neil85ae86

I asked the question about gas pressure last week, and the concensus was 15-25 from experienced users. As an FYI Lincoln recommend 30-40, I ran 30 the other day with my 100 amp on some 1/8" steel , it didn't work very well, I'm going to turn it down and try again later this week. It was almost like the welder couldn't feed the wire fast enough, I think the gas might be cooling it too quickly.

Neil

f22turboaccord

Neil85ae86 = i have the same problem with my welder. i would try to weld my stainless with 15 psi. the wire would burn off before it touched the manifold. i have to crank up the wire speed to like 8 inorder to weld. i don't know if my welder is too weak or i'm just using the wrong gas.

i tried to return the welder to homedepot, but they don't let me. they said they can only take it back for %75 what i bought it for. i really want to get a tig, but the tig is going for like $1,100 use from miller. let me know if u know anbody sell a tig for cheap. do u think i can use a 175 amp arc welder to weld my manifold?

quadnie

Home Depot has turned into a complete shithole. Fight your way, you'll get your ------- money back! Call the district manager or whatever.

Check egay out for some nice Tig 220v packages for about a grand (including shipping). One day I'm going to throw down a chunk and buy me a tig.

---- I wish I kept my plasma cutter.

stinky

Welding tip:You should spend 9/10 of the time preping the joint to be welded and 1/10 actually welding the joint.Any book or professional tig or mig welder will tell you that.

f22turboaccord

i cleaned the manifodl best as i can. well, i found out that the guy sold me the wrong type of gas for my mig. he gave me 100% argon. i was suppose to get 3 types of gas mix in the bottle. argon, co2 and hillium gas to wel stainless. i'm gonna go exchange the gas on sunday.

quadnie

Damn stinky, you're absolutely right on that. I normally sand blast the area first.

stinky

I learned the hard way Like exhaust piping,its aluminized steel.But you wouldn't weld it like aluminium,you have to weld to the base metal(at least with most MIG's)so i spent 2 hours just getting the joints down to the base metal.Good stuff to use is plumbers emory cloth.It's made for cleaning pipes for sodering.Its real flexable and water proof.

quadnie

Sandpaper roughs it up good for me.. mostly I'm doing larger steel jobs so a quick turn with the angle grinder makes the surface weldable.

Don't forget to clean/prep the area for your ground as well.

stinky

Also the weld itself is unpretected after welding(at least mild steel) so you have to paint it with header paint or if you are getting a jet coat or something then abviously do that after all your welding.If you don't protect the bead then it will just rust out.Hey Quadnie,when you weld stainless is the joint protected by the welding compound?I mean if you just weld up stainless will the joint rust?

f22turboaccord

i don't think the joint will rust when u weld stainless, because you have to use stainless wire to use stainless.