Welding tid bit

[Gregor 4,846]

Years ago I bought a Harbor Freight mig welder. It's not much, but enough for what I do. It can be set up for gas, or flux core wire. I went to the local weld shop and got a small bottle of 25/75. It seemed to work fairly well. Of course I don't use it much, and it might sit for 6 months at a time. After a while, the less "well" it worked. I went and got some flux core, re-wired the welder, and turned off the gas. Not great, but better than what I was getting. I was talking about it on another forum quite some time ago. Someone suggested I take the bottle, and roll it around on the floor for a while. I didn't know if he was being serious, or sending me on the proverbial snipe hunt, but a couple of weeks ago, I switched back to gas. Today was the first time I had an opportunity to try it. It worked ! Apparently the gas will separate after time, and needs to be mixed up. I thought if I didn't know this, just maybe, someone else might not know it either.

[953 nut 55,321]

[DennisThornton 4,769]

2 hours ago, Gregor said:

Years ago I bought a Harbor Freight mig welder. It's not much, but enough for what I do. It can be set up for gas, or flux core wire. I went to the local weld shop and got a small bottle of 25/75. It seemed to work fairly well. Of course I don't use it much, and it might sit for 6 months at a time. After a while, the less "well" it worked. I went and got some flux core, re-wired the welder, and turned off the gas. Not great, but better than what I was getting. I was talking about it on another forum quite some time ago. Someone suggested I take the bottle, and roll it around on the floor for a while. I didn't know if he was being serious, or sending me on the proverbial snipe hunt, but a couple of weeks ago, I switched back to gas. Today was the first time I had an opportunity to try it. It worked ! Apparently the gas will separate after time, and needs to be mixed up. I thought if I didn't know this, just maybe, someone else might not know it either.

Teenager, first week at my first factory job, one of the guys asked me to take some lacquer thinner to another worker across the shop.  He pointed to the thinner can and handed me a foam cup, that I filled and headed off to the other side of the shop...

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by DennisThornton

[953 nut 55,321]

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

Today was the first time I had an opportunity to try it. It worked ! Apparently the gas will separate after time, and needs to be mixed up.

There is a slight difference in the molarity of CO2 and Argon. CO2 is 44 Grams/Mole and Argon is 40 Grams/Mole.       It may be the Argon will separate and rise to the top and once it has been consumed you would be getting all CO2.

[Ed Kennell 38,227]

8 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

CO2 is 44 Grams/Mole and Argon is 40 Grams/Mole.

How do you get those little rescals  in the bottle Richard?

 

[JoeM 7,874]

And the latest is argon / oxygen mix. less splat for the buck. 

 

Some have welded with straight co2 but it is tough, I have never had roll my bottle, maybe a shake on the cart or two!

 

 

[Gregor 4,846]

When I was just out of high school, I welded fork trucks together in a factory. The boss kept a very close eye on the amount of Argon you were using. I don't know if it was expensive, or affected the quality of the weld, or what, but he didn't want you using too much. I don't remember what the ratio was. It was a few days go.

[CCW 1,295]

2 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

Teenager, first week at my first factory job, one of the guys asked me to take some lacquer thinner to another worker across the shop.  He pointed to the thinner can and handed me a foam cup, that I filled and headed off to the other side of the shop...

 

 

First time I used lacquer thinner I put into a foam cup.  Came back ten minutes later and it was gone.  The cup that is.

[ACman 7,618]

....I’m not a professional but I’m thinking it could have been your wire from setting . 
 

Don’t forget to check your wire spool for contamination. Dust can collect, and rust can form on your wire. This can cause erratic feeding and weld contamination, both leading to excess spatter.

Removing the top layers may expose clean wire underneath.

Some use a product to clean the wire as it feeds called Lube-Matic from Weld-Aid. I haven’t tried this yet, but some say it works on lightly contaminated wire.

If you’re an occasional home welder, a lot of time may pass between welding projects. You can remove the wire from your welder between uses and place it in a ziplock bag. This will keep it dry, clean, and ready to use. Find a warm, dry place 

 

Here’s the full article https://welditu.com/welding/tips-mig/reduce-mig-spatter/?back=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fclient%3Dsafari%26as_qdr%3Dall%26as_occt%3Dany%26safe%3Dactive%26as_q%3Dshould+I+take+the+wire+out+of+my+meg+welder+when+I'm+finished+and+place+it+in+a+bag%26channel%3Daplab%26source%3Da-app1%26hl%3Den

@JoeM said “ And the latest is argon / oxygen mix. less splat for the buck .”
Like I said not a professional but isn’t the point of inert gas is to shield the weld from oxygen and nitrogen in the air ?

 

had a guy on the first day of auto body class clean his safety glasses with lacquer thinner . He couldn’t see through them very far after that !  

Edited March 24, 2021 by ACman

[squonk 41,155]

When I was at Napa, we had these 2 old guys who were delivery drivers. They were always playing jokes on each other. One day while one was out, the other got a pin and poked pinholes around the 1st guys styrofoam cup..So whenever the cup was tipped it would dribble all over. He did this 3 days in a row before the other guy figured it out.

[Pullstart 62,912]

@Gregor I bet there’s some truth to that!  My FIL who I bought the place from... we’ll say he hasn’t been in a hurry to get stuff moved to his new shop.  There’s a large bottle of 75/25 here that he says has never welded well.  It’s always been his emergency tank... if he runs our on a weekend and can’t get to exchange it.  I tried it a while back and it was just off.  Next time the emergency happens, I’ll be sure to roll it around for a while and try again!  Who knows, maybe it’s more like 90/10 now, or 60/40?

[953 nut 55,321]

11 hours ago, JoeM said:

latest is argon / oxygen mix. less splat for the buck.

I've heard of that for stainless steel but not for steel.