• 180A dip - MIG/GMAW - good condition

    From Richard Smith@21:1/5 to All on Mon Dec 28 15:09:00 2020
    Some experienced advice and comment?

    I've been doing a lot of MIG welding to high specification recently.

    You know how 240A 29V "spray" (spray transfer) is a very nice
    condition?

    With "dip" (dip transfer) I am finding 180A at around 20V is a really
    really nice condition, when "dip" is what you want / need.

    (eg. on SHS ("box section") with its lower steel thicknesses and butt
    welds where you simply do not need the fusing and penetrating heat
    thick plate T-fillet welds need)

    I find the 180A dip condition really "crisp" and "accurate".
    Go 200A and you seem to be in some less clear zone, which
    scientifically would be said to be the "globular transfer zone".

    By the time you have dealt with less focussed welding and by the time
    you have chiseled off the spatter, it is as if staying with 180A as
    "top of dip" is nett advantageous.

    Do you hold something like this to be the case?

    All of this - in the UK we have to use "M21" gas with 20%CO2 (and
    often 2%O2) "to guarantee fusion" for all heavier steel fabrications -
    a problem which does not affect anywhere else in the World (!).
    So it skews comparability, be mindful.


    I've found you can get good vertical-up ("PF"/"3F(up)") solid-wire MIG
    welds at 180A if you stringer-bead. Not "weld porn" but totally
    serviceable / fit-for-purpose. Drop the voltage a couple of volts to
    around 18.2V, and oscillate slightly-and-rapidly to flatten the bead
    (but never to increase the bead cross-section). Finding "stubbing",
    however lightly / just detectably as you rapidly oscillate indicating
    the minimum permissible voltage is higher than this voltage setting...

    What do we reckon to this too?

    On the same weld a weave would be about 140A, by the way - and can
    with someone sufficiently practiced be "weld porn".

    Looking forward to benefiting from the sharing of experience.

    Rich S

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)