I've been welding in this car for a year and never had anything like this happen.

I ran out of gas and the welder was doing fine. Got a new bottle delivered today and hooked it up. When I started welding it sounded different, lots of soot, the metal doesn't puddle the way it did before and the welds look like crap!

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The other thing that happens is that the wire fuses itself to the gun tip. Settings are the same on the machine and everything was fine. The only thing that changed was a new bottle of gas. I'm sure it's possible for them to put the wrong mix or the wrong gas but before I call them is there something else I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance, Brad

Contaminated gas? Running straight argon, right? Who's the supplier? Brownish-yellow haze looks like bad gas. Same thing happened to me. My welder puddled cleanly then changed bottles and all went to crap. I picked up a new bottle today (Airgas) so I'll see if it's better tomorrow.

@MB911

Bad gas

It can happen to the best of us.



No seriously

Leak check your connections and hose first

It looks like you are missing a good amount of gas. Possibilities: Did you take off the wire feed hose? somtimes when you put the feed hose back on it doesn’t go all the way in and it leaks gas, listen for leaks near the machine and gas coming out of the gun/ torch when you hit the button. What type of gas do you have? co2 air mix for mig, argon for tig. Is the gas on (stupid sounding question but you never know)? Is the flow rate high enough? depending on machine and wind. On mig it’s about 20-35 gph (or was it liters per hour..... just read what it says on ur machine). Just give everything a good once over and im sure you’ll find the problem, good luck!

What does the bottle say?

Looks like 100% argon to me.. It will be a sluggish weld.

Don't most people use the 80/20 ArCO2 mix?

I wasn't sure if he's using MIG or TIG. I've always used straight Argon with TIG on steel.

75/25. Co2/argon.


Pure argon is typically for welding aluminum.

75/25 is the standard for MIG and 100 argon for TIG

Thanks everyone. I’m running a mig with 75/25. Checked everything, no leaks and replaced the nozzle and tip. I’ll call th gas company.

Thanks again.

Could be a combo of the gas/windy conditions and base metal changes..

Curious, did you get new bottle of gas and did the issue resolve itself?



Playing with welding Titanium. Uses absurd amounts of gas and needs to be purged on the backside.

Rest assured, I won't be doing any aircraft welding.


Top is absolute crap weld; too much heat not enough gas
Middle is getting better but is still crap.
Bottom; closer yet but I think I need bigger #16 cup and a bit less heat. Should be pure shiny silver. That golden straw color is borderline.


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Need more practice.

Try this first.
First issue is that steel is coated. Need to grind it clean like that small swipe halfway through the upper weld except everywhere you are going to sample. Pull the nozzle off and clean the slag out as it may be shorting your contact tip causing the wire to stick to the tip. Check the gas diffuser while the nozzle is off while you are in their and make sure its not plugged with slag balls and gas is flowing. Change the tip. Purge both sides of the regulator. Open the tank valve and then while you are squeezing the gun trigger open up the flow regulator to about 45, then wind it back down to normal flow rate .

What regulator are you using? C02? C02 with adaptor or an Argon regulator?

That rusty almond frost around your welds looks like restricted shielding gas or really low to almost no flow.

Gas blends vary by far with industrial suppliers so perfect 75/25 mixes aren't realistic, 75 – 95 percent Argon and 5 – 25 percent CO2 is considered the normal these days when filled from a manifold. Its not much of an issue welding, both work fine even if the blend % is off. Most people would not notice it.

Does the tank they gave you have a painted shoulder that's different than the primary color of the tank? If so what color is the shoulder?

Last.
If you think the fill is contaminated take the tank back and tell them you have a slugged tank, they should exchange it -it happens.

My issue was bad gas. A new tank and all is well. Never had that happen before.

It happens to all of us. My dog is the worst.

Yeah, yeah, I blame my dog too

Still curious if OP's problem went away.


@Jeff Hail

Jeff, any advice on TIG'ing Galvanneal? I've tried grinding it back (both sides) but some of the zinc is actually annealed into the steel and can't be removed by grinding and still leads to electrode contamination and puddle pops.


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Not an issue for MIG. At this point it's painfully slow with TIG but I'm surviving. However, the thought of going back to a MIG rig has crossed my mind several times now.

Best success I've had is by feeding as much filler as quickly as I can. I suspect it helps dilute the zinc in the puddle by getting fresh filler (ER70-S2) in there.

Apologize for thread high jack. I'll post fresh thread if I've offended anyone but this appears to have the attention of the welders among us.

Talk to @Peteyd at Restoration Design besides the panels they do some high end resto's and have a full time metal guy tig welding their panels that are Galvanneal. RD might even have a vid on YT showing how they prep their panels.

I've been using ER70-S6, with fair results on the rusted spots.

New gas bottle and it's laying some nice welds.

Gues is was just bad gas. Wife said I've had that before.

Awesome news. It's baffling for sure and I've only had it ever happen once. Quality control is easy to say but hard to do day in and day out. I've wondered how it happens but honestly after you change the tank you just get back to the project.

Weld On!

I wonder if this can be caused by the last person that rented the welding tank leaving it open to the air for a period of time. I remember reading that you should leave at least 50lbs of pressure in the tank and not let it get completely empty to reduce chance of moisture inside.

Awesome!

When you wrote your were experiencing wire sticking to the tip it usually indicates other issues. Glad you got it handled.

Rusty tanks are common. Iron tends to plug orifices in the regulator.

I'm really not a Tig man. Foley would be my go to guy for Tig.

I think Ben teaches tig.

Understatement. Yes, he teaches it alright.

Yup teach TIG including stainless, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, 4130, and steels.

Also teach Smaw, MIG, flux core , print reading and fabrication and a division chair for the construction trades at our college for 18 years and worked in avaition prior to that. I am pretty versed in this

Oh and owned multiple welding and fab business over the last 15 year's 1 being M&k exhaust and 1 being 914-6werkshop.com

Sorry just putting it out there for those that may not know.

Oh and you welding galvaneel is a challenge it will pop back no matter what you do.. It is through galvanized so it can't be ground away .

I thought you might do ti. We will have to talk about that.

I'm definitely no expert but I've heard that welding through galvanized or zinc coatings can give off dangerous fumes so be cautious.

Speaking of shielding gas though, I've caught myself holding the mig gun too far away or at a bad angle in order to get better view of the puddle which resulted in similar results to the OP's issue. Moving the gun more upright and keeping the tip around 3/8 from the work piece improved my results.

Glad to see the new bottle fixed the issue though.

That's what I was afraid of based on nature of Galvanneal.

I've also had some success improving the situation by using a 2Hz pulse which seems to minimize the pops.

I'll reach out to RD and Chris but as far as I can tell RD MIG's based on their videos.

I migrated to TIG for flexibility and my garage is too small and cluttered to have MIG sparks flying around. I'll keep making do but a MIG rig looks more and more appealing.

Thank for the advice guys

Sure because the. The heat is working in low amp/hi amp cycling.. That would help a bit.

Ps all should be wearing respirators like the Miller lpr-100 or equivalent to protect from fumes..