Calculating Amperage

[Paul G]

Hi All,

Is there a way of calculating the welding amps, if you know the wire speed and the volts?

I have used in the past 3 phase welders (when I had a proper job) and they had volt and amp gages on them.
I also use on occasion a new Esab 3 ph Mig and that has a digital read out of the amps.

At home though I only have single phase and I have in the workshop a Lincoln 210 Mig, and I often wonder
what amps I am welding on for a given setting.

The label on the machine says:- 35A / 15.5V - 180A / 23V
It has 8 voltage settings and this works out to 1 volt per step. ( maybe ? )
Wire speed control knob is 1 to 10.

A common setting I use is V6 with the wire set to 5.5 ( 4 to 6mm plate, ish )
Measuring the wire this works out at 6.7 meters per minute.


So how many amps is 20.5v and 6.7 mpm ?

Wire is 0.8mm dia and I am using CO2 gas. (Pub supply)

Is there a way to work it out ?

Cheers in anticipation,
Paul G

 

[Wozzaaah]

You won't go far wrong with the miller welding calculators, here's the mig one.

 

[malcolm]

Why do you need to know the amps? For calculating them the amps are proportional to wire diameter and wire speed. It's not useful to know as there is another knob on the front of the welder controlling voltage. It's power that matters and power = volts x amps. There will be only a small range of wire speeds that will work with each voltage setting so amps are a fiddly way of working out settings.

The Miller calculator is aimed at production welders (high speed welding). We've got one aimed at hobby welders at the other end of the spectrum. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/calculator.htm Copy either to a spreadsheet and you can probably adjust them and figure out your own best settings.

 

[Paul G]

Thanks for the link Woz.

I'm just curious really. Just wondered if there was a magic formula.

Cheers,
Paul G

Edit to add:-

Sorry Malcolm, our posts crossed.

I don't need to know. I'm just curious.

My normal method of finding a suitable setting is a mixture of guesswork and experience.

Having watched metal melt for more years than I'm prepared to admit I tend to look at the pool
and be able to say; too hot, too cold, or that's fair to mid'ling.

Cheers
Paul G

 

[Paul G]

I found the following chart as I thumbed through the welders bible (A C Davis)
this morning which just happened to be for .8mm wire & CO2.

The best £2/12/6d I've ever spent.

Cheers,
Paul G