy. The flexibility of being able to take it anywhere eventually swung it, opens up a lot of possibilities for where it could be used.



The last and only other time I've used a mig was about 14 years ago and I only did about a dozen tac welds using a friends machine so for the past wee while I've been reading through various tutorials and watching videos on youtube so had half an idea what I was supposed to do with it lol

One thing I did notice from the outset, the tip seems to be quite short, read on few things which suggested the tip should be just below or flush with the shroud to maintain a short stickout? (I'd already had a quick go before I took this pic)



With it in Qset mode, 0.8mm wire, set for 3mm plate, wire feed 8.5m/min initially these are the first beads I did on a bit of 3mm mild steel.




From right to left in both pictures i experimented a little with wire feed and adjusting the temperature but doesnt really appear to have made a great deal of difference? Suspect most of it is to do with my travel speed
They look not too bad in my eyes but suspect they are possibly a little cold? Not really any signs of penetration on the reverse side but should I get that with 3mm plate and 0.8mm wire?

I did a few more runs on some 3mm plate then had a go at a corner, box section and the plate are 3mm, machine set to 3mm with wire speed at 8.9 iirc and the temp adjust at +6 or 7 out of 9.


(I tacked the two bits together at the right hand side first hence the bad bit)

I just welded one side then did a destructive test





Appears to have achieved sufficent penetration barr the first bit where the tac was.

Any comments very much appreciated

Kenny

that looks a nice welder and some decent welds there! the Fillet looks great and nice and strong as it has ripped the parent metal away instead of cracking the weld. you should see heat marking on the reverse of the weld but would be surprised to see weld penetration on 3mm plate. try an open but weld then you should get penetration and a nice flat weld.

wouldn't worry about the tip seams to work well as it is!

Very tidy welds, typical of a nice machine well set up..mind you don't burn that super smart workshop top though

Nice welds. I bought the little brother 'ESAB C160i'. Very pleased with mine. I don't have any gas yet as my supplier is on holiday but it welds better than anything I have ever used with no gas

Saying that I have gone from an Aldi Mig on no name fluxed wire to the C160i, talk about one extreme to another. Any idea where you can get spare tips? I think they are the same as the Murex Transmig not 100% on this

its an industrial torch so should be fairly interchangerable. take the bits into hunter welder supplyers in Carlisle and they can sort you out

Thanks for the info. I don't get to Carlisle much (other end of the lakes) so was looking for maybe somewhere online. Think i will phone ESAB UK

try giveing weldequip a pm or a ring he will beable to advice you

Thanks for the replies

Lol at the worktop, it's already got a few burn marks on it from arc welding but to save it any more grief I've been practicing on the floor

On the 3mm plate i ran test beads on, yeah there was clear indication of heat on the reverse and once cooled you could feel a very slight bump below each of the beads so I'm assuming this means it's achieved decent penetration?

I got a bag of spare tips and shrouds with the machine, pretty sure the packet had Murex on it, but not really looked any closer than that, can have a look tomorrow.

Since I had a few spare I decided to trim one of the shrouds back slightly to reduce the effective stickout just to see what effect i had, I'll need to compare it again in the morning with a std shroud but I think it does provide more penetration.

As I've been used to arc welding for so many years I sometimes think I may be moving a bit too slow? So potentially the wire is going into the weld and not burning into the material being welded if that makes sense?

You said you got a bag of spares with you Mig set. I wonder if this is standard, I will have to investigate. Thanks for the heads up

The guy I bought it from threw in a few freebies, not actually looked at the price of tips etc but dont imagine they'll be that expensive.

I've been out practicing on some thin stuff, got some old bits of bodywork 1.0mm and some 0.8mm, cleaned with a flap disc.

I've not got any pictures though as my brother has borrowed the camera.
I'm managing to tac ok and I've done about a dozen or so plug welds which turned out pretty good, but when doing the thin metal technique, quite often the arc fails to start properly when moving to the next tac? The wire just pushes off the metal, then sometimes strikes vapourising the wire before I've had a chance to stop.

Any suggestions as to what might be wrong or what I'm doing wrong?

Kenny.

I have not seen a gas bottle, if using gasless with thin metal technique you need to wire brush before going over a tack weld - gasless leaves an electrically insulating surface.

Yes you can force your way through the surface, but it makes for bird dirt on the surface beads with no penetration - and can still make the torch push back off the sheet.

Only needs a toothbrush sized wire brush for thin metal.

1.0mm is difficult, then easy; then 0.9mm is difficult, then easy; then 0.8mm is difficult and then do-able. That is on the flat, when you then move to a car it gets more difficult. For upside down plug welds use 2-3 strips of thin copper clamped tightly behind and use a smaller hole because it will soon get bigger. The thin strips of copper deform better to a multiple-curved surface. Mole grips are wonderful, the old USA clamps seem better than the China ones.

Sorry, should have said, using Argoshield Light.

Also, i maybe havent explained my self very well, when I'm actually trying to do a series of spots or tac welds this is when it quite often wont strike an arc, ie it'll do one or two fine then wont work. I'm wondering if perhaps i'm waiting too long between spots and the last one has cooled down too much?
Or is it something to do with paint still left on the plate near by and causing the weld to soot up? even though i've cleaned the weld area should I maybe clean off a larger area?

Cheers for the tips on the heatsink, not sure how much Ill have to do on cars but figured I might as well get my hand in now and at least have half an idea if and when I do something upside down in awkward place lol

Does the welder have some sort of "spot timer" or "stitch timer" that you are trying to use ? If so you may have to adjust the delay of the timer for a shorter time. For practice 3/4inch either side of where you are welding should be enough for thin metal technique

No it doesnt have a spot timer, just trying to copy what I've seen in tutorials etc trying to lay a series of spots one after the other.

I also tried to do a few longer runs on thin plate, actually worked surprisingly well and I managed to put down some quite neat thin beads an inch or so long, allow time for it to cool and move up a few inches then come back.
With 0.6mm wire I imagine it should be a bit better, may need to buy a reel and some 0.6 tips and give it a go.
It's just doing the series of spot welds thats causing me problems.

I've just been reading the manual in a bit more detail and discovered the machine has a setting to adjust inductance, titled "setting the dynamics" the default is set to 5 on a scale of 0-10
It states that for a mixed gas ie argoshield, that the inductance may want to be increased towards 10 to provide a softer arc.
In real terms what difference is this going to make to the weld?
I would go and give it a try but I've used up the 1kg spool that came with it, need to get some more.

Hi,
I've just bough a C200i but won't have a chance to play with it for a few days. Any hints or tips in use or anything else? I assume you're still happy with it?
Thanks,
Daniel

dsj1979 said:

Hi,
I've just bough a C200i but won't have a chance to play with it for a few days. Any hints or tips in use or anything else? I assume you're still happy with it?
Thanks,
Daniel

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I doubt if he has seen your message, unless he has email alert:

Kenny.s was last seen: Sep 8, 2011

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I was hopeful he would get an email alert.... he hasn't replied though so guess not. Ah well!

I realise this is an old thread but I have a question-the welds shown at 3rd/4th pics down appear to have slag on them? the OP said he was using Argoshield light-I was under the impression mig with gas produced a weld with no slag?