IMHO, the highest setting that lets you "stitch" along without your weld
puddle falling through to the floor. Not much help I'm afraid, its like
driving a Spitter on a new clutch, suddenly it comes together and off you
go. Too low a setting and you'll stick fast when you strike your spark, too
high and the "China Syndrome" kicks in. You just gotta keep burning up scrap
pieces until you get the feel- I've found the more caffeine I have, the
better my welds... must be something to do with the shaky hand helping the
stitch pattern!
If you can find a chart for your welder that maps the lo's and hi's to
amperage, there should be a chart on the wire box recommending the correct
amperage for the gauge wire you're running. Barring that, if you poke around
the Grainger's site (http://www.grainger.com) you may find a chart. I have
best luck around 50 amps on mine on 20-22 gauge panels, a tad higher (60 or
70 amps) works with the 18 gauge I'm using to fix the firewall and wheel
wells.
But again, I'm just a self-taught hack... *grin*
Good Luck!
"Any drive you don't return from on a tow truck was a good one..."
Jon
'77 (mostly) 1500 "Ol' Yeller"
FM66043 7U
www.bigolbear.com
-----Original Message-----
From: spitfires-owner@autox.team.net
[mailto:spitfires-owner@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Larry Vaughan
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 9:15 PM
To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Welding
Since my body off restore question was answered with a resounding ( two
months no way ) I will just repair the cracks and holes, apply my rust
neutralizer, spray some touch up paint and use the rest of my time working
on the running gear. This brings me to my welding question. I have a CH mig
welder with two rocker arms resulting in four settings, Lo 1 Lo2 Hi 1 Hi 2.
I used up a roll of flux core wire experimenting with poor results. Now I
have gas ( 25% argon 75% co2 ) but still cannot get consistant results on my
sheet metal welding. I am using .030 wire and the results on thicker
material is excellant, but body panels either burn thru or build up bumps.
Sometimes I get a good pass for about a quarter inch. I have a roll of .025
wire, but I haven't used it yet. I don't want to weld on my floor pan till I
can get consistant results with my welding. What works best on sheet metal,
a fast pass with hi setting or slow pass with low setting?
Larry
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