[TheForge] Question about MIG welding, spray deposition?

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

Hi Mike;
Well it is fine droplets of the feed wire spraying the puddle via the 
arc...the arc is a plasma i guess.
I think of it in terms of a progression form short circuit transfer...up 
the power and you get globular transfer where the globules of melted 
wire fly a short distance across the arc to the puddle. As you up the 
juice the globules get smaller and more numerous, and fly farther. Up 
the juice some more and you get spray deposition...i think.  pf

Mike Spencer wrote:
> pf> I've been trying for this since reading about it years ago.
> 
> This is the first I've heard about it.  At first I thought, "How do
> you do plasma arc spray with a MIG machine?" But that's not what yer
> talking about, is it?
> 
> pf> For 1/4" ( i assume single pass) they list 700 IPM , 280 to 350
> pf> Amps,and 31 to 34 Volts!...035 wire
> pf> HONK! deposition rate is 11#/hr.
> pf> That must leave me with a duty cycle time of about 12 seconds!.
> 
> LBrown> How are you ever going to learn to troubleshoot and change
> LBrown> parts if you pay attention to the duty cycle?
> 
> pf> Am already strong on involuntary educations, thanks.
> 
> Hah! :-) I'm with you, Pete.  One of the best parts of being employed
> as a mechanic or millwright was that I could do *anything*.  Yo.  And
> if it/I screwed up, the company had to eat it somehow. [1] With my own
> gear, *I* have to eat it.  So before I tear something important apart,
> something that I've never messed with before, I ask myself, "Am I
> ready to scrap this and retain both my peace of mind and my financial
> stability?"  If the answer is yes, then I'm good to go.  If the answer
> is no, then I may get the willies trying, with excessive caution and
> wasted time, to avoid "involuntary education".  Or maybe I'll just
> procrastinate.
> 
> I don't think my CDN$750 Lincoln has the right gumpties to do "spray"
> and I don't really want to create an artistic mound of smouldering
> slag while finding out.
> 
> 
> - Mike
> 
> 
> [1] Thinking back, AFAICR, I only did that once for an employer.  I
>     was very clearly told, "While working here, you get one screwup
>     like that for free. And that was the one."
>