Board logo

More spatter in cold weather?
TimC - 3/2/12 at 08:53 PM

Evening all. Had a go at welding my pedal box in this evening. Went ok in the main but for some reason I was producing LOTS of spatter. Mig's setting unchanged since the weekend when I had no issues. What's going on?

Ta,

Tim the welding novice.


MakeEverything - 3/2/12 at 09:04 PM

Gas ok, or gas less?


TimC - 3/2/12 at 09:06 PM

Gas ok as far as I could tell. I turned it up a bit but still not great.


Peteff - 3/2/12 at 09:17 PM

Ambient temperature shouldn't make any difference to the weld, it's more likely something you are doing different without realising like changing the gun angle or pulling instead of pushing.


Tatey - 3/2/12 at 09:18 PM

Your not using any magnets to hold the pedal box together are you? I recently had welding issues with brake line brackets, I checked everything, turned out it was the welding magnet behind the bracket that was screwing everything up.


T66 - 3/2/12 at 09:23 PM

Gas left in your bottle ? regulator turned down, draughty part of the garage ?


Unclean job, my Lada had underseal like earwax which caused huge splatters.


fesycresy - 3/2/12 at 09:30 PM

Moisture in the atmosphere can affect spatter. Try flashing a turbo torch over the steel first and then see if you get the problem.

The pedal box isn't oily is it?

Have you made sure your shroud is clear, the majority of spatter problems come from a poor shield.

Also voltage / current settings affect it, but you haven't altered these and I assume the steels are the same thickness?

What spatter spray are you using, I've got the vegetable oil based one at the moment and I think it's not as good.


TimC - 3/2/12 at 09:43 PM

Hmm...

No magnets, cleaned and dried before hand, gas seems okay. Not using anti-spatter and not really had issues up to now.

I'll try again tomorrow.


Wadders - 3/2/12 at 10:51 PM

Are you using argoshield or co2, if its co2 your bottle could be freezing up.

Al.


arrow-engineering - 4/2/12 at 12:25 AM

ive been having this when its cold, the regulator ices up and it doesnt flow right, ive been pointing a little heater at the mig while working. as soon as the bottle and reg warm up welding goes back to normal.


fullpint - 4/2/12 at 07:56 AM

quote:
Originally posted by arrow-engineering
ive been having this when its cold, the regulator ices up and it doesnt flow right, ive been pointing a little heater at the mig while working. as soon as the bottle and reg warm up welding goes back to normal.

I've heard of this before. Tim; It was a cold one yesterday. I had to warm up the fan on my oven (and control box on the extraction) with a blower before any thing was going to work.
Wait till the afternoon mate. Pop a little heater in the garage an hour or so before you fire up the TIG unit


mad4x4 - 4/2/12 at 09:58 AM

Ambient temperature will change the gas volume and flow as the pressure in the cylinder will drop as temp goes down (not that much) but may require you to turn up the flow a bit


DIY Si - 4/2/12 at 10:14 AM

quote:
Originally posted by arrow-engineering
ive been having this when its cold, the regulator ices up and it doesnt flow right, ive been pointing a little heater at the mig while working. as soon as the bottle and reg warm up welding goes back to normal.


I'd go with this. I had major issues with my welder the other day for exactly the same reason: the reg had partly frozen up. It would flow ok for a couple of seconds and then stop. So the welds start nicely and then just dissolve to splatter as the gas stops. Easily solved as said with a little fan heater.

Oh, and that's with Argon/CO2 mix on a 6 month old reg on a Migatronic should it make nay difference.


omega 24 v6 - 4/2/12 at 11:32 AM

Damp atmosphere over the week causing your welding wire to rust??


benchmark51 - 28/10/12 at 03:38 PM

I have recently got a new bottle from Hobbyweld, it is argon/co2 mix. The difference from using just co2 is brilliant.
I also find cleanliness of the metal, front and rear, is important. Replacing the contact tip regularly and minimse draughts all help.