mig regulator PSI questions

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moparmat2000

moparmat2000

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Hi Y'all,

I just bought a mig conversion kit for my lincoln weld pak 100. I weld just fine with flux core wire but its just too messy. I installed the kit in my welder. Super easy. Took less than 30 minutes. I bought an 80 cf argon/co2 mix cylinder new off evilbay. I will be getting it filled as soon as it comes in.
output

My question is what should my pressure regulator output be set at when i am welding. My conversion kit says consult my manual, but i have had this welder 15 plus years, and the manual is long gone.

Thanks in advance
Matt
 
I don't know the pressure. But would like to find out as well. A tip I learned the other day is to loosen the wire feed wheel if the welder has been sitting awhile so you can prime the hose with CO2 and not waste wire.
 
i like 28-30 for still conditions (inside with no air movement) and 30-32 for a slight breeze (swamp cooler, a/c, shop doors open. if it gets to much air movement it will just blow the shielding gas away
 
FJ5 said:
I don't know the pressure. But would like to find out as well. A tip I learned the other day is to loosen the wire feed wheel if the welder has been sitting awhile so you can prime the hose with CO2 and not waste wire.
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or turn wire speed all the way down
 
moparmat2000 said:
Hi Y'all,

I just bought a mig conversion kit for my lincoln weld pak 100. I weld just fine with flux core wire but its just too messy. I installed the kit in my welder. Super easy. Took less than 30 minutes. I bought an 80 cf argon/co2 mix cylinder new off evilbay. I will be getting it filled as soon as it comes in.
output
Click to expand...

Curious as to what you will do when the tank is out of date.

I'm planning on buying one from a guy locally and I will just swap tanks so I don't ever have to worry about that.
 
I set mine to about 22 with the switch actuated. That makes the gauge read about 35 when not welding. I've tried with it set lower...the manual says 20... but there is too much spatter.
 
Bad Sport said:
Curious as to what you will do when the tank is out of date.

I'm planning on buying one from a guy locally and I will just swap tanks so I don't ever have to worry about that.
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New bottle, DOT 3AA 2015 type. Its got 10 years till it will need hydro test. Local place says they can hydro one of these for $39. I will prob just keep getting mine refilled locally till it nears the hydro date, then i will start doing the bottles as an exchange after that, if i dont want pay to get mine hydro tested.

The local places want me to lease a bottle for $50 per year plus gas. I bought an 80cf bottle for $184 brand new free shipping. Hydro date guaranteed to be within 6 months of purchase, comes with bottle certificate. I figure if i leased one, after 4 years i'd spent $200, and still not own a bottle. Made no sense to me.

Also the placard on my machine doesnt address .035 wire. I run .035 flux core thru it no problem, but the chart only goes to .030 on solid core mig wire. Being this is a weldpak 100 is the duty cycle not heavy enough to handle .035 solid core wire? Just curious as i have a lot of frame mods i am making with 1/8" plate steel. I want to run .035 wire, but not if its not gonna work. Any experience with this mig solid core wire with this machine anyone?

Thanks
Matt
 
I run 15 with the trigger pulled and with no wind or air movement where I am welding....Outside in the open air with wind and such I usually run about 30.....More importantly, Don't do what I did and forget to reverse the polarity when going from flux core wire to gas....You have to switch the electrode (the gun you hold in your hand) from negative polarity to positive polarity....
 
Yeah, I wouldn't lease one either, that's why I elected to just buy one and do the swap thing.

I get mine for 165.00 full. When it's empty I just take it in and swap it for a full one. 22 bucks I think it is to swap to a full tank.
 
bbrroowwnn said:
I run 15 with the trigger pulled and with no wind or air movement where I am welding....Outside in the open air with wind and such I usually run about 30.....More importantly, Don't do what I did and forget to reverse the polarity when going from flux core wire to gas....You have to switch the electrode (the gun you hold in your hand) from negative polarity to positive polarity....
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^^^^^
I was a welder for many years and while inside never ran my pressure above 15 lbs and that was with fans blowing in the summer.Anything more than the minimum is just wasting gas.If you can get by with 15 lbs and you run 30 lbs your just getting half the life out of your tank.Start out at 15lbs and if you think you need more go up to 20lbs but I really don't think you will unless you are in a high wind area or outside.As for the 35 wire,your lead is rated at .30 wire to go through it without much problem..35 wire should go through about all the lead liners but you need to make sure you can get .35 tips for that machine but again I don't think that will be an issue.However the grooves in the wheels that push the wire through the lead are different sizes and that could score the wire edges so you will need to run them a little loose.Also if you run bigger wire just turn the wire feed down a little from what the chart says and you will be fine.
 
