Welding 1/4" steel- Mig or stick?

[greenmule]

Hounds I guess can get inbred to extreme to,but,never seen a hound[other than probably heath problems] get like these akc dogs.
People breeding hounds breed them for their ablities,and getting along with their hunting pardners is one of those,and not being stupid is another.

These people who breed akc dogs,golden retrievers,collies,etc,bred them for their looks and build,big difference.They could care less about the personality of the dog,[or the health].

 

[nunyabinis]

Any of you guys have any tips or suggestions on using the new MillerMatic 252 I picked up this afternoon?

 

[2manyrocks]

Any of you guys have any tips or suggestions on using the new MillerMatic 252 I picked up this afternoon?

Maybe somebody has some specific tips, but I'd just say take care of your leads and don't get them kinked, run over in the shop or anything like that and you'll get longer service life.

 

[johnk]

Plug it in.... Put on your gloves and helmet and go to it...... Post some pics ....

 

[greenmule]

Not fimilar with that machine[or any of the new ones],but they are about all the same,wire speed is your amps,voltage setting is the dial where you turn it up/down,gotta match voltage setting to wire speed,and visa versa,the old ones didn't have ipm.
you can set that combination up to work at different volts/amps/ipm.

Used to weld pipe all postions at about 120 amps/19 volts/.035 wire,co2 shielding,at about 25 cfh.

But,if you don't know nothing about using a mig,its going to be pretty hard setting it up[course you might have one of those videos??]

 

[nunyabinis]

But,if you don't know nothing about using a mig,its going to be pretty hard setting it up[course you might have one of those videos??]

I didn't say I've never welded with a wire welder. I just said I didn't know the "right" way to do it.


I've burned my share of wire. I started many moons ago with a 120volt Lincoln 135 MIG then sold it and bought a 230volt Lincoln 175 MIG. The difference was like night and day. I've tackled projects that the 175 just wasn't big enough for but made it work anyway.

I recently purchased the raw materials to build a Road Grader. All the metal is 1/4 inch thick. I decided to take the Nestea Plunge and get a welder that'll handle just about anything I throw at it..... hence the MillerMatic 252.


Buying the welder from National Welder was a freakin' fiasco. I'll tell you guys about it some day. Suffice it to say that no more than I know about welding I knew WAY more about the 252 and Self-shielding flux core wire welding than the guys at National Welder did. It was a disgrace.




.

 

[RobJ]

Understanding the 'how' and 'why' is almost as important as practice.

This is sort of the point I was making with me in my last post. I and many understand the how and why, but if you don't do it everyday then the dots won't connect.

I compare this to taping and floating drywall. I know exactly how to mix the mud, what trowel to use, what angle to hold it. But I suck at it!

 

[greenmule]

So you are running flux core not bare wire gas shielding? Thats a big thing if you asking for tips you know?

What specific questions you got?

gmaw stands for gas metal arc welding[mig for short]....fcaw stands for flux cored arc welding,[flux core for short].Same machine plus or minus a few parts,but different processes.

so,you gotta be more specific in your tips questions. [unless you just want to know about that model machine]??

 

[nunyabinis]

Put the MillerMatic 252 together this morning and burned my first wire.


Holy Bejesus!!! Now THAT'S a welder.


Butt welded a couple pieces of 1/8" just to get the feel. Makes a nice "buzz" with .035 Lincoln NR211-MP FCAW-S instead of the snap/crackle/pop of the Lincoln 175. Gonna take some practice with the infinite control settings though.



.

 

[greenmule]

Flux core is for heavy[thicker stuff] fab shop production,etc,you oughta put bare wire in it[you'll need different feeder drive rolls,plus a few other adjustments,] and get you some co2 or mix for it.You'll get the most out of your machine that way.

You have bare wire,you can tune it down and tune it up for thin and for thicker stuff. Does it let you store settings? Most of the top of the line models let you set it up and you store that info in a program,you can store many settings by just pressing a button you can go from sheet metal to 1/2 inch plate,down hill to up,etc.

 

[Transit]

Just got my login to work after a month of hassle tracking down the site administrator.
I could lignin and was recognized by the site server, but couldn't post or reply. Every avenue for help proved to be a deadened, contacting links that didn't work, e-mail address that didn't resound, and phone numbers that were dead. The FAQ for help looped back onto itself, with a phrase that I can interpret as, " we don't care-too bad". I found the parent company in Tucson AZ, Google Map showed the office to be next to a interchange ramp to US 10, next to a bush out by a gopher hole. Next, I found that the home office is somewhere in Pakistan, that explains a lot. More digging and I found an 888 number that someone answered. The "voice" explained that the site is upgrading and there will be a new link for help. We'll see. I'm not going to reveal "how" I tracked them down less they block that too. Next time I'm going to turn off local gravity if I must, I do get personal!

 

[Transit]

Just got my login to work after a month of hassle tracking down the site administrator.
I could lignin and was recognized by the site server, but couldn稚 post or reply. Every avenue for help proved to be a deadened, contacting links that didn稚 work, e-mail address that didn稚 resound, and phone numbers that were dead. The FAQ for help looped back onto itself, with a phrase that I can interpret as, 努e don稚 care-too bad? I found the parent company in Tucson AZ, Google Map showed the ç™»ffice to be next to a interchange ramp to US 10, next to a bush out by a gopher hole. Next, I found that the home office is somewhere in Pakistan, that explains a lot. More digging and I found an 888 number that someone answered. The ç*ºoice explained that the site is upgrading and there will be a new link for help. We値l see. I知 not going to reveal å¡—ow I tracked them down less they block that too. Next time I値l turn off local gravity if I must, I do get personal!

