Welding advice

McCracken

McCracken

Logan Can't See This
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Location
With your mom at a nice seafood dinner
So I've got a Vulcan OmniPro 220. Love it and it's never failed me but I've recently had to weld some bigger material like 3/8". The welder is nice because it will allow you enter the thickness you intend to weld and what size wire you're using. Then it will go ahead and put in the voltage and wire speed it thinks you need. Of course, you can adjust this as you see fit but it's nice that it gets you close when you start.

So anyways, I'm trying to weld thick shit. When I start I get a lot of *tack, tack, tack, tack" in rapid succession. Not that good arc you're used to hearing. What could be causing that? Not enough voltage? Wire speed too high? I believe the voltage is at 22.6 and the wire speed at 393. I'm getting ready to weld up my crossmember and I want to make sure this is right.
 
Just gonna start off with the obvious ones first....is the metal clean and free of scale? That shat causes more problems than you might imagine, especially on solid wire.

Speaking of welding with solid wire, are you snipping the little ball off the end of the wire before you start? Sometimes that can cause a rough start.

Other than that....perhaps I'd try dialing up the voltage a tad more. I've not used that machine, but IIRC a Miller 480 machine I used at a previous employer was pretty happy running between 25-26V for 3/8" material, and I had my wire speed set for 300-320.
 
I re-read OP, what wire diameter?

Does your machine have a selection for wire diameter along with the auto-set voltage/wire feed? Got a miller with that feature and it's no fun when the wire diameter is the only setting that's wrong .....
 
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In my brain I'm seeing your voltage a little low, but what my brain "has seen" could be nothing like what you're talking about. Slow your wire speed a little and see if that helps. If it does, set it back up and up the voltage.
 
Hurley said:
I re-read OP, what wire diameter?

Does your machine have a selection for wire diameter along with the auto-set voltage/wire feed? Got a miller with that feature and it's no fun when the wire diameter is the only setting that's wrong .....
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.035

The metal is super clean. Hit the whole thing with a flap disc till it was all shiny.
 
I have the same welder and have found at the thicker stuff I have to go up 0.5 to 1 volts above what it thinks to get a good weld. Try bumping the voltage and see how it performs. I love my omnipro. Just welded some d-ring tabs on my small trailer that were 1/4" tabs and ran it up to 20.5 volts and it welded great with really nice beads and penetration.
 
tsconver said:
I have the same welder and have found at the thicker stuff I have to go up 0.5 to 1 volts above what it thinks to get a good weld. Try bumping the voltage and see how it performs. I love my omnipro. Just welded some d-ring tabs on my small trailer that were 1/4" tabs and ran it up to 20.5 volts and it welded great with really nice beads and penetration.
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I've had great experience with 1/4" stuff and had no issues. This is the first time though.
 
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