Welder World Blog

JASON S:

Your pressure in your tank should have nothing to with your weld performance, unless your tank is empty.If your tank is empty, or your not getting enough gas, your weld will be full of porosity. Once it passes through the flowmeter, your pressure should be the same whether your tank is full, or 1/4th full.If your tank has been around a while, remove your flowmeter, carefully lay the tank on its side, and roll it across the floor.That will help mix up the argon and carbon dioxide, they will seperate some after a long idle time (months…not hours). Is your material clean? A little bit of foriegn material on it will make a big difference, like rust, oils, excessive millscale, moisture, and paints.Also, is your wire clean, no rust on it, and dry? FC wire will sometimes chicken track (wierd little lines in the weld, they look more like nightcrawler tracks to me, but its known as chicken tracks).If thats the case, run out about 10 feet of wire, then start welding, that should take care of that, thats from trapped moisture built up within the flux core. Another problem could be magnetic arc blow.That is when your welding, and you get huge amounts of spatter blowing from your puddle as you weld. To stop that, move your ground to a different location, or move your material to a different angle.Its caused by the magnetic energy created from the current running from your ground, through your material and into your arc. Hopefully one of those scenarios will help you out.

mikegoli:

Sounds like a gas issue.