New guy here with a mig problem

[23calg]

I bought a millermatic 180 about a year ago and have been using it for body work at home,I normally dont weld anything any heavier than 16 gauge metal but the other day i had to do some welding on some thicker(12 guage) material and had some problems,i could not get the machine set properly no matter what i did it would just pop pop pop pop and the weld didint look too bad there was an awful lot of spatter and heavy black soot around the welds.im using .23 solid wire and c25 gas any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[shorerider16]

Sounds like you voltage is too low for the amount of wire speed (or your wire is too high for you voltage), that would be my first guess. However, it is possible for "popping" to be caused by other ailments. Check to make sure that the wire is feeding properly and you have good gas flow.

[MAC702]

Did you figure it out yet? Is your polarity at DCEP?

[shorerider16]

Did you figure it out yet? Is your polarity at DCEP?

Now why didn't I think of that?

It is so easy to miss the simple stuff.