I think I run about 15 with straight CO2 which is what I use for "all" my mild steel

But to do it right, you don't use pressure, you use FLOW. You can actually buy an inexpensive flow meter which you point the gun "up," disable the wire feed, and sit the flow meter on top of the gun. As with most simple flowmeters, they are a tube with a ball inside.
 
GaryS said:
I set mine to about 22 with the switch actuated. That makes the gauge read about 35 when not welding. I've tried with it set lower...the manual says 20... but there is too much spatter.
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The gas isn't supposed to control spatter. It's to shield the weld puddle to keep out contamination in the air. Try adjusting your wire speed & heat to reduce spatter & use a nozzle dip or anti-spatter spray on the gun. It should sound like a continuous hiss when welding, like frying bacon.
 
Lonewolf3165 said:
The gas isn't supposed to control spatter. It's to shield the weld puddle to keep out contamination in the air. Try adjusting your wire speed & heat to reduce spatter & use a nozzle dip or anti-spatter spray on the gun. It should sound like a continuous hiss when welding, like frying bacon.
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I don't disagree with you, and when welding all new metal in a draft free area on a table, the flow on my machine can be reduced to what the manual suggests. Unfortunately, when restoring an old car, the condition of the metal is usually far from perfect, and often located in an area where accessibility is restricted, so I have to adjust everything until it works best. I find that increasing flow helps control spatter in these conditions.

That said, I'm not a trained welder, so I'm always learning something new and appreciate suggestions.
 
:D If ya got a gas setup, might as well use it. Might be my next step too, curious to see the results.
 
No need to do any special purge to save wire. Hook op the bottle pull the trigger the most wire you are gonna lose is about an inch or so. 10 to 15 psi works great. Gas shielded welding is intended to be done in a somewhat controlled environment. not outside in the wind. also too much pressure will create porosity as it causes alot of turbulence and your gas plenum to break up at the nozzle.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
:D If ya got a gas setup, might as well use it. Might be my next step too, curious to see the results.
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Built my whole fence line out of steel tubing, and screwed the pickets on. For this and other odd jobs the flux core wire is great from a portability standpoint. But it is splattery. I have done a lot of flux core welding on my car projects with .035" wire it does a good job, but a lot of cleanup is needed. I have found that if you put aluminum tape on either side of where you are welding it helps to control the splatter and slag you need to remove.

I think i am going to be happy with my mig conversion , as i can use it with a mig setup, and if i need the portability, i just unhook the bottle from the welder, switch the polarity on the leads, swap in flux core wire, and use it as flux core out in my yard.

If i had known better when i bought this machine back 16 years ago i would have bought the lincoln pro mig 135 instead of the weld pak 100. For the additional $75 it cost over my weld pak 100 it would have had all the stuff for a mig setup minus the bottle.

The lincoln pro mig 140 i think is what lowes sells now, and it will run flux core or solid core wire, and its about $323. Thats a good deal when you concider the fact that i just payed $141 for a conversion kit for my old weld pak 100. Well you live and you learn.

I want to buy a plasma cutter next
 
bbrroowwnn said:
I run 15 with the trigger pulled and with no wind or air movement where I am welding....Outside in the open air with wind and such I usually run about 30.....More importantly, Don't do what I did and forget to reverse the polarity when going from flux core wire to gas....You have to switch the electrode (the gun you hold in your hand) from negative polarity to positive polarity....
Click to expand...

This.......^^^^^^^^^^

Open up the side case and flip the wires around before you start welding with the Gas.

I run mine between 12-15 on the flow gauge. Any more than that you are just wasting the gas. Guys that run more than that in a controlled environment are usually not the ones paying for it! Lol
 
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