Technical Mig Welding Problem

I’ve had a similar problem with the Miller I use. The gun housing body attachment that plugs into the welder moved slightly from being loose. As you can see there are a couple o rings on the male end. That caused a pressure loss.

 

I had a similar problem. I hadn't used the machine in several weeks. Did the tank roll across the floor thing . Hooked everything back up . Nice welds . The gas separated while setting.
Hope you figure out what is going on. Clean material and a good ground. Make sure your ground