weird welding?!?!

[rapidtornado]

Guys
Looking for a bit of advice, I gave my beloved welder an early christmas pressie as I haven't used her for a while and treated her to new shroud, nozzle, wire and tank of CO2/Argon

Ran a few beads with power set at 4 (range 1-6) and speed at 3 (range 1-10) and got OK results, played with power and speed and got a decent penetration bead (see attached weld 1)

I then used the same set up and ran a bead on a join and got horrible holey welds (see attached, weld 2)?!?!? any ideas/suggestions as to what's gone wrong here?:confused: :confused:

Apologies for the poor quality pics off the BB

Rapid

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n601/rapidtornado/Kit%20Car/weld1.jpg
http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n601/rapidtornado/Kit%20Car/weld2.jpg

[skov]

My welds look like that when I forget to turn my welding gas on :)

[Locky]

looks like a weld over paint or some sort of contamination, is the steel thinner in the joins ie. ground down?

[rapidtornado]

Skov
welding gas was on for both pics no change made to regulator

Locky
yes the steel is thinner as it's ground at an angle

maybe I'll run a few more beads on a sample piece of steel and have a play with the wire feed settings

[Locky]

Didnt weld in a different part of your garage, where it is windier and its blowing away the gas?

[rapidtornado]

yes I did actually... I shifted location so that could have been the issue, didn't think of that :o

cheers locky

[Bonzo]

Definately looks like a loss of shielding gas to me.

Would have needed to be quite draughty to have a total loss of shielding gas, perhaps you need to up the gas flow rate a little ;)

Definately make sure that you protect the welding area from draughts tho.

Can't tell by the picture but if that is 3mm material being welded, personaly I would up the welding current up a little ( assuming you are using a 150 amp mig ) :)

[rapidtornado]

found out the problem!!!! despite the fact that I had a brand new tank and only used it for 45mins just disconnected the tube to the welder and found the tank was empty!!!! absolutely crazy! I know they are disposable but 45min is a joke... best get onto the supplier me thinks!

Thanks for the help guys

Rapid

[Locky]

yes I did actually... I shifted location so that could have been the issue, didn't think of that :o

cheers locky

No probs

found out the problem!!!! despite the fact that I had a brand new tank and only used it for 45mins just disconnected the tube to the welder and found the tank was empty!!!! absolutely crazy! I know they are disposable but 45min is a joke... best get onto the supplier me thinks!

Thanks for the help guys

Rapid

thanks for that, i now know the small bottle of argon isnt going to last long..... yell.co for gas suppliers here i come

[skov]

I think I read somewhere you only get 6 - 10 minutes of continuous welding out of those little disposable bottles!