starting a weld

[Miles]

I welded flanges to my CC door through holes drilled into the flanges. When starting to weld the gun, wire , arc,? I got a POP, POP, POP-POP then the welding buzz. Next hole same thing, POP POP then buzz and filled the hole.I have the wire protruding a little further out of the gun to reach the bottom of the hole. Any Ideas what I'm doing wrong? I filled 34 holes and it seemed to POP in about 1/3 of the welds. I tried lifting the gun up a bit, cutting back the wire and changing angle of gun but don't know what caused the popping and why only in some holes.
Any thoughts?
Al

[Grabber70Mach]

Metal clean? Good ground?

From infinity and beyond.

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[Pennywise]

I would say start with cleaning your tip. Second, clean the sleeve around the tip. Third, make sure your gas is at the right pressure.

[Puff]

Which welder are you using and what size wire and tips...do they match?

[Miles]

Thanks for the replies.
It's a Lincoln 220 volt 180.
I ground and sanded the door surface clean and the holes are fresh drilled. I put the ground clamp on a sanded off surface. Tip and wire are both 0.035". I have the gas set at the recomended level. I thought I had the nozzel clean of spatter but?
Will it pop if I have the wire too close or too far away from the surface when I start?

[Blazer]

Miles, just wanted to make sure that you have the polarity set right inside the machine. I have seen those machine's come setup for fluxcore which require dc straight or electrode negative. Just make sure your ground is on the negative inside the cabinet beings that you are running hard wire with gas. Otherwise you might try backing off on the wire and turning up the heat.

[Big T]

If everything is rust free, I'd turn the wire speed down a little bit and try to keep my wire stick out as short as possible.

[Miles]

Thank you,
I changed the polarity when I switched the wire from flux core.
I will try slowing down the wire feed and shortening the amount protruding.

[Pete Mazz]

I'm a rank amateur welder but I was having similar problems and found out it was the sh*tty ground clamp on my welder. Try cleaning that up or using some braided copper under it.

[Tom_Heath]

A good ground does make a world of difference.


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[Puff]

Your polarity seems be , in my limited experience, the more problematic component. Post your results

[Miles]

I cleaned everything, and rechecked the polarity, all good.
I started to have trouble with bead welds and discovered the twist lock connector that connects the trigger to the machine is faulty. Switching on the gas and also the wire feed was a bit intermittent, I disassembled it and have it going fine now.
Thanks for your input.

[Big T]

good to hear

[wagonman]

Try turning your wire speed down just a hair, to that sweet spot. Sometimes that to will help.

[Miles]

Some of my welds seemed to have a lot of metal beading, I turned down the feed as suggested and found I have a cleaner flatter weld, seems to penetrate more as well. Thank you for the tip.

[Blazer]

Miles, might i also suggest that on your flat welds that you push instead of drag your gun. Also a small circular motion can help to give you a flatter contour.

[Miles]

Yes, suggest away, thank you. I was going sideways from one piece to the other put the circular way is definitly better, thanks. My biggest problem is I just can't see what I'm doing. Getting better than when I first started though. If I drag I can see the puddle but can't see where I'm going, if I push I can see where I'm going but can't see the puddle. I'm ok on 90 degree joints but flat butt welds not so good.

[Dixielane]

You want to keep your nozzle and tip about a 1/4" away. Any further and you're trying to long arc. Shielding gas dissipates alot more not shielding your weld puddle sufficiently causing a "colder" weld and porosity in your weld.