Burning through

[clueless1]

Yes another baby welder still in nappies!

Just bought an arc welder 40-100 amps. I want to remake some metal gates. Unfortunately, I have to keep the metal in the same style as the railings: 40mm wide by 20mm deep and 2 mm thick box metal, i think it is mild steel.

Where I live, i can only get 2mm - 4.5mm rods (I know my max for this machine is 2.5mm) but I keep burning through.

Question: do i need to use rods of 1.6/1.8 mm or larger rods with lower amps- expensive to keep wasting the metal on experimenting!

Any suggestions appreciated

 

[shenion]

Use 7014 or 7016 rods, they are low penetration rods.

I found some 7014 1.6mm rods and was able to do 19mm x 1.3mm box steel with no problems.

I have some Regular 6013 1.6mm rods. Slag inclusion was a big problem on thin metal. Once you turned the current down, the slag cooled real fast and got in the way.

 

[piman]

Hello Clueless,

2.5 mm rods on 2mm should be fine as long as the joints have no gaps. If you are burning through close fitting joints then the current is too high or your travel too slow?

Alec

 

[clueless1]

Thanks for your comments -the smallest rods locally are 2mm. So i'll keep trying and let you know how it goes!

 

[marks-welding]

alright m8, why not check out machine mart

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/r...k-welding-electrodes/path/welding-consumables

they do shop/online ordering and should be able to find all the rods that you need to do your gates.