Welding help requested

I am listening, my Lincoln wirematic 255 is burning back also, new liner.
 
I'm old too, 69, and my poor old eyes don't work as well as the used to. I find that a pair of Dollar Store reading glasses help immensely, about 2 diopter I think. I also bought a $120 Radnor auto hood the other day, not sure what model, but it's an order of magnitude better than the $60 Harbor Freight auto hood, and has replaceable batteries. For MIG I have the shade set to 9 as I recall.
Yeah, I wear reading glasses and have a magnifer in my welding hood on top of that. I use an older SpeedGlass hood that I like real good. I usually TIG weld and set it on 8 or 9 depending on amps. 9 or 10 for MIG and I use a fixed lens hood with a 11 lens when stick welding (which isn't often anymore).
 
This might seem really goofy, but I read (in one of my beginner welding books) about attaching a small penlight to the gun for better visibility. I don't have the best lighting at my welding area, nor do I have the best skill level at my welding area, but amazingly enough this cheezy little lamp thing really helps. It's just one of those 2.99 specials that they sell in the hardware store, but it works surprisingly well. The switch gives up before the battery most times which is the only thing I find annoying about it. Still pretty goofy, though.

-frank

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My problem is the time it takes my eyes to adjust to the change in light level when the arc strikes. I am going to try the accessory light idea, I hadn’t heard about that before. My son also commented he thought my #11 may be a bit dark for MIG so he will bring home a helmet or 2 from his work for me to try and maybe I need to just pony up for higher quality than what I have.

I will try again tomorrow with lower voltage. The feed is smooth and steady and changes linearly with the feed dial. I have observed the feed and roller with the cabinet open and it’s not slipping. It’s been a while so I will work with some scrap using various helmets, and voltage.
 
It may appear to be smooth and steady, but is it feeding as fast as it should? I recommend double checking the voltage and speed settings per the chart, they are usually pretty close to being correct. If they are correct, then make sure that the tension on the spool is not too tight... if it is, it will create a drag on the wire and slow the feed rate down significantly.

The spool should be able to turn freely, with just enough tension to keep the wire from wanting to unwind.

Hold the spool with one hand while loosening the spool with the other... when it gets loose enough for the spool to turn on its own as the wire tries to unwind, then tighten the spool 'just enough' to hold the spool from unwinding...

Too loose and the wire (acting as a coil spring) will spin the spool and 'birdnest', too tight and the feed roller will not be able to feed the wire fast enough to keep up with the arc...

-Bear
 
One thing that occured to me is when I start the arc with the wire hanging out too far that is many times will instantly burn back to the tip. So normally I start with about 1/4 inch or less of wire hanging out of the tip, and with the nozzle almost touching the work.
 
Check grounds, and clean the object to be welded also.
All of the above, also make sure you cut the wire at the contact tip before each start. I like to bend the wire at the contact tip, place the wire against a gloved hand pull the trigger and the drive rolls should be tight enough to coil the wire against the hand with .030/.035 hard wire. If not you have one of the problems listed above, process of eliminanation.
 
I had the same problem a week or so ago with my Miller 252. Had to weld some 1/2" plate and I adjusted the voltage up, but forgot to adjust the feed rate and it kept burning back until I was able to get a good arc stabilized with the slower feed rate. Finally figured it out and adjusted the feed rate and everything went smoothly.
I also have the problem seeing my arc and adjusted my auto darkening helmet to 9 and it works better, but for a really good view, it was suggested to put light on the welding area and it worked great. I can see the puddle better and control my weld much better seeing what I'm doing.

Bob
 
On my old Miller mig, when I set the voltage and speed at the settings on the chart I seem to be doing spray welding, I had to back them down quite a bit from the suggested settings, so the chart could be wrong, also .030 wire can be a bit small for anything but muffler pipe. Try using .035 wire and make sure you have the correct sized tip in the gun for the wire size you are using.


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