Mig Welder

Post by **thwaak** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 7:10 pm

I am using a 130A Mig Mate welder which is great, trouble is I'm going through the small disposable sheilding gas cylinders at a rate of knots. Can anyone recommend which larger cylinder I should to go for and has anyone used pub type CO2 cylinders normally used to push the amber nectar.
Neil.

Post by **Cam** » Mon Apr 21, 2003 11:11 pm

Neil,

I personally use the disposable bottles (600g ones) which don't last forever but they are small and convenient.

My mate (who has the same welder - Clarke 150TE) uses a pub bottle which will work out cheaper in the long run. He has to rent the bottle and has had to buy a regulator and pipe adapter (from Machine Mart - I think).

I think he rented the bottle from BOC and it is the smallest that they do (which is still massive!). And he has had the bottle filled with COUGAR - CO2/Argon mix, which he says is a lot smoother (but not as strong as plain CO2).

It's a shame really, as I do a lot more welding than him and I am using the small disposable bottles!!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 5:29 pm

I'm using a BOC bottle which is much larger than I wanted, and the rental has gone up every year, so it's nearly £30 now!
The refill is also £30 but you get tons more gas for your money and I struggled to run one out in a year.
If you use more than a couple of disposables per year I'd recommend a rental bottle. You can get higher flow than the disposables which makes the weld a bit cleaner especially if your welding rust or when it's breezy.

Another downside of the disposables I used to use was they never sealed after you started them so if you only welded every few months they'd have gone flat anyway.

Post by **Cam** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 1:07 pm

Another downside of the disposables I used to use was they never sealed after you started them so if you only welded every few months they'd have gone flat anyway.

That's quite bad!! I have not had this problem. I have been using the Machine Mart 600g bottles. Which ones were you using??

Mind you, it was probably the regulator that was not shutting off properly.

Post by **rayofleamington** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:16 pm

I even took the regulator off (the regulator did leak), but the bottles still leaked. They were the ones from Halfords, but this was 10 years ago, so maybe they make them better now.

Post by **Daddsie** » Mon Apr 28, 2003 9:22 pm

I must admit to now using the gasless wire, it works!

Post by **Cam** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 10:50 am

I must admit to now using the gasless wire, it works!

I have heard that gasless (flux cored) wire is very poor and not as good as a separate shield of gas. Although I have heard that it is quite good for welding outdoors.

If you have used both types, is there much difference between the two in terms of smoothness, ease of use etc?

Post by **Daddsie** » Tue Apr 29, 2003 8:52 pm

Flux cored seems to spit a bit more, but it is difficult to judge because of the different situations/materials/thicknesess that I've used both in.

Post by **bill** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:56 am

I use the gasless Mig from machinemart and also use a splatter spray, this is sprayed on before welding and reduces the amount of splatter from it. I buy it through a wholesale supplier but should emagine it should be available from a good welding supplier.

Bill

Post by **57traveller** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 12:44 pm

I purchased a MIgMate 130 recently and being new to the wonders of MIG and still practising would like to know if the wire feeds at a fairly fast rate even at the lowest speed setting. I know it's difficult to describe a rate but it seems a bit too fast on my machine. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Post by **Cam** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 2:49 pm

At a low rate (1 or so) the wire crawls out and makes a noise like it is struggling. At 8-10 it whizzes out and makes a loud whizzing noise.

Just a bit of advice. Don't use 0.6mm wire as it tends to jam and cause eratic feeding. I used to use this before but I ran out and I could only get 0.8mm, which is far superior and does not jam. I also replaced my wire liner with a teflon one, and it it really smooth now.

When welding most body panels (1mm ish) then I use the set (Clarke weld 150TE) on 2 min (1/2 power) with a wire feed of 2/10, and it penetrates nicely without blowing holes (on fresh metal

)

Try adjusting the speed, if there is little to no difference between max and min then you may have a faulty wire speed controller.

Post by **57traveller** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 3:18 pm

Thanks Cam, I suspect there's a fault because the wire just spews out at high speed whatever the rate is set at.
No wonder I'm finding it difficult.

Post by **Chris Morley** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 3:51 pm

I use a Clarke No-Gas MIG100 Turbo. Not having to link up the bottles is a big plus, but I'm not that impressed by the visual results. It's easy enough to adjust the controls to get the 'sizzling bacon' sound but invariably I'm left with a trail of messy metal blobs rather than a smooth continous weld. Even after being ground down you can see splits in the metal as Daddsie mentioned. This isn't a case of the bad workman blaming his tools

because I made some excellent (smooth) welds at night school and found it easy to 'push' the weld along.

The flux residue leaves a grey/brown dust over the weld area but this is easily brushed off with a wire brush. I wonder if some of this contaminates the actual weld?

Also I'm finding it needs a lot of pressure to push the lever on the torch which doesn't help to control it. Surely this is wrong?

As for Wire speeds (57 traveller) I guess the difference between highest and lowest speed should be a factor of 4 or 5 (ie: 4 or 5 times faster). Your welder clearly has a fault.

Post by **rayofleamington** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 6:34 pm

Hi 57Traveller,
I also have a migmate 130, and it is great.
If you turn the wire down to low speed, it should nearly stop feeding, so as you already guessed - there's something faulty there.
Are you still under warranty??
I swapped from 0.6 to 0.8 mm for the same reason as Cam, and also found it to be ten times more reliable with better feeding.
My welder has had a couple of problems, one of which was caused by a bit of loose wire falling inside and shorting out one of the controls! Also I used to pull the welder around using the torch - It wrecked the torch lead, which was quite expensive to replace

Did you find a decent size bottle yet?

Post by **Cam** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:17 pm

No wonder I'm finding it difficult

God yes!! I can't imagine even trying to weld with mine set to maximum speed it would be virtually (if not actually) impossible!!

Also I'm finding it needs a lot of pressure to push the lever on the torch which doesn't help to control it. Surely this is wrong?

Chris, the cheap sets (like ours) are sometimes a bit hard to push and after a day's welding your hand can feel a bit painful. My dad had an industrial 3-phase unit which was massive and it had a hair trigger (which is amusing for others to watch if you are not expecting it!!)

Post by **57traveller** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 8:41 am

Thanks for the replies which just about confirm there is a fault. Unfortunately not under warranty but I'll get it sorted.