MIG help.

"Frank Grimes" (FrankGrimes) 11/03/2016 at 01:54 • Filed to: None

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No i am not being attacked by russian jets but my MIG welder keeps burning back the wire it never welds to the contact tip. 
It does it when set to the factory specs suggested for the thickness of metal being welded and wire size.

When welding the weld puddle blobs up never really penetrating lots of sparks and crap flying. The wire feeds out and almost immediately melts back until it feeds out and melts back again. My first thought is that the wire speed is too low but wire speed seems to no make a difference.

Ground is good and new bottle of shielding gas I have checked everything I could think of.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Frank Grimes 11/03/2016 at 02:31

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I’ll admit I don’t have a heck of a lot of experience, and that with a proper mig was years ago, but what you’re describing sounds a lot like what my shitty flux-core welder does when I don’t have the tip close enough to the surface I’m trying to weld. Remember that the filler wire isn’t the electrode, and since it liquifies when it sees current, trying to maintain an arc with liquid will be difficult. You need to keep the tip of the gun in a proper position at all times. If your wire speed is too high, it’ll push you away from the weld surface, making it difficult to maintain that continuous weld arc. Don’t push the tip right into the puddle, but you have to be close and with a steady hand.

Alfalfa > Frank Grimes 11/03/2016 at 02:55

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I agree with gogmorgo, sounds like you may be unintentionally altering your form/method. If you can’t make it work by altering your surface distance or surface travel speed, try welding with a small back-and-forth whipping motion rather than just unidirectional travel.

sn4cktimes > Frank Grimes 11/03/2016 at 03:26

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Tip to work distance is very important with MIG. Maybe 1" max for most setups. Argon based gas will shield better than CO2. Make sure the gas flow is set properly, generally 20-30 CFM’s. Have the gun at half the degree of the joint angle you’re welding: 90° fillet weld = gun at 45°, a butt-joint = gun straight to material (hope that makes sense). Have the gun at 5 to 15° tilt against the direction of travel. Technically you should “drag” a wire welder just like a stick welder but in most cases “pushing” a wire process works better. Have a little side to side motion to help “wet” out the edges, and by little I mean like the diameter of the wire. Set the voltage to what you prefer and base the wire speed off that and use the +/-10 rule to get started. If you set your voltage to 25.0 an appropriate wire speed setting would be 240-260 IPM. Not a hard rule, but it’ll get you in the ballpark. I never set the welder based solely on the material thickness. Set it to the weld you’d like to produce and vary your speed and technique to compensate. Thinner material move faster. Thicker joint, material or prep to fill crank it up. Make sure the material is clean, millscale on steel will SERIOUSLY handicap smaller hobby welders, especially 120v units. Not a lot of info to go on here but if you have a scrap chunk of 1/4 or 3/8 steel around set the machine to 24v and 250 wire speed with about 30CFM of gas and PUSH a bead with the gun aimed down with the tip leaned back 10° (probably already has a 10-15° bend). You should get an acceptable bead with some silicone (glass) on top here and there with bacon-like spatter. If not something is wonky. Maybe worn or bad rollers, a bad liner, bad electrical connection between gun and machine, etc.

Hope something in all that helped. Good luck!

The Lurktastic Opponaught > sn4cktimes 11/03/2016 at 06:23

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I wasn’t even asking a question and I learned something. Thanks!

random001 > sn4cktimes 11/03/2016 at 06:45

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Same. I didn’t ask, but thank you!

random001 > Alfalfa 11/03/2016 at 06:46

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I believe you were just told to whip it good...

BorkBorkBjork > Frank Grimes 11/03/2016 at 07:35

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Just use Flux.

MiG problem solved.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Frank Grimes 11/03/2016 at 08:50

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Penetration is an issue of distance and voltage setting, mostly. Burn to the tip is consistent distance, having a good tip, and having the right feed speed. So, the common point here would be distance and control, but also pretty much everything sn4cktimes said.

sn4cktimes > BorkBorkBjork 11/03/2016 at 14:07

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Awesome gif aside, I prefer MIG or metal-core with a 98% argon shielding gas over flux-core. I like the weld profile of the non-flux beads more.