Welding Tips and Tricks

I've had this happen on a few occasions and I'm not sure what it is. I'll be elding and it will either stop sizzling like bacon or it will just never sizzle at all and it will just make no real noise at all, and just kinda generate heat and lay down bead. Seems to penetrate still. IDK how to explain it really lol. Anyone able to explain this?

If it's quiet (hissing?) and you're still putting down metal, you're in "spray transfer" mode.

You didn't give much imformation, but you must be in a flat position.

You have the voltage too high for short-circuit (bacon frying) welding.

Details! What are you welding? What wire? What gas?

Steve S

BeardedWelder wrote:I've had this happen on a few occasions and I'm not sure what it is. I'll be elding and it will either stop sizzling like bacon or it will just never sizzle at all and it will just make no real noise at all, and just kinda generate heat and lay down bead. Seems to penetrate still. IDK how to explain it really lol. Anyone able to explain this?

My favourite welding mode, no spatter, no clean up and plenty of penetration.
What welder doesn't enjoy penetration?

Yeah sorry, could have been more descriptive haha. I'm using a Lincoln 155 WeldPak (220V) 75-25 mix of 02/argon, .30 wire, welding 16-18 sheet for the car. The setting the panel "recommends" for voltage is "b" with a WS of 2.5 or "c" to 3.5. Doesnt happen all the time, just now and then. Trying to figure out if its bad or fine or what lol.

Hey,

Some migs seem to operate right on the edges of their "sweet spots" so that any slight change in parameters will have a large effect at the arc, We had a mig at school, that if you changed the way the gun went, up down left of right, it was like someone changed your settings, It would drop in the "hiss" you are talking about.

Give your liner a clean out, check the feed rollers are tight and not worn, Because these to things can result in a drop in wire feed speed and there for the hiss you are talking about. The rollers should just be tight enough to push the wire through your fingers when you pinch it.

Hope this makes sense
Mick

Make sure your contact tip is not too close to the puddle too. i have also achieved this by having it so close like 1mm(1/32) from the puddle, the spatter stops and it instantly pools. this wont last long if you do it on purpose, as your contact tip will turn grey and start looking like a sad banana, and then melt shut.

BeardedWelder wrote:Yeah sorry, could have been more descriptive haha. I'm using a Lincoln 155 WeldPak (220V) 75-25 mix of 02/argon, .30 wire, welding 16-18 sheet for the car. The setting the panel "recommends" for voltage is "b" with a WS of 2.5 or "c" to 3.5. Doesnt happen all the time, just now and then. Trying to figure out if its bad or fine or what lol.

Take the recommendations with a biiiig pinch of salt.... every machine and situation is different.

Angle will change the sizzle into a hiss, although there is nothing wrong with a hiss sound that I can think of.
Stick out will greatly affect it, try it on some scrap, pull the gun away from the work and the sound changes, and visa versa.

Ive worked with a few blokes over the years that insist of having a major crackle sound, they get more spatter because the wire is hitting the weld pool, they take ages cleaning the spatter off the work piece and bitch and moan about having to remove the spatter, and yet they will not change their ways.