[Shop-talk] Basic MIG Welding questions

[Doug Braun]

The gas is not flammable, so a small leak is pretty much irrelevant, unless you leave everything turned on for hours at a time.

On mine, I never purge after closing the main valve.  Why bother?  The pressure is only a few pounds.


One thing I do before welding is unclamp the wire feed and press the trigger for a few seconds, to make sure that the main hose gets all the air purged from it.  You can double check that you are getting gas by sniffing the nozzle:  The CO2 should make it smell like soda water.


Doug


--- On Sun, 1/25/09, Jim Stone <jandkstone99 at msn.com> wrote:

> From: Jim Stone <jandkstone99 at msn.com>
> Subject: [Shop-talk] Basic MIG Welding questions
> To: shop-talk at autox.team.net
> Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 10:00 PM
> I finally had a chance to use my MIG (Hobart 140) with
> CO2/Argon shielding
> gas.  My initial welds were pretty poor, but I got better
> as I went along and
> the lessons from my welding class came back to me. 
> However, I have two
> questions about using it with the shielding gas.  First, I
> was surprised that
> the instructions didn't call for any thread sealer on
> the gas connections, nor
> for any testing for leaks (e.g., soapy water).  Is this
> correct?  Don't I need
> to worry about this?
> 
> My second question is pretty simple:  When I am through for
> the night, is it
> necessary to purge the line after shutting off the gas
> cylinder? Or can I just
> leave it alone and let it leak out slowly over time?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Hotmail. goes where you go. On a PC, on the Web, on your
> phone.
> http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/learnmore/versatility.aspx#mobile?ocid=TXT
> _TAGHM_WL_HM_versatility_121208
> _______________________________________________
> Support Team.Net  http://www.team.net/donate.html
> 
> You are subscribed as doug at dougbraun.com
> 
> Shop-talk mailing list
> 
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shop-talk
> 
> http://www.team.net/archive