[TheForge] Re: MIG Question

[Kenneth Mayer]

>Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:13:33 -0500
>From: "Washington, Aubrey O." <awashington at ou.edu>
>
>Okay, here is a metal-working question.  A few months ago I asked the group for input on MIG welders and got a lot of good suggestions.  Since I'm just one of those "hobbyist" guys, I didn't need anything big and fancy so I got a Millermatic 140.  Pretty much straight out of the box I was able to do decent welds and I was happy.  However, over the weekend I tried to do a few welds in 14 ga. mild steel and they looked awful.  They were pitted, porous, and uneven.  The tip was spattered and dirty, so I replaced that, with no improvement.  I'm using Argon/CO2 shielding gas.  But I'm not sure if I have the right pressure setting.  Any suggestions?

Was the metal plated?  Zinc plating (galvanized) will make welding difficult because the zinc vaporizes at a much lower temperature than the liquid steel.

Ken
:-)