MIG Machine Setup for Beginners

hey guys welcome back to the lab today we're talking about gas metal arc welding and how to get set up so whether you're a home hobbyist or just getting into MIG welding you got a little setup in your garage or your start a small business this episodes for you so let's go ahead to the round of the bagging machine so we're gonna start see went on the Amazon or the website you bought yourself a lolly machine it gets to your door and then you realize you need some gas right yeah you don't have gas so one thing you do is call up your local welding supplier you can order gas you can rent a bottle buy a bottle lease a bottle just get yourself a bottle doesn't matter what size you have there's various sizes of bail available so get whatever size fits your needs your budget make sure you get a tested you know don't buying stuff that's out of date check with your local welding distributor they should be able to help you out first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna open up the cylinder cap well sorry first thing we're gonna do is make sure we have the appropriate gas for the process we're gonna use so for today's purposes I'm gonna show you guys how to set up for the most common process related to MIG short-circuit mig welding regular 70s 6 or 70's 2 wire we're gonna run 75% argon 25% co2 so that's the gas mix you want to start off with alright first thing we wanna do is open the cap now if you can't get this cap off don't go sticking crap in there and snapping the valve off or opening the valve and can't get in here what you can do is you can take a small hammer and just tap this I mean you don't have to beat on it just just tap it and then it shouldn't list right off once this thing off don't go putting lubricants and things like that around here you can hit this up with a wire brush to make it a lot easier to get on and off in the future but don't put lubricants around there that could create a fire hazard eventually depending on the types of gas mixes you're using once we get the cap off one thing you want to do is just do a quick burst of the the compressed gas in here you don't want to do this with any flammable gasses not that you're gonna use a flammable gas when you're MIG welding like acetylene anything like that propane you just want to basically blow out any dust or debris that's on the inside I know a lot of times cylinders come with little plastic caps on there you just pop those off but especially down here in Florida mud dobbers like to crawl up in that cap make little homes and stuff in there so you want to blow out any dust or debris in there before seating your regulator just a quick burst that's it we're gonna start off with a flow meter now this one is from Victor there's various different brands that are available that's just what we have right here so we got the regulator attached now what I recommend is using the using the appropriate size wrench I mean you can use a crescent wrench on there eventually if it's not set up right or if you're using one of those a pierette or wrenches apparatus wrench that don't fit quite well you're gonna end up around this stuff off because it's brass so I recommend using the appropriate size wrench have you got it you just want to Snug it up you don't want to crank down on this stuff like I said it is brass you can't strip it you can't snap it so use the appropriate size wrench now we're gonna go ahead and take the other end of the hose and we're gonna attach that into the inlet of the machine again use the appropriate size wrenches so you don't strip anything out now notice the cameraman on the back here in this inlet I have two different choices okay this one looks like a MIG gun okay this one looks like a TIG torch so we're gonna use a gas metal arc welding process MIG I'm gonna go ahead and make sure that I plug it into the appropriate port otherwise it's not gonna work in this picture of a gas bottle in case you were wondering what that is again use the appropriate size wrench just to Snug these things up I like to hold the inlet as well as the outlet okay because if you just start twisting on this it's gonna start unscrewing itself on the inside and then you've got problems you got to take the cover off it's just a real pain in the butt so use the appropriate wrenches the next thing I want to talk to you about is power requirements now this you're gonna want to consult your local licensed certified electrician I'm not going to give you any electrical advice due to liability reasons but this machine set up for 230 or 120 okay so make sure you have the adequate source of electricity coming from your home or your business you know wherever you're using like I said consult with your local electrician this piece right here is a pigtail so we take this 230 volt machine we can run it off 110 for today's purposes we're gonna go ahead and and plug it into a 230 or 208 single-phase but I'm not gonna plug this in right now okay and I'll tell you why here in a second I tried I don't like to plug my machine in until I'm getting ready to run wire and I'm done messing around on the inside of this machines a quick story I worked for a previous employer they had some faulty electrical work the machine was plugged in even though the machine was turned off you know at the base of the machine it was turned off I went in to switch the polarity around because I was going to run a different process and as soon as I touched the negative terminal it knocked the piss out of me so make sure it's unplugged before you go in here and