Thanks for the reply & link. In the interest of brevity I didn't mention I had tried another machine with 75/25, similar results.

I must be doing something ... wrong. Question is what is it?

I'm trying to join hand railing - 2x2 .063 wall mitered tubing. Extremely frustrating as I can't seem to find a technique to prevent burn through on the "cheeks" of the weld. I'm using .030 wire, straight CO2, have tried settings all over from 16-20V, 200-320 IPM - just not succeeding. The...

OK, not happy with the results from an abrasive saw - too much noise, too slow, lack of precision, material needs dressing up before use, and so on. For cutting tube/angle/flats & other structural shapes - I have used the evo saw, really like it. But, is a band saw better? If so how? Not opposed...

I'm OK with a 1/16" gap, depending on the metal, material thickness & weld aesthetics. I'm not OK w/a 1/8" gap though on thin material, so measuring & layout as precisely as called for to minimize error is my goal. Aim small, miss small. The abrasive saw IMO leaves much to be desir...

And the speed square wins! I thought about cutting a small section of tube @ 45, then removing two adjacent sides, slide the top edge to scribed line then use side edge to mark the true cut line. But didn't proceed along that line of thought yet. I'm using a abrasive cutoff saw, not the best approac...

I'm laying out for mitre cuts on 2" square tube, trying to be precise. The issue is how to accurately extend layout lines along the sides of the mitre, since the side is what I'll use to align the tube for sawing. I mark the long point of the mitre, then try to sight along that @ 45 degrees wit...

Ah, cj737 - thanks for the link. From the explanation: To do this, the welding output needs to maintain voltage at a constant level (i.e., CV), so that the resulting arc length is consistent. Current is a less controlling variable. It is proportional to, or a result of, the WFS. As WFS increases, so...

Thanks to all for the replies - I usually weld much thicker material so practicing on sheet metal with this issue has been frustrating. After online searching someone had reported success with electrode negative - that Did Not Work for me - vaporized the wire every time, just in case someone else lo...

That's a pretty slick field expedient setup - yeah, by 78 pcs you'll really have it dialed in.

If it were me I'd run with the .045, lightly prep (grind) top of the bars - you can get a really wide bead w/dual shield if desired. If you're concerned about durability you could do a few on either side & take the machine for a spin. I imagine the recommendations are for operations doing commer...

I'm practicing sheet metal welds, 20ga. (.037) steel using a Lincoln 256 power mig, .023" wire, with correct tip, liner, feed rollers, straight CO2. Often the wire on arc initiation simply vaporizers back into the contact tip & sticks inside at least for a moment. Settings are 200 ipm @ 17....

Greetings - Long time student of welding, beginning with stick in high school, learning more & improving years later with more stick and gas (aircraft tube) welding. Two years ago took a cert course with stick, mig & flux core. Now interested in learning TIG err.. GTAW for mild steel, stainl...