Welding Tips and Tricks

Brand new to the forum, but I need some help. I don't consider myself a true welder, although in my family business I welded using stick, Tig, Mig on all types of materials. I had to at the time, so you learn what you need. We used an old Millermatic that just rocked. Before we closed shop, I bought this Avortec machine because it was a nice looking all-in-one machine. Does mig, tig (ac/dc), stick, as well as plasma. Got the 44lb wire feeder and water cooler as well.

Mig is pulse which I am NOT used to, and it's not auto set. Attached the front panel and some welds I made trying to dial it in. Didnt like the way they look and machine never sounded quite right. I am not used to so many welding parameters. Is anyone here familiar with this machine and/or how to adjust it? This is with .035 wire and a purge of about 23ish. I'll give any more details needed, just let me know. Wire feed was on about 4... not sure what that rate translates to though.

Just FYI—Not familiar with that machine or pulse settings. I’d just set your amps/volts close to what the Miller charts say for your material thickness and wire size. Adjust your wire speed lower than you think you need and then try it increase speed until you get that smooth sound with pulse on and bead profile you are looking for if not getting wire to needle at the arc increase volts/amps and start over. With pulse you want a spray transfer not globular so you get the penetration into the base material.

First thing I seem to see is that it seems you are welding on millscale. Are you properly grinding the steel down to bare metal?

Almost looks like AC Mig.

It will apparently do AC but currently set to DC mig. Yes, I have cleaned the scale off of the surface - I just happened to have this flat bar to test on. Machine doesn't have a "voltage" adjustment. So it's hard to adjust what I would consider typical settings for welding.

I appreciate the help, just unsure how to set everything on this. Considering getting a different standalone mig welder, but I just hate to when this machine is supposed to do it. I mean, I'm sure there is a learning curve, so....

I think you can work with what you have. Get it dialed in without pulse. Then add the pulse feature. Several good YouTube videos out there to show what arc should look like.

Gatorshooter wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 8:17 am I think you can work with what you have. Get it dialed in without pulse. Then add the pulse feature. Several good YouTube videos out there to show what arc should look like.

Not possible for true pulsed-spray MIG. "adding in pulse" can work with TIG, but pulsed-spray is a whole 'nother animal. With pulsed-spray MIG, the settings don't just 'dip down' like they do with TIG where you set the pulse frequency, duty cycle, and base-current. True pulsed-spray MIG requires crossing specific amperage/voltage thresholds every single time, even if the mean amperage output is very low; so in other words, the peak pulse must be very high every single time to create the necessary droplet detachment event occur the way it should.

Hopefully that machine is actually capable of true pulsed-spray, and not just some weird pseudo-pulsing gimmick that mimics TIG pulse.

Yeah, I want to just use this machine. I really just was hoping someone could explain this panel and the different adjustments - like what these terms mean and how they interact.

jarrettbailey,

the problem is the settings available on the machine aren't quite right. For example, it shows frequency only up to 25Hz. Real pulsed-spray machines start at about 40Hz, and with higher amps/WFS you end up with pulse frequencies in the 100's of Hz.

jarrettbailey wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:42 am Yeah, I want to just use this machine. I really just was hoping someone could explain this panel and the different adjustments - like what these terms mean and how they interact.

There can often times be a large gap in terminology/definition. IE some companies especially in the realm of ac tig. Use the terminology frequency in exactly opposite meanings. (Not totally applicable in this sense) but language gap causes extreme misunderstandings in this industry.