 

[Scooby074]

Just got my login to work after a month of hassle tracking down the site administrator.
I could lignin and was recognized by the site server, but couldn't post or reply. Every avenue for help proved to be a deadened, contacting links that didn't work, e-mail address that didn't resound, and phone numbers that were dead. The FAQ for help looped back onto itself, with a phrase that I can interpret as, " we don't care-too bad". I found the parent company in Tucson AZ, Google Map showed the office to be next to a interchange ramp to US 10, next to a bush out by a gopher hole. Next, I found that the home office is somewhere in Pakistan, that explains a lot. More digging and I found an 888 number that someone answered. The "voice" explained that the site is upgrading and there will be a new link for help. We'll see. I'm not going to reveal "how" I tracked them down less they block that too. Next time I'm going to turn off local gravity if I must, I do get personal!

Ummmm......... WHAT

 

[greenmule]

woooh dude

 

[Transit]

Jason, you appear puzzled. My original intention was to help BTackett with his welding question; I did not like some of the answers to his questions. I was planning to recommend some good solid reference videos and a MIG welding manual by Miller, Gas Metal Arc Welding that he would find helpful understanding the MIG process and improve his welding skills. However, I just could not login and post. Now thanks to the delay I may have missed the opportunity.

 

[greenmule]

Never to late,go ahead,saw some people answer to posts on here that are years old.

 

[Scooby074]

Jason, you appear puzzled. My original intention was to help BTackett with his welding question; I did not like some of the answers to his questions. I was planning to recommend some good solid reference videos and a MIG welding manual by Miller, Gas Metal Arc Welding that he would find helpful understanding the MIG process and improve his welding skills. However, I just could not login and post. Now thanks to the delay I may have missed the opportunity.

That makes sense. Just was a weird first post from a noobie in the middle of a welding thread. TBN gets lots of spam and your first post kinda looked that way.

Feel free to post any info you may have. Even if its too late to help the OP, im sure it will help someone else in the future. Threads like this never really die..

 

[Transit]

​

Brent, you´ve been given good advice. You may also find this helpful, Northern Tool has a set of videos in VHS and DVD on welding, GMAW [MIG] and FLUX CORE ARC WELDING. Both videos cover welding techniques, wire selection, gas selection, defects and a host of other information. Pay attention to the seens of live arcs, although MIG and Flux core welding share many techniques there are small, subtle differences in the puddle for MIG and Flux core that affect the results in a big way. If you want to be more scientific, Gas Metal Arc Welding by Miller is an excellent reference book; particularly the tables matching the work thickness to the wire, current and wire feed speed and lots of illustrations. Miller's book is geared to the pro welder with lots of good info for the weekend putz, but don't let that put you off, there is a wealth of information on joint fit up and wire selection. The videos will help fix bad habits that you may have picked up.
Unfortunately, not all the information you may need and want is in one place, the web is also of some value.

http://smartflix.com/store/video/54/GMAWMIG-Wire-Feed-Welding
MIG Welding Wire Charts - Airgas.com
How to Improve Your Welds: Helpful hints for GMAW
Builders Booksource : Gas Metal Arc Welding Handbook, 4th ed. by William Minnick

Some frown on FLUX CORE objecting to the slag, I´ve been using Hobart's Fabshield 21B E71T-11 flux core in the sizes 0.030, 0.035 and 0.045 inches. The results have been so good that I hardly use full Mig with gas. The slag is in the form of a powder and easily brushed off, no chipping.

That Sears welder, I have a hard time accepting that 85 amps is going to weld 3/16 in steel in one pass with deep penetration without joint preparation. Using the rule of thumb, 1 amp for each 0.001 in. of thickness, 85 amps carropsounds to 0.085 in. , that's between 12 and 14 gauge. 3/16 in. is 0.1943 in. requiring 194 amps, that's twice the maximum current of the unit. Now if you're working 1/8 in stock, that's 0.125 in., 125 amps and with beveling, it's doable. ¼ in. is also doable with joint beveling and multi-pass beads with the right wire and gas. That's why I keep pointing to the Miller book and videos.

Commenting on all the posts will take time and a larger server, I'll take my time.


BTW whats with this? I’ll and that’s. The words with comas get changed?

 

[Scooby074]

​

BTW whats with this? I値l and that痴. The words with comas get changed?

Did you write your reply in a word processor (like MS Word) and paste it in here? When you see garbled characters its usually the result of using different formatting, that the Bulletin board software or your browser cant handle..

 

[Transit]

Ok, 074 that's what I suspected, I do use MS word and copy/post the text. This time I'm trying MS Excel

The font is Arial, 10 pt. comma ', quote "

Is there a work around?


This is MS Power point, Arial Font at 9 pt. With comma ‘ , quote “

I’m back with MS Word using Arial. That’s, “quote”

Times New Roman font, That’s, “quote”

Century Schoolbook font, that’s, “quote”


Now I’m puzzled, it’s working correctly? Go figure?