start working on it even though if it's brand new machine doesn't matter keep it unplugged while you're working on the internal components all right so next thing we want to do is we want to select the right wire for the process we're gonna run so there's various different types of wires depending on the application or the process you're gonna be running so today we're just gonna be running some 70s 6 wire first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna load it up on the spool now you'll notice come on in here get it close up you got like this little teat that sticks out right here and then we have an opening I want to make sure that I get that little nub inside here because that's gonna allow the break on this machine to work ok I'll explain more about that here in a minute another thing we want to check is this right here is the drive roll assembly notice how it's pointing in like this that tells me I want to have the lay of my wire come around the backside and into here okay you can load this in backwards you load it in backwards or upside down you're gonna start getting feeding issues this machine doesn't care if I hook it up right or wrong right well if I hook it up wrong I'm gonna get feeding issues so I want to look at this and make sure ok the wires coming up this way so that's how I'm gonna load it up load the spool onto here and if we look inside here you'll see where that nub lines right up with the the wheel okay once that's in I'm gonna put the retaining pin back in here because it has this spool spins this it could actually come off of there especially if you leave the door open you don't want to do that you'll get feeding issues if things aren't set up just right alright so now what I want to do is I'm gonna go ahead and select the appropriate Drive rules now there's various Drive roles different depending on which type of machine you got this one only has a single drive role so I only need one drive role on the bottom I've got a universal wheel up here it doesn't care what type of wire that I'm running so you'll notice I'm running Oh 35 wire today 70 s6 select argh I'm gonna make sure that I have the Oh 35 broof now if you look at this wheel you'll notice I've got two different grooves two different two different size grooves Oh 35 is written closest to this smaller groove but that's not the one I want if I'm seeing Oh 35 that's actually the groove that's in the back of here so on the other side of the the wheel I've got 0.024 that's that smaller groove so they're the written opposite side of where they are and that's because when I put it on the drive roll assembly I can see oh three 500 35 the one that's in use even though that groove is in the back okay that's where at the wires actually gonna run so I'll go ahead and I will go ahead and pull this wire out and we'll get it set up through the drive rolls now first thing you want to do is I can't push this through that liners it's not gonna work it's not gonna let me so I want to make sure I clip it now here's here's the plain thing okay don't hold it in your right hand and clip here okay can you clip into here you got a 33 pound spool of wire in here you just use made yourself 33 pounds of scrap metal hold the end closest to the wheel mm-hmm clip the end off keep tension on here like I said if you let go of this thing you're gonna turn this spool into a big old pile of scrap metal and because we're dedicated the education and content we're providing we're gonna go ahead destroy his spool of wire for you and show you exactly what happens when you clip the wrong side always never had so much fun with that lube get your mind out of the gutter okay so now I'm gonna go ahead and run this through and I'd like to run about six or eight inches passed outside it's just easier to line everything up for me go ahead and put the tensioner back on here I'm going to show you guys how to tension here shortly a lot of times there's a diagur and here written tells you exactly where to tension that wire at depending on whether it's flux core or if it's solid wire or anything like that another thing we want to pay attention to while we're on the subject to drive roles is there's three different types of drive rolls mm-hmm you have you grooved Vee grooved and knurled now the you groove there like highly polished they've got like a nice you contour that's gonna be for your soft aluminum wires okay if we put that into a V groove it's gonna pinch that wire and deform it the next thing I'm a turbot is knurled rolls knurled rollers so we have knurling in here so this is gonna be for all your flux core be a self shielded or gas shielded because the composite of that wire on the inside of that it's granulated flux they've got these little grippers on here that's gonna help grab that wire without crushing it now if I use this on solid wire it's it's fine I'm gonna get poor feeding issues I'm gonna put little Nicks and dings on my wire so I don't want to use that for those I'm just going to use a regular V groove you'll be able to you'll be able to see it because it's not as highly polished and smooth as your you groove and it doesn't have the knurlings in there or the little grippy teeth like it would for flux core so we're gonna go ahead and use the the V groove for solid wire next thing I'm just gonna grab the back end of the MIG gun and I'm gonna line this I have a liner on the inside of here you want to make sure that the liner you have inside the gun is for the diameter of wire that you're using so today we're using a 35 so this liner right here is good for