Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi guys just joined as im having abit of trouble setting up my new welder

Ive just brought a gas cigweld 155 welder having abit of trouble setting the wire speed etc, ive never setup a welder
So im struggling trying to get the settings corect . I will add a picture of the welds and what settings ive used its got me abit confused because the welder has settings on the side but abit of trial and error those settings are way to high

So here are the settings i used along with the photos below to match
#1 14 volts with the wire speed set at 3.0amp wire speed
#2 15.5 volts with the wire speed set at 3.5amp
#3 16.5 volts with the wire speed set at 3.5amp
#4 18 volts with the wire speed set at 3amps

Im not sure what part of the world everyones from but those are our measurements we use i also added a picture of the chart
Below of whats on the welder

I have not seen a wire welder that shows amps before. Mostly they display wire feed speed and voltage. But wire feed speed does correlate to amps based on a formula and the diameter of the wire. That said:
1. Set the amps/wire feed speed to match the thickness of the metal to be welded. A general rule of thump is 1 amp per 1 thousandth of an inch. In metric I guess that would be 4 amps for every 0.1MM. This is a rough estimate to get you close, and you adjust your heat by altering the amps accordingly based on real world observations.
2. Voltage really is only used to affect the shape of the bead. Too low of a voltage and the bead will be tall and ropey, just sitting on top of the base metal. To high of a voltage and the bead flattens out too much and you get increased/excessive spatter.

I hope that helps.

I like #4, increase your volts by 0.5 and run it again.

Might be helpful to know what material thickness you're welding? And insure you have the gas flow set to 25cfh or higher (I think that's around 12-13lpm)

cj737 wrote:I like #4, increase your volts by 0.5 and run it again.

Might be helpful to know what material thickness you're welding? And insure you have the gas flow set to 25cfh or higher (I think that's around 12-13lpm)

Im welding mild steel tubing for an exhaust yeah #4 isnt to bad but i still can lay beads
It pools up i fell like im moving fast enough

One "trick" that I would do to get a feel for things is, for a given wirefeed speed, adjust the voltage knob until it's too low and you can start to feel the wire stabbing into the part, and until it so high you can't feel it stabbing into the puddle and you start to get a lot of burn-back and large spatter BB's. Then try to split the difference and aim for the middle-ish.

Beefcakes wrote:Hi guys just joined as im having abit of trouble setting up my new welder

Ive just brought a gas cigweld 155 welder having abit of trouble setting the wire speed etc, ive never setup a welder
So im struggling trying to get the settings corect . I will add a picture of the welds and what settings ive used its got me abit confused because the welder has settings on the side but abit of trial and error those settings are way to high

So here are the settings i used along with the photos below to match
#1 14 volts with the wire speed set at 3.0amp wire speed
#2 15.5 volts with the wire speed set at 3.5amp
#3 16.5 volts with the wire speed set at 3.5amp
#4 18 volts with the wire speed set at 3amps

Im not sure what part of the world everyones from but those are our measurements we use i also added a picture of the chart
Below of whats on the welder

i can't read the pic of the settings chart.
the 3.0 i think refers to the numbers on the dial not amps. the display will show wire feed speed in meters per minute and will show amps when actually welding.

keep in mind the settings all depend on what wire size your using.

looks like a nice little welder