metalmagpie
Titanium
- Joined
- May 22, 2006
- Location
- Seattle
I'm not a professional welder, although for a time I had certification and did architectural steel fab. My main welding process in the last 15 years has been short-circuit MIG. My current main welder is a Millermatic 252.
Two things happened that got me interested in spray arc welding. First, I found a gas mixer that yields me C10 and C2 gas mixes among others. Second, I found a guy who bought a Powcon welder with wire feeder back in the late '80s, tried welding for maybe an hour, decided he'd get back to it later and put a tarp over it. He never touched it again until he sold it to me a few months ago.
I've had lots of other things going on but have slowly made progress. Yesterday I finished swapping the little Tweco gun that came on the Powcon feeder for a 450 amp Tregaskiss Toughgun which can stand up to the heat of spray arc welding (MIG welding in spray mode) all day long. And I finally chased the last leaks out of my gas mixing setup. Then I was able to enter spray mode easily, although I believe I still have fine tuning to do with the weld parameters.
So now that I can weld in spray mode, should I design weldments differently? Can I tack weld in spray mode, or should I set the machine back to SC mode for tacking? If I try to weld a butt joint with 1/16" gap using spray arc, is it likely to blow through?
I am used to setting up welding sequences to maximize welding in the horizontal position.
An upcoming project is a 5x10' flatbed utility trailer. I need to understand designing for spray arc better before I can commit several hundred dollars worth of steel to a project.
Any comments would be appreciated, thanks.
metalmagpie
Two things happened that got me interested in spray arc welding. First, I found a gas mixer that yields me C10 and C2 gas mixes among others. Second, I found a guy who bought a Powcon welder with wire feeder back in the late '80s, tried welding for maybe an hour, decided he'd get back to it later and put a tarp over it. He never touched it again until he sold it to me a few months ago.
I've had lots of other things going on but have slowly made progress. Yesterday I finished swapping the little Tweco gun that came on the Powcon feeder for a 450 amp Tregaskiss Toughgun which can stand up to the heat of spray arc welding (MIG welding in spray mode) all day long. And I finally chased the last leaks out of my gas mixing setup. Then I was able to enter spray mode easily, although I believe I still have fine tuning to do with the weld parameters.
So now that I can weld in spray mode, should I design weldments differently? Can I tack weld in spray mode, or should I set the machine back to SC mode for tacking? If I try to weld a butt joint with 1/16" gap using spray arc, is it likely to blow through?
I am used to setting up welding sequences to maximize welding in the horizontal position.
An upcoming project is a 5x10' flatbed utility trailer. I need to understand designing for spray arc better before I can commit several hundred dollars worth of steel to a project.
Any comments would be appreciated, thanks.
metalmagpie