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PostPosted: August 13, 2017, 5:29 pm 
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Location: Morrisville, PA
My eastwood 175 mig welder is giving me some really bad spot welds. I haven't welded a bead cause i know its going to be bad.

On the recommended settings for 16ga mild steel this is what i am getting.
Attachment:
20170813_164111 (Medium).jpg

The only thing that has changed is i threw my argon bottle on instead of my 75/25

I did try adjusting my settings. I cleaned the rollers, blew out the liner and changed the tip. No go.

Its almost acting like tig for aluminum. I my crack it open this weekend to check the spark gap (if it has one)


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PostPosted: August 13, 2017, 8:16 pm 
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stuie84 wrote:
The only thing that has changed is i threw my argon bottle on instead of my 75/25
So you changed something and the welds got worse. The absolute first thing I'd try before putting my time and effort into anything else, is changing back to the last known 'good' configuration...In this case, with C25 gas. There is often a good chance that the "welder" at fault isn't the machine. :wink:

Hint: Google for MIG steel pure argon, and read a few or the results.

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PostPosted: August 13, 2017, 8:40 pm 
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It's the Argon. Not really compatible with MIG.

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PostPosted: August 13, 2017, 9:00 pm 
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TooBusy wrote:
It's the Argon. Not really compatible with MIG.
Unless you're MIG welding aluminum...Then pure argon is what you want.

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PostPosted: August 14, 2017, 4:59 am 
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Driven5 wrote:
TooBusy wrote:
It's the Argon. Not really compatible with MIG.
Unless you're MIG welding aluminum...Then pure argon is what you want.



I have been using argon-CO2 mix on steel mig for 13 years. That's what my gas dealer sells me. Pure argon is for aluminum mig and all metals tig. Am I wrong? :cheers:


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PostPosted: August 14, 2017, 6:56 am 
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I don't MIG Aluminum. No desire to have a spool gun in the Too Busy garage.

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http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216


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PostPosted: August 14, 2017, 2:34 pm 
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The gas change is your problem. Switch back, and all will be back to normal. Bear in mind, a purge of the hose system will be necessary to get back to a flow of the appropriate gas mix. I had a ton of problems with welding aluminum (brand new spool gun) on pure argon (dirty, crusty welds, burn-through, huge amounts of grey slag, etc.), until I figured out how much purging was actually needed to get rid of the CO2 that remained in the lines. It literally took several minutes of flow to get to genuine, pure argon.

After that, all was good.

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PostPosted: August 24, 2017, 9:33 pm 
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Joined: November 3, 2006, 7:39 pm
Posts: 25
Location: Michigan
stuie84 wrote:
My eastwood 175 mig welder is giving me some really bad spot welds. I haven't welded a bead cause i know its going to be bad.

On the recommended settings for 16ga mild steel this is what i am getting.
Attachment:
20170813_164111 (Medium).jpg

The only thing that has changed is i threw my argon bottle on instead of my 75/25

I did try adjusting my settings. I cleaned the rollers, blew out the liner and changed the tip. No go.

Its almost acting like tig for aluminum. I my crack it open this weekend to check the spark gap (if it has one)



Your problem is the Argon. You will have to change some settings to run with pure Argon. Gas flow will need to be increased, wire feed speed increased and voltage increased accordingly. The problem is that you get less heat and penetration with pure Argon. The Argon/CO2 mix will give better penetration and heat. There are MIG processes that use pure Argon and some that use pure CO2. With mild steel, your welder and the wire being used you should stick with an Argon/CO2 mix at 80/20 or 75/25.


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PostPosted: August 27, 2017, 5:22 pm 
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I just got my C25 bottle filled and I will post some new pics but I agree after some tubing that it is my issue.

It confuses me because I could have sworn I welded up some mild steel exhaust on argon some years ago and had no issues.

:cheers:

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