I feel old...

[Lanse]

Sort of. The mig welder that I bought last fall is officially out-dated. Im sort of in disbelief, since it was the first new welder that I bought, and still the biggest purchase that ive ever made, but I guess that they had been making them for a few years before I got mine. That was last fall, and I dont think ive ran 100 pounds of wire through it yet. I wanna wait until I learn how to really mig in school before I use it on anything for someone else, and I dont really use it for things of my own. lol.

Its a Hobart Handler 187, and the new welder is the Hobart Handler 190. It looks a little different, but its just a 187 that will also run on 110v, and comes spool gun ready (mine needs some sort of computor-box-thing to run a spool gun), so waiting for the new generation of welder wouldnt have been worth doing since I would use neither of those features, but I still can believe that something I just bought, is old now. lol.

Just sharing.

But thinking about it, really makes me want to use it. Before, Id generally use the settings on the cover, but usually got cold lap and cold joints. I know this may be a dumb question, but if I get a tall, high profile joint that looks cold, how do I turn up the welder to really burn it in? Id crank up the voltage a notch or two, but what about the WFS? Ive heard that that means amps, but if the beads too tall, id assume turn it down (and thus feed less wire into the puddle), but maybe I shouldnt if that would reduce the amperage? Idk. Im hoping that someone here (*cough* puddles *cough, cough*) could elaborate on this maybe...

Thanks guys

 

[Puddles]

It all works together, wire speed does controls the amps.
I've never run a Mig welder with taps, or a door chart. Wouldn't believe the chart anyway. :lol:
Best advice I can give you is to learn how to adjust the machine yourself. And don't look at the gauges. I've taken wire feed tests for the Navy where all the gauges had duct tape over them. Once I got the machine set where I liked it, they tested the amps, and volts with a meter. If they weren't inside the weld procedure specification, test was over right there!

Remember wire speeds makes course adjustments to the weld, where as volts make minimal changes.
Up the voltage, and the puddle will wet out some, down on the voltage, and the puddle will dry up some.

 

[MarkB_MI]

On a wire feed welder, the wire feed speed is your current control. If the voltage is too low for the wire speed, the electrode will stick. If the voltage is too high, you'll get a lot of spatter. So adjust the wire speed first to get the heat you want, then the voltage to match the wire speed.

 

[Puddles]

Another thing Lanse, get in the habit of running Mig as hot as you can handle it. Mig is notorious for cold lap! :wink:

 

[WAYNE-N-TX]

Strange, young and learned something,why post all this? We've all done it before, nothing new, get a life.

 

[Earl Gray]

I've got underwear older than you!

 

[Sid]

Maybe you ought to change them.

 

[Sid]

He's got a life and he is trying to improve it. If youve done it all how about answering his question.

 

[Anonymous-0]

The charts on the machine are usually pretty close for general stuff but if you want to weld say 1/4" plate, there's nothing wrong with turning the heat up to the 3/8" setting. You still have to play with it though. Wire speed does control amps. More volts gives a wider flatter bead. I always weave MIG side to side unless I'm burning really hot. Some people go in small circles to make sure they get good fusion on both sides of the weld.

I think it's on the Esab website but a good book to have is the MIG welding handbook. It was originally put out by Linde but since Esab took over the Linde MIG machines, they still print the book. There's also a TIG welding handbook. Linde(Union Carbide) was big in MIG and TIG welding from the beginning. I think they invented TIG and were one of the first with MIG.

 

[trucker 40]

If you are running a MIG or any other welder for that matter,over the course of a day you may need to make an adjustment higher to get the same results because as it gets good and warmed up then it probably changes a little.I have never even looked at a door chart to weld with a MIG.I just get it as high as I think it needs to be and adjust the wire speed until I get the right sound.When you have it set right there is very little spatter and its running smoothly.
There are other things that can cause what you describe like traveling too slow.Holding the gum wrong.Holding the wire too far away from the work.Just clip the wire every time you start welding and hold it in at the right angle,travel at the right speed and have the heat set right for the thickness of metal you are welding.So if you are welding 1/4 inch thick material you will want it fairly high and the wire speed set to match it.Say you are welding 1/8th inch metal,you will want it at about half of the available setting maybe a little less.Say you have a 3/8ths piece of metal you are welding,then you want it about the maximum and wire speed set to match it.Also you have to have a good ground,so maybe even grind off the area where you hook the ground to.Also you need to grind both sides of what you are welding with a MIG.Your grinder is your friend.If you ever get a job as a welder,at first you will get lots of practice with a grinder fixing your mistakes.You might even use the grinder more than the welder for a while.Once you get to where you arent using the grinder so much then you are getting the hang of welding.Another thing is that if somebody is around,when you are trying to set your welder,have them crank the wire speed up or down to get that smooth burning sound from the weld.Once you get onto the sound its easy to set it that way.3/8ths thick is about the max for that type welder,so something that thick you will have it set near the max.Also look at welding tips and tricks and they show some good info with videos on MIG welding.Now you can weld thicker stuff with multi pass welds,so dont think that 3/8ths is the max for the thickness you can weld,You can weld an inch thick with enough passes.

