Settings for a cheap Chinese MIG welder

[eddglenn]

Hi All,

Thought i'd try my hand at welding so bought a cheap chinese gasless Mig.

It's a 120amp gasless and has a dial to for the wire speed from 1 to 10, a switch labelled 'min' and 'max' and a switch labelled '1' and '2'.

I can't make heads or tails of the instructions which seem to allude to a different model.

Any guesses on the best set up?

I am mainly welding butt joints on 2mm thick square tube.

Cheers

 

[slim_boy_fat]

bought a cheap chinese gasless Mig.

Welcome aboard Prepare to get some about that, but if it gets you started [and hooked ] then it's done it's job. Can you post up a pic of the data plate and the front of the machine, that might help the lads.

The tutorials are good on here, click the appropriate green button at the top of the page to see your started for 10. Can we assume you have the basic PPE [Personal Protection Equipment]?

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum.

The two switches work together to give different voltage/power outputs, ie

Min & 1
Min & 2
Max & 1
Max & 2

The actual order may vary from machine to machine, but if have a voltmeter it should be easy to work out.

The speed control 1 to 10 is arbitrary, very few machines give a m/sec figure, some machines set the coarse speed along with the power settings and the speed knob is a fine tune. Trial and error is probably going to be the way to go here.

 

[eddglenn]

Thanks for the responses so far, here are the markings on the front panel.

 

[MoreWellie]

I'd start at Max-1 and speed about 6 to 7

from there try varying the speed up and down by half a step at a time to control the sizzle and see how you get on

if you are still having issues post a picture or two of your results and we can make suggestions from there

 

[Cobbler]

Am I missing something or is it 110 volts, also is it AC output? It's shown as 60 hertz, so I'm guessing it could be American spec.

 

[rtbcomp]

^^ looks that way

 

[Cobbler]

^^ looks that way

That could be interesting, might let the magic smoke out. Let's hope he sees this before plugging it in.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

And a low of 60A? Difficult not to blow holes with at in what the OP intends.