Speed Settings

[clevinski]

I'm working on a little project (a spring-loaded license plate holder for my boat trailer that will fold out of the way if it hits anything at the boat ramp and then pop back) and I welded up a license plate frame out of 2.5 mm steel. I'm still getting used to the Clarke 180EN, and tried some welds on scrap using what I thought would be the right settings for 2.5 mm. They were way too high (the arc sounded frantic, rather like me when looking for a date in college), and I ended up going down to 2-min, which is the next to lowest setting.

My issue is that the wire speed seems awfully sensitive at this setting. I was down to about 1.8, and I felt it was too low. You could actually see the wire sort of pop, and the arc would stop for an instant sometimes. (My head was probably too close during this, since a glowing piece of spatter popped inside my full-face helmet during welding. It missed my face but convinced me I may be a bit too close.) Oddly, my welds at this speed turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Then I turned the speed up to about 2.6 and it was frantic again, although again it made some nice welds.

Can the wire speed setting be that sensitive? It doesn't seem like the feed is hesitating or anything like that, and I'm only using 2 pound spools at this point. For information, the wire is Lincoln L-56 .030" / 0.8 mm and the gas is 75/25 argon/CO2.

Any input is appreciated. I'll post pictures of the welds a bit later.

 

[malcolm]

They can be that sensitive. On my old Clarke 155 the wire speed needed to be adjusted whenever the voltage settings on the machine were changed. Some other machines adjust the wire speed automatically, so I'm not sure what yours does. The advantage of the machines that do it automatically is the wire speed knob is just for fine adjustment.

Anyway, it made a big difference on the scale of 1 to 10 whether it was set to 2.2 or 2.3. If yours is like mine the adjustment from 1.8 to 2.6 would have the wire feeding 3 times as fast.

On my current machine 0.5 adjustment is still big, though I can get normally get away with 0.5 wrong either way.

 

[shenion]

I find on the Clarke 130, the wire speed had a range of about 0.5 of a division. On the max setting, I was using a speed of 6. Minimum speed was about 2, so all use was within 2-6. Aluminum did use a speed 7-10 though

I do find using a thicker wire helps as the wire seed is lower.

2.5mm on the 130 was a speed of about 4.5.

 

[clevinski]

Wow... I didn't realize it was so sensitive. My little Dayton welder is not nearly so touchy about wire speed.

Malcolm, according to the manual, the wire speed adjusts automatically when you change power settings.

Here are the two welds. The first one was at about 1.8, the second was at about 2.6.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

that steel looks a bit thin, are you sure it's 2.5mm?

On my Clarke 150TE I'd use 2 min or 2 max on 1.6mm with the wire set at around 5.5 - 6 so your wire speed sounds way too low to me. However I know that you have a higher powered welder.

Generally I've always had the wire-speed too high, although I backed it off recently from around 7.5 to around 5.5 - 6 and it sounds better. It annoys me when it burns back so I liked to have it just on the point of too high where you can feel the wire hitting the workpiece.

I assume you've tried running single beads of weld at all wire-speeds up to maximum?

Does your wire speed controller go from 1 to 10 or does it have a different scale?

Regards
Peter

 

[clevinski]

Yes, I measured it with a caliper. The edges look thinner because I had to use an angle grinder to get the stupid paint off and I ended up beveling the surface near the edge.

My welder is only 30 amps more than the 150 so I wouldn't think it would make that much difference in the wire speed settings. No, actually I didn't try running single beads at all wire speeds up to maximum. I'll try that as a way to get more familiar with the welder; it's a good idea in any case.

Yes, the wire speed controller is calibrated 1-10.

I shouldn't say this because it's bad juju, but... I have never yet burned back and fused the wire to the tip. So either I'm doing something right, or I'm doing something very wrong. Kind of like fishing with jigs... if you don't get them caught in the nasty, snarly laydowns sometimes that means you're not fishing in the right place! Hope the same doesn't apply to burning back...