My Progress....

[immortal]

Hi , First day on my new Clarke 135TE Mig Welder and I've taken a few pics of my progress. Any constructive criticism would be great (and any tips lol)

I was using a mixture of settings and was using the co2 that came with the welder and 0.6 wire.

First 2 pics are the first ever welds with a Mig....

Next 2 pics are after i had fine tuned the settings a little and practiced a little bit on some scrap metal...

One thing i noticed is that the welds are pretty high , how would i get the weld to be wider and less high? Is it because of the 0.6 wire? I have bought some 0.8 just , would that be better?

Matt

 

[octo0072000]

wire

0.8 will be better that is also thick plate the weld are high because there is no penetration no enough amps in the welder i would think it would be pushed to weld that thickness even with 0.8 wire unless you V it have a good read at the Tutorials page first and try some thinner metal say 2 mm and go from there

try this page link if you dont have a handbook page 24 give settings shows max as 2mm y7ou have to download the PDF doc have a read

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/download/MIG110E-160EN.pdf

 

[immortal]

0.8 will be better that is also thick plate the weld are high because there is no penetration no enough amps in the welder i would think it would be pushed to weld that thickness even with 0.8 wire unless you V it have a good read at the Tutorials page first and try some thinner metal say 2 mm and go from there

try this page link if you dont have a handbook page 24 give settings shows max as 2mm y7ou have to download the PDF doc have a read

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/download/MIG110E-160EN.pdf

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and advice. That steel is about 3-4mm and on the MM website it does say it can weld unto 5mm? Them last 2 pics were on max and it still hasn't penetrated it? Will 0.8 possibly penetrate it better.

Also , i had about 2mm of the wire showing outside of the shroud and held the wire about 2-3mm away from the metal when firing. Is that right or should i touch the metal with the wire and then pull the trigger?

Matt

 

[shenion]

3mm is about the limit of the 135 without any preparation. 0.8mm wire would be needed to get the max out of the welder.

Usually keep the torch tip about 5-10mm from the work and near vertical. Pushing the torch will give more penetration.

Keeping the torch too close will overheat the tip.

 

[immortal]

Hi,

What would the limit of the 151te have been? As the 135 says upto 5mm and the 151 unto 5-6mm?

Matt

 

[shenion]

The 151 would be about 4mm without prep.

 

[immortal]

So not a massive difference then. 3mm should be fine for most general diy and car work shouldn't it?

Matt

 

[shenion]

There is not a massive difference between 130A and 150A, so you'd not expect much of a change.

It should be fine for DIY work. If you need to do over 3mm, you just have to leave a gap or V-prep the joint.

 

[Engineer]

Excellent results...............the set you have is more appropriate for car repair work though, but you will find its a lot better with .8mm wire though.

 

[immortal]

Excellent results...............the set you have is more appropriate for car repair work though, but you will find its a lot better with .8mm wire though.

Is there a hint of sarcasm there lol

Fitting the 0.8 tomorrow and going practice on some 2mm for a bit see if I can master this penetration malarkey lol

 

[octo0072000]

Hi,

What would the limit of the 151te have been? As the 135 says upto 5mm and the 151 unto 5-6mm?

Matt

on the link i gave you 0.8 wire on max says 3 mm the 5 to6 mm bit is only with V-Prep vprep is when you grind the metal to 45% then you weld the gap sort of then you may have to build up the weld with maybe 3 runs or more
see linky

http://www.unified-eng.com/scitech/weld/groove.html

 

[immortal]

Well...... Ive emptied the 390g bottle already lol

Just on the way to the local MM to pick up the Clarke welding stand and then off to meet a chap to get a 6kg gas bottle for £35 and then just £15 per refill! I think thats not too bad.

Will post some pics up of my progress later but my dad says I'm coming on very quickly , so we will see!

Matt

 

[Engineer]

Not at all...............very good effort! You will find things much easier with .8mm wire I would think.

 

[immortal]

Hi,

Got the bottle and stand (see pics) and also had a little go at welding on some thin plate. Mixed results really , i think I'm getting better at penetrating (see pics) but when i emptied the small bottle and fitted this new one , i set the flow at 10 and the weld is spattering and cutting out intermittently as though there is no gas but i hear the whoosh of gas when i pull the trigger. Any ideas?


My Beautiful Welder

And Again lol

Niceish run of weld?

Reverse Side to check penetration

Matt

 

[octo0072000]

that bit of weld looks ok to me just get the bacon sizzle going

try adjusting the wire speed with Co2 you will get more splatter
if it's windy it wll blow the sheiding gas away when you here the woosh of gas keep the trigger pulled for about 10 seconds can you here the woosh all the ten seconds the gas needs to be constant i had a cheap co2 reg you got the woosh but after 5 seconds no woosh reg could not keep up with required flow
if you feel torch pushing back reduce wire speed you need to read the tutorials on here or just type mig welding into you tube loads on there

you need to get the bacon sizzling sound

 

[immortal]

that bit of weld looks ok to me just get the bacon sizzle going

try adjusting the wire speed with Co2 you will get more splatter
if it's windy it wll blow the sheiding gas away when you here the woosh of gas keep the trigger pulled for about 10 seconds can you here the woosh all the ten seconds the gas needs to be constant i had a cheap co2 reg you got the woosh but after 5 seconds no woosh reg could not keep up with required flow
if you feel torch pushing back reduce wire speed you need to read the tutorials on here or just type mig welding into you tube loads on there

you need to get the bacon sizzling sound

Hi,

Im getting the bacon sizzle noise but its more than i think sounds normal. The regulator cost me £49 from MM so don't know if thats a cheap one or not but its brand new?

Matt

 

[octo0072000]

MM are ok but a bit dear top of the page weldquip clik on logo takes you to store i see it's a double gauge one should be ok just make sure you are getting a constant woosh over say 10 seconds with co2 it is a bit fierce
just take time and practice loads of videos on you tube just type mig welding

http://www.weldequip.com/clarke-130en.htm