MM211 welding steel with 100% CO2

[ryanjones2150]

C25 is the only gas I don't keep a spare cylinder of on hand. That's because I have two CO2 cylinders for my home brew setup. If I run out of C25 on a job, I'll grab one of my CO2 cylinders and use it to get me through until I get my C25 swapped out. But don't worry, I never actually run OUT of CO2 in the beer fridge. That would be catastrophic. <br />
<br />
You'll need an adapter for your CO2 cylinder though. They're cheap enough.

[Can You Weld This For Me?]

Once in a galaxy far far away I knew a guy who was swapped a cylinder of co2 instead of c25 by the LWS who ran the route. This guy used the whole cylinder so the LWS swapped him another cylinder and like 6 more cylinders. One day the LWS put a new guy on the route. While swapping cylinders (big ones) he asked this guy if he wanted to try some c25; said it had less spatter. You should've seen the look on this guy's face when he realized he had been using co2 for "a good while". He had made some pretty good looking welds and completed several jobs with good ol' co2, but after a quick chuckle he was sure glad to have his c25 back.

[Synchroman]

I've always used CO2 with my Miller 252 in my home shop. While under certain circumstances, there is a bit more spatter, it can be controlled easily by keeping the torch tip scrupulously clean and dipping it into a jar of weld gel from time to time while it is warm during your work. It works for me and best of all, CO2 is very cheap. I can swap a 20# cylinder for $25 out the door at my LWS. At approximately 8 cu. ft. of gas per pound, that's equivalent to a 160 cu. ft. cylinder of AR/CO2 75/25, which costs considerably more.

I can understand a commercial fab shop using the mix gas, but for economical home use, it's great.

[BlackICE]

CO2 should work just fine for steel.... albeit with a bit more spatter....

you will have to adjust your voltage and wire speed... the values will differ a bit from C25....

Here is a video that you might find interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56DW398n_fA&nohtml5=False

lots of other info here

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=co2+mig+welding&nohtml5=False

Straight CO2 is quite common in many applications

Thanks those videos are great.

[H80N]

A " Bit More " Spatter , Try a " Lot More " Spatter, In the 1960's & early 70's that's all we ran was straight Co2 were I worked.
We had to wear a leather sleeve on the left arm , if you wanted to have a sleeve at the end of your shift.......lol.


Norm

with a bit of fine tuning you can reduce the spatter by a whole bunch... modern machines have a LOT more adjustability than the power supplies of the past....

Good joint prep is a factor too..

Here is a thread/discussion on the subject

http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/archive/index.php/t-18048.html

[nfinch86]

A " Bit More " Spatter , Try a " Lot More " Spatter, In the 1960's & early 70's that's all we ran was straight Co2 were I worked.
We had to wear a leather sleeve on the left arm , if you wanted to have a shirt sleeve at the end of your shift.......lol.


Norm

[H80N]

CO2 should work just fine for steel.... albeit with a bit more spatter....

you will have to adjust your voltage and wire speed... the values will differ a bit from C25....

Here is a video that you might find interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56DW398n_fA&nohtml5=False

lots of other info here

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=co2+mig+welding&nohtml5=False

Straight CO2 is quite common in many applications

[Unibit]

Interesting approch, however, gas, and consumables are kinda expensive to use up in doomed attempts. I would read the equipment manual on proper set up, self educat with questions on proper setup and tips, and practice, practice, practice.

[BlackICE]

Has anyone used a newer inverter 211 with 100% C02? I have read the the older passport did real well with only CO2, maybe the 211 does too. Does the 211 change other electrical parameters when metal/gas knob is switched other than changing the voltage and wire feed rate used for Auto-Set.

For GMAW mild steel how much worst is the splatter with only CO2? I'm a rookie at this, only having laid crappy beads using a HF Mig 151 clone. I'm thinking of getting a 211 to improve the machine part. Would welding with only C02 be much harder to do with the skills not transferable to Ar/CO2 welding? Is trying to improve welding skills with CO2 dumb, since learning with Ar/CO2 is much easier?

Thanks.