mig and flux core tips and techniques, equipment, filler metal
exnailpounder
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Chips O'Toole wrote:Before I did that weld, I took the nozzle apart and cleaned a ton of brown crap out of it.
No telling then. You need to look for gas problems. You're getting some shielding otherwise your weld would be porous but you must be drawing in air or something. You're using 75/25?(C25)
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I believe I loosened the cable connection when I changed the spool from stainless to steel. That would explain why I lost gas. But I tightened it up and cleaned the nozzle before making the long weld in the photo, which was surrounded by brown dust.

It's C25.

I don't suppose wire lube would make that stuff? I have two felt things on the feed mechanism, lubing the wire.

I have a couple of CO2 tanks from my brewing days sitting around. I could try a pure CO2 weld and see what happens.

I'm really happy about the weld, though. It's a big improvement over recent efforts, and there's a much nicer one on the other side of that piece of scrap.
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Poland308
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Yes that lube can do stuff like that. I used to use the pads but just dry.
I have more questions than answers

Josh
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Poland308 wrote:Yes that lube can do stuff like that. I used to use the pads but just dry.
Agreed. I've used the lube only rarely, and it only takes a couple drops. We had one guy at work who would saturate the pad like he was greasing the wire rope on a crane, and couldn't understand why his welds were crappy. I now never use the lube. It's less hassle to replace the liner occasionally.

Steve S
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When I dip my nozzle in the gel, my machine doesn't want to light up and it soots a little but not much and the welds are fine so I doubt oily felt is causing your problem...you have a gas problem. I put some big dessicant packs I got from a shipment inside the chassis where my wire spool is...seems to help during the humid weather and I threw my felts in the burner. Keep your wire dry and the lid closed and you won't have dirty wire...felt cleaners...IMO..gimmick. Like I said earlier...you're getting some decent gas coverage because your weld isn't porous and all slagged up but IMO you're not getting enough CFH or too much and swirling or you have bad gas.
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Otto Nobedder wrote:
Poland308 wrote:Yes that lube can do stuff like that. I used to use the pads but just dry.
Agreed. I've used the lube only rarely, and it only takes a couple drops. We had one guy at work who would saturate the pad like he was greasing the wire rope on a crane, and couldn't understand why his welds were crappy. I now never use the lube. It's less hassle to replace the liner occasionally.

Steve S
There's about a thousand "lube" jokes I could make right now...but I won't...maybe somebody else will :lol:
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I ran a few more welds, and they look great. There is still some brown mess, but it's all on the far side of the weld, where the gas blows it. I'll keep fiddling with it and trying to make sure the gas is okay, but the welds look perfect. It does sound a little bit like making popcorn, however.

The wire is ancient. It's shiny, but I can't swear it's perfect. I'm using the spool up for practice.

I can't believe how much TIG has improved my MIG skills. I see better, and my right hand is much steadier now.

My big problem now is that I've been welding my practice scrap together, and the resulting "sculpture" is getting pretty big.
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exnailpounder
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Let us know.
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