Oh 35 Oh 45 wire if I step down to like a OH 24 wire or Oh 20 wire Oh 30 any one of those I'd probably switch out the line or visit my liners not big enough for my wire it's kind of like throwing a hot dog down a hallway you're just gonna get a lot of a lot of wire play in there you want to keep the diameter of the liner you know at for the for the appropriate size for your wire so put this in here and I'm gonna seat this properly so you want to push this make sure that the set screws backed out far enough to where you can push this all the way in notice a lot of times when I'm teaching students put this in they don't put it in all the way they tighten that piece down they pull the trigger they hear gas coming out but it's not coming out of the end of the gun it's coming out right here you'll notice on here there's a rings right around these gas ports okay this thing needs to seat properly so you can get a good airtight seal so that all my gas flows through the gun and out through the diffuser at the end so make sure you get full engagement with the back end of this go ahead tighten up the set screw so that this thing doesn't slide out should lock in there relatively firm you not to crank down on it just you know snug it up next thing we're gonna we're gonna plug in the Amphenol so if you see this little gas point right there this is for if I was using gas tungsten arc welding or TIG welding because it operates on a different silhouette is torch so this specific model I can hook up a foot pedal when I hit the foot pedals can engage that solenoid but there are two separate ones for the TIG and the MIG setup so make sure you have the right gas plugged in in the back for the input that's gonna head to your draw that's gonna go to your drive roll so that way when I pull the trigger it's gonna engage the gas cylinder would for the MIG valve or for the for the gas there to run the MIG torch so now that we have the wire fed through our gun we're gonna go ahead and set the wire tension so we talked about this earlier these should be preset but basically you want to make sure when you pull the trigger and you stop that this wire doesn't continuously spin so typically what you can do is loosen that up if need be you can loosen that up run this and just keep tightening it down a little bit running the run the wire let go it should stop on its own now I want to set the tension on the drive roll so basically what that's going to do is that's going to put tension on the wire so they'll continuously push while I'm welding if that tension if there's not enough tension on there I'm gonna get burned back if there's too much tension on there I'm gonna wear a flat spot on the wire which is gonna run all the way through the gun once that flat spot gets my contact tip it's going to cause burn back that's going to happen every time I clean that contact tip out 12 foot later I develop another flat spot in here it's going to come back out it's gonna it's going to get caught up in the contact tip meant to clean it out again so we don't want too much tension on there and we don't want not enough tension on there so basically I've got this backed off to where it's not going to push the wire out and I'm just gonna slowly tighten this down until I can push I'm gonna hold this up against the table this table is not electrically connected to the system it's completely isolated right now I should be able to run a four inch diameter circle of wire as I tighten this down that'll tell me I have enough tension once I get to that point I'm going to stop [Music] so that's pretty much all I need right there anything more I could cause a flat spot in there this is gonna work perfect so now I'm gonna select my polarity so what I want to make sure is I'm gonna run DC just like stick welding because I'm using solid wire here I'm gonna use DC RP so it's got many different names so you got DC RP which is reverse polarity DC positive and DC electrode positive so dcep whichever one you want to refer to it as just make sure that you plug in your wire drive assembly or your drive roll assembly into the positive terminal now different machines they don't have this there's there's other machines out here that don't have that they've got terminals just like you would almost on a battery so you got a positive terminal and a negative terminal you want to make sure that your driver all assembly is hooked up on the positive terminal and when you put that on you want to Snug it down okay don't crank down on it you just want to Snug it you want a good connection just like you would on your car battery so a lot of times people you know they get everything set up but they have a loose terminal in there and because they didn't check that part they dial in their settings and it's welding completely different so think about it this way if you had a loose terminal on the battery of your vehicle is that car going to start efficiently no right because it's not getting the correct electrical current that it needs there's resistance built up because you have a loose connection so snug that down think of it just like a car battery if I snug that down I've got a good positive electrical connection everything snug I've reduced the resistance all my current is gonna go to the appropriate source I'm gonna be a little weld efficiently so start there make sure everything's put put in correctly the next thing I want to talk about is my workpiece clamp what if we call it a ground clamp but I'm really not grounding to anything there's a workpiece clamp this is the piece that I'm gonna fix