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Hello,
I have an Eastwood MIG 250 and it has been great so far. I was trying to do a repair for a friend's piece of lifting equipment that had a piece of round tubing maybe 1/8" wall, welded to a 5/8" ish thick piece of steel. The manufacturer must have had their machine set for welding the 1/8" thick piece because that weld popped off like it was done with a hot glue gun.
Now the single pass capacity of the MIG 250 is 1/2". I figured I would give it a try laying a root or first pass and I had the machine on the suggested 1/2" thick setting. If it went well maybe I could do some extra passes.
When I went to lay a bead, it started the initial tack/puddle and it made a bead, then just started pumping wire but the wire wouldn't melt, it would only be red hot. I have it plugged in for 240/250V with a dedicated 50 amp breaker and it didn't pop the breaker, no overload light on the welder.
I had a divot in my table I believe from the electricity searching for a connection as I was clamped to the table and not the part and hadn't cleaned the paint anywhere on the part except for where I was welding so it arched to the drilled holes.
I then clamped onto the tubing and still had that issue (maybe the clear coat on it was affecting the connection?). I cannot remember if I clamped onto the cleaned surface of the 5/8" plate, but I believe I did.
Either way I could only basically do extended 1-1.5 second tacks without the puddle dying and red hot wire getting pumped onto there looking like a sea urchin. I ended up doing those tacks all the way around. I know they are not as good as a solid bead all the way around, but I think it will hold better than what the manufacturer did.
Any idea what this issue was?
Should I have just ground a clean spot on the part for the ground clamp and not trusted the round tubing?
Should I have reduced the wire speed?
Threw in a picture of a workout bench I was making for someone that was welding just fine before I tried to do the thick piece.
Also, side note that I have wondered about as I took welding classes a few years ago doing mig and tig, and we would do multi-pass welding, but I was always curious, how do you determine WHEN to do a multi pass weld, and if your machine can do it. Like they say the machine is capable of doing 1/2" in one pass, which I interpret as you can get the penetration needed. So what, if it is more than half inch, you should do a bevel to at least 1/2" thickness, and then you can stack? Does that mean you could weld 1" plate with a welder that only has the capacity for 1/4" if you bevel the plate down to 1/4" and stack?
Sorry long winded, but I have been wondering this for a while as I am doing various welding projects.
I have an Eastwood MIG 250 and it has been great so far. I was trying to do a repair for a friend's piece of lifting equipment that had a piece of round tubing maybe 1/8" wall, welded to a 5/8" ish thick piece of steel. The manufacturer must have had their machine set for welding the 1/8" thick piece because that weld popped off like it was done with a hot glue gun.
Now the single pass capacity of the MIG 250 is 1/2". I figured I would give it a try laying a root or first pass and I had the machine on the suggested 1/2" thick setting. If it went well maybe I could do some extra passes.
When I went to lay a bead, it started the initial tack/puddle and it made a bead, then just started pumping wire but the wire wouldn't melt, it would only be red hot. I have it plugged in for 240/250V with a dedicated 50 amp breaker and it didn't pop the breaker, no overload light on the welder.
I had a divot in my table I believe from the electricity searching for a connection as I was clamped to the table and not the part and hadn't cleaned the paint anywhere on the part except for where I was welding so it arched to the drilled holes.
I then clamped onto the tubing and still had that issue (maybe the clear coat on it was affecting the connection?). I cannot remember if I clamped onto the cleaned surface of the 5/8" plate, but I believe I did.
Either way I could only basically do extended 1-1.5 second tacks without the puddle dying and red hot wire getting pumped onto there looking like a sea urchin. I ended up doing those tacks all the way around. I know they are not as good as a solid bead all the way around, but I think it will hold better than what the manufacturer did.
Any idea what this issue was?
Should I have just ground a clean spot on the part for the ground clamp and not trusted the round tubing?
Should I have reduced the wire speed?
Threw in a picture of a workout bench I was making for someone that was welding just fine before I tried to do the thick piece.
Also, side note that I have wondered about as I took welding classes a few years ago doing mig and tig, and we would do multi-pass welding, but I was always curious, how do you determine WHEN to do a multi pass weld, and if your machine can do it. Like they say the machine is capable of doing 1/2" in one pass, which I interpret as you can get the penetration needed. So what, if it is more than half inch, you should do a bevel to at least 1/2" thickness, and then you can stack? Does that mean you could weld 1" plate with a welder that only has the capacity for 1/4" if you bevel the plate down to 1/4" and stack?
Sorry long winded, but I have been wondering this for a while as I am doing various welding projects.
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