 

[Scottymudguy]

Puddles,

I agree with what your saying so dont get me wrong here...
I was a coded 4956....went through in the late 80's, never took any tests like what your saying. The "big eye", UT, PT, & Acid etching were the tests to pass to get on to the next qualification.
Maybe you went well before I did? Not sure what your age is, mine is mid 40's. Your age may be a factor in your testing standard's, but that thought didnt cross my mind until after I started this response.
Are you or were you a "yard bird"?

Like I said, not flaming you at all...just the testing standards are completely diffrent from I learned!
"Cold Lap" to me is L.O.F., Lack of Fusion....

I worked at Parl Harbor in 26B for 4 years & a 4 year hitch on the Nimitz as the only E-5 & than E-6 4956 qualified welder....had several 55's & 54's in my shop, my 56 quals automaticly qualified me for the lower standards as a 56 qualified welder had to pass 54 & 55 with at least 90 & 95% success to move on.
So long as I performed at least one NDT'd weld per quarter for each base metal I would remain qualified, if not then I would have to run a qual weld for the ones I lacked, & for canopy seals (canopys had to welded every quarter regardless, bevel & "C")

 

[Lanse]

Jeeze Puddles, youre lucky man, sounds like you
got to miss out on lifes finer things, which
include stick welding with an AC only tombstone
and migging with taps

Haha, okay cool man. I plan on leaving the door
closed, and Ill just not pay attention to what
numbers the thing reads. Kinda like the stickmate,
or I guess, any other welder.

I can remember that, thanks man

 

[Lanse]

Alright, set the WFS first, then adjust the voltage. Thats what I needed to hear, thanks Mark

 

[Lanse]

Haha alright, thats exactly what Im afraid of!! Ive
never had anything Ive welded come apart just yet,
and I plan to keep that record going

 

[Lanse]

Why thank you, Sid!!

And Wayne, On youtube, I always tell people "If you dont like my videos, its cool, just dont watch them".

So here, if you dont like my posts, its cool, just dont read them. Have a nice night.

 

[Lanse]

Hahaha!! Maybe!!

Thats a fact that I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing. lol.

 

[Lanse]

There is no 3/8" setting
It supposedly tops out at like 5/16" for a single pass. If its set right tho, who know how much it could bite off??

Thanks SW, I appreciate it.

 

[Puddles]

Hi scotty, nope not a yard bird, but surrounded by them! :lol: I live a stones throw from PSNS, not to far from Bangor, and Keyport. Have to set down and really think of all the projects I've worked on for the Navy. Even help build the USS Lincoln's home port in Everett. If the Navy pulled up stakes and left, my county would look like a ghost town! :shock:

 

[Anonymous-0]

That sure is odd you wearing Dippers still

 

[Scottymudguy]

Wow small world! Just before I got off the Nimitz we went there to go in dock....Lived up on Kitsap lake myself for a few years before moving back home!
I know what you mean about that whole area around Btown blowing away if they ever shut PSNS down....would be a ghost town double time!!!

I have heard that the Navy did away with the enllisted 56's.....let the birds do all that nuke stuff now because of how expensive it was to train & qualify a 56 coded welder....
Guess I got out in time to not loose my job!!
All that Tig work sure spoiled a guy....lol, I hardly ever burn rod, if I cant do what I have to do with Mig or Tig I usaually have to take a foxtail to my arc machine before I can use it....after I get it dug out from behind everthing else!! :lol:

 

[Puddles]

I use to drive by Kitsap Lake all the time on the way to Green Mountain to ride the horses.
I've worked with quite a few weldors who came out of PSNS. Like I always tell people, I live in an area with some of the best weldors on the planet, but I'm not one of them! :wink:
Years ago I had to take a journey upgrade class at Olympic College to learn how to weld stainless steel pipe with purge. The instructor was a nuke weldor in PSNS. The stories he'd tell me about how they do things in the yard just floored me. I'll never forget him telling me, he would not accept a pipe joint if the gap varied more than .010 of an inch. I can't imagine working to such close tolerances. I understand all pipe welding for the Navy is Tig welded all the way out, no SMAW at all on pipe.