to the part that I'm working on this is gonna go for the negative terminal all right so now that we have our polarity set up I'm gonna go ahead and turn the machine on close this up because I don't need to be back in here everything's already set up got no business in here once I plug the machine in and turn it on I'll go ahead and plug it into the appropriate power source we're lucky enough to have 208 single-phase so I would choose to run that over 110 because I'm gonna be able to get the full potential out of this machine because that's what it's rated for if I drop it down to 110 I'll still be able to use a machine it's still gonna weld for me I'll still be able to do some stick and make but I'm not gonna reach that full amperage potential okay so when I plug into 110 I'm gonna get a lower range of output that I can actually use all right so the machines already set up I'm not worried about dialing in the the settings just yet I'm gonna go down here to the other end of the gun okay now on this end of the gun I have a nozzle the primary function of this nozzle is to direct the gas into the area that I'm gonna be welding right next I have the contact tip this one specifically has a built-in diffuser so it actually sits in here the gas is diverted out through the contact tip some other models the diffuser is separate and the contact tip threads into the diffuser this one's a little bit different where the nozzle actually retains the contact tip in here if you have a threadable contact tip again just like we talked about the terminals in the back here put that diffuser put that contact tip in there snug it down with a pair of well purrs or Meg pliers don't crank down but you want a nice good secure connection this is where your wire gets all of its energy from okay this is without without this setup right here if you try to run this without a contact tip or you try to run a contact tip that's not built for that diameter wire you're gonna get varying amperages okay this is gonna give you the most constant voltage and best amperage when you when you have this connection secure and tight so you want to make sure it's nice and tight okay so now what we're gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and run the wire through here so some of them there's a wire feed and a purge built into them this one doesn't have it so I'm gonna go ahead I'm gonna get this gun as straight as possible and I'm gonna start running the wire out you want to make sure your gas is turned off because you don't want to be you don't want gas flowing as you're trying to run your wire out so you can hear it kick up the machine knows that I pulled the trigger I'm not running any current through here I've got the gas shutoff so it's gonna increase that wire feed speed so I can get the wire back out there we go so now that I have the wire out I'm gonna go ahead put the contact tip in this is this is where you know if you have a threadable contact if you want to go ahead and snug it down nice and tight and then I'm gonna put the nozzle on now make sure your nozzles clean I mean this one's brand new but if you have a dirtier nozzle you know clean it out you got to think all your gas flow is coming from here so if you have spatter and crap built up in here you're gonna have poor gas flow you've got poor gas flow you're gonna have problems with that gas actually shielding the weld pool contaminants all that spatter can fall off into your welding area you just you want to avoid all that give yourself a good anti spatter or you know get really good at dial in your settings for short-circuit MIG even if you get your settings dialed in appropriately you're still gonna have some spatter so I would I would recommend either getting the some sort of anti spatter spray no contest go makes a good one the ceramic this stuff lasts forever just spray your nozzle with that and keep everything clean so that is pretty much it so what I would do from this point is I would go back here I would adjust the gas flow usually I run about 15 to 20 cfh for regular short-circuit MIG and then depending on what type of material on there how much amperes I'm gonna need I'm gonna adjust my settings so come on in this way we'll talk about that for a second so MIG welding or gas metal arc welding is a constant voltage process meaning if I set my aunt or my my voltage to 18 volts right when I start welding I'm gonna get 18 volts now voltage is the electro-motive force of current basically think of a garden hose so that's the pressure that is taking to push that current through there or the amperage through the gun wire feed speed is going to be synonymous with amperage so the higher I turn my wire feed speed up the more amperage I'm gonna get you just have to make sure you have the appropriate amount of voltage to push the amperage that you select out so as you're welding your voltage should remain constant to constant voltage process it's going to be nearly constant so as you're welding your voltage isn't gonna change much it's going to go up or down a couple tenths but your amperage amperage is gonna change significantly depending on your contact tip torque distance so as you're welding along if you start longer can you pull back on your gun you're gonna notice your amperage is gonna decrease as you push in further your amperes again is gonna turn up it's gonna increase a lot of people think that y-your feed speed doesn't control your heat wire feed speed is gonna control your heat if you look at this symbol right here you've got a picture of the drive rules for wire feed