[TheForge] MIG Welders

[Todd Rich]

On Tue, 22 May 2007, Mark A. Pesetsky wrote:

>
>
>
> Must be in the air....Was going to post a question conerning my welder
> which is a WELDPAK 155. It is a 230VAC and I have added the MIG Gas
> conversion kit:
>
> http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3777381/1110723865633_linconvkit.jpg
>
> Now I have never used my welder in this way and I was wondering if there
> are any basic instructions/suggestions that some of you more experienced
> welders could provide. I have read my manual and found very little
> concerning this thus far. I am in the middle of building a Kinyon style
> hammer and the welds that I have waiting are 1/2" PLATE TYPE WELDS and I
> wanted good penetration for them....Don't need the hammer coming apart
> ya know...ha
>
> TIA
> Mark

Well, the kit is fairly self explanitory if I remember right.  You open 
the case and install the gas solenoid and hook it up.  You will need to 
change the polarity when you use gas.  You are DCEN (DC power Electrode 
Negative) when using flux-cored wire, and when you use gas you want to be 
DCEP (DC power Electrode Positive).  The inside panel instructions should 
show you how to do that.  Basically you unbolt two contacts and switch the 
wires.  Remember that the regulator has a flowmeter, not a pressure gage 
on the low side.  It measures the volume of the gas it is rated for.  I 
think it does the CO2/Ar mix, so if you want to do straight CO2, you need 
a different flowmeter.

I'm not sure what it is rated for, but you will probably need to take 
multiple passes to build your hammer, so chamfer the edges so you can get 
good penetration and buildup of your welds.

Also, there will be a lot less cleanup with gas that with fluxcore.