My brother-n-law, (sister's husband) went through the welding apprenticeship at Hunter's Point Naval shipyard. Hunter's Point may be before your time. I also worked with a lot of weldors who came out of Mare Island Naval shipyard, again Mare Island may be before your time.

 

[Scottymudguy]

He was not BSing you on the .10" clearance limit, all bevels had to be 45 +/- .5 degree's. .15" undercut limit, zero base metal damage (no errant arc strikes...) no more then 3 spots of porosity in any weld and could not exceed 1/16" combined, 2/32 allowed for concavity or convexity....all damn tight tolerances! The big eye (x-ray) would tell on you if you screwed up...every time! Almost all pipe welds consisted of a filler metal insert, & all were purged with argon or an argon/helium mixture...I cant remember the CFM requirements but you did have a chart to follow according to what size & what base metal you were working with.

We were all qualified in a minimum of 3 base metals, & a minimum of 3 welders per metal. Carbon, Stainless, Inconel, Nickel Copper, & Copper Nickel were the metals every nuke welder had to qualify in, in order to get the 4956 code. Vertical, horizontal, & 6g all in a 6" restriction were the jig fixtures at school & recertifying booth. Pearl Harbor also required at least 2 of us maintained mirror quals in a 3" restriction....Cheif made sure all of us (9) maintained at least one mirror qual to keep the Division officer off his butt!! I Maintained Stainless & Inconel constantly....Nickel copper when I held my toungue right!!! Never could get a Copper Nickel mirror though...hated that stuff, the puddle would make you want to stick your finger in it & push it around!!!!

All high pressure, breathing air, & nuke stuff was indeed tig. Low pressure & non life supporting/threatning systems could be welded out with SMAW. There was not alot of carbon steel to be found on a submarine...so most or all was probably GTAW. Not sure if that has changed or not.

Hunters point was before my stint, as for Mare Island...they came out twice a year when I was at Subase Pearl. Always looked forward to them coming as they always had the latest & greatest (for military anyways) toys & technique improvments. They introduced me to my first slope controlled machine...a savior for crater pits in Copper Nickel finally!! I still have some of my torches from those day's, they helped us modify them to make visibility around them better. Probably 95-98% of the welds on a subs were in such small places that it took 2 guy's, one to run the remote pedal if you will. And one tied up in knots underneath the deckplates so restricted a hood was way out of the question....we took cardboard and taped it up with 100MPH tape, cut a hole for a lens & taped a lens in it, & then taped a tab on the back side (inside) of the "hood" for you to bite on & hold the hood in place while welding!
Mare Island's & Norfolk's Nuke yardbirds were considered the best of the best & were always so good to work with, they were smooth....teach you something without you even knowing you were being schooled!!!

 

[Puddles]

When I took that class from the PSNS nuke weldor, it was kind of embarrassing.
I was running the night shift, so I had to go to school at 8:00 A.M. It was a beginner's SMAW welding class. The owner of the company I was working for family were big shots in B-town, owned a couple banks, contributed 10's of thousands of $ to Olympic College every year. So he arranged that I could get Tig welding instruction in the beginner's class. The embarrassing part was the teacher wouldn't give the other students the time of day, he spent every minute in the booth with me, when a student would open the curtain to ask a question he would blow them off. The last few weeks of the class he would bring in 1-inch hydraulic lines with machined consumable inserts for me to weld. Before it was over he would place the hydraulic line 6-inches from the wall, and 6-inches from the ceiling of the booth, and give me a mirror.
I remember he brought in some of his failed aluminum Tig pipe welds. Looking at the root from inside of the pipe looked perfect all the way around! I won't live long enough to ever be that good, and this was a failed weld! Personally I don't think the average weldor understands what these nuke weldors have to go through to make a living!

 

[Anonymous-0]

I was just saying you could turn it hotter without any problems. Turning it hotter on 22 gauge would probably cause problems though.