speed you got a little slash symbol and then you have an a that a stands for amperage you really can't see it when you're under the hood but once you get done welding especially on these digital machines you get done welding flip up your hood look over your machine amperage is gonna be flashing up here until it kicks back to wire feed speed voltage is gonna remain nearly constant amperage is gonna fluctuate if I need more heat I'm gonna turn up my wire if I need a wider puddle I'm gonna turn up my voltage if I want a narrower puddle I'm gonna turn down my voltage if I got too much if I have too much heat I'm gonna turn down my my wire feed speed okay now you're going to want to check with the manufacturer of the electrode or the the filler metal that you're gonna be using the wire find out what settings they recommend I know there's there's various books out there Esau has a new data book for their electrodes select arcs got PDFs online I mean wherever you get your wire from you can find the settings in there it should tell you the day appropriate gas flow type of gas wire feed speed volts contact tip to work distance all that stuff should be in those little manuals so it's a good place to start especially if you're at at home hobbyist and you're not sure exactly how all this stuff works until you can kind of get the hang of it and understand and get some more experience under your belt I recommend using those books that that literature that information it's all thirds free you know especially if you're buying the wire they're gonna tell you the best way to run it and you shut up over there for a minute away time all right guys it's why they're Wednesday so today we've got it we're gonna send out a wire wheel cutting wheels ceramic long-life disk hardrock a couple of zerk wheels even when to get up in the corners 40 grit all you got to do to enter this is take a screenshot of this video post it on Instagram and use hashtag Wyler Wednesday if you don't have Instagram okay with the time spa pop thanks alright so now that we got all the settings and stuff down and let's head over here to the table what I would recommend but your work please clamp on the actual material that you're gonna be welding that way you get a better electrical connection if you put it on the table it's gonna run fine you get better current if it's hooked to the workpiece or closest to it right another thing you want to make sure of is make sure you guys are doing this safely okay welding is not dangerous as long as you protect yourself in the hazards so what I would recommend is if you guys are a home hobbyist or just getting into welding you don't have any formal training go ahead and check out AWS Izzy 49.1 will go ahead and put a link in the description down below it's a safety and welding document get yourself familiar with that make sure you're using the right PPE welding helmet gloves jacket make sure you're not out there welding shorts put on some denim jeans work boots all that good stuff guys stay safe out there we appreciate you watching make sure to LIKE and subscribe the video give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed the content if you have any questions regarding gas metal arc welding or MIG welding equipment setup go ahead post them in the comments section down below where we're usually pretty active and responding back to you guys make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and until next time make it real well better than your last hey guys welcome back to help me weld calm so today's submission is from just an anchorman on Facebook he's running some 532 7018 rods at about 140 amps any tips or advice well Justin I read in the comments section your you kind of do this for farm work what I would say is the bead looks relatively nice it looks consistent you don't have too much wealth spatter in there I would recommend jumping up to a higher amperage though 150 160 somewhere that that rod typically likes to run in those that area what you can do for low hydrogen electrodes depending on the diameter is use the decimal equivalent so say for instance your five thirty second rod you're using here take your 5/32 that's gonna give you point one five six so start off at about 156 amps somewhere in there like I said 150 160 somewhere in there that's gonna help that bead flat out a little bit more and the toes the washing of that metal a little bit better than it has another thing clean the base metal 7018 low hydrogen electrodes they love clean metal so you know clean clean your base metal off really good we also did a video any diameter any position you can check out on youtube and we basically go through the different diameters of 70 18 and how to run it flat horizontal article and overhead for the different settings there's a couple little tricks in there for you so I hope that helps you out if you have any other questions go ahead post them up in the facebook group under your original post or start a new one we've been in there quite frequently interacting with some of the fans and followers so if you got any questions just let us know we'd be more than happy to help you out guys thanks for watching hope you learned something until next time make every weld better than your last Oh 45 cutoff wheels oh yeah it's party time alright so are you guys ridiculous

Channel: Weld.com

Views: 1,182,468

Rating: 4.9031243 out of 5

Keywords: welding, weld.com, mig monday, tig time, how to weld, learn how to weld

Id: CJLcBejSVro

Length: 25min 47sec (1547 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2019