1. Get a good ground clamp - Spend twenty bucks and acquire a copper ground clamp with a robust spring. Your mig welder isn't smart enough to understand when your ground is not good and therefore it just keeps on feeding wire. This is why some wire welders sound sort of a drive by shooting once they first light-weight up.
2. Watch your stickout - Stickout is controlled by how far away you hold your mig welding gun. However it's conjointly increased if your contact tip is recessed manner back in the mig nozzle. Adjust the mig gun nozzle therefore that the tip is flush with the nozzle or even protruding a tiny bit.
3. Shielding gas - seventy five argon twenty five cO2 is the standard. Plain C02 works too. If you have a 115 volt wire feed welder that only welds with flux core, sell it and buy one with a gas conversion kit.
4. Welding wire - for blank wire welding, use E70S6 , for flux core use Lincoln NR211. There are different smart ones obtain lets keep it simple.
5. a hundred and fifteen volt vs 230 volt - 115 volt wire welding machines are great for sheet metal and up to regarding three/16 in. in a pinch...Next time you're behind a boat trailer, suppose about whether it was welded with a a hundred and fifteen volt wire feeder welder or a 230 volt mig welder, or a 230v stick welder. Once you get that chill down your spine, abate and place some house between you and therefore the boat, Then make you your mind never to weld something sort of a boat trailer with a one hundred fifteen volt mig.
6. Vacant wire vs flux core - flux core will weld hotter and thicker and outdoors within the wind. Bare wire is best on very skinny metal and looks better.
7. Mig welding polarity - Reverse polarity Electrode positive is for vacant wire welding. Some flux core wires need changing the polarity in order to weld ok. Since mig welding machines do not have a polarity change switch, this requires you to swap the leads. It is easy and takes only a few minutes, however some folks never suppose of it. Lots of 115 volt mig welders are sold on Craigslist as a result of somebody forgot to alter polarity for flux core welding and as a result of of that alone, think their mig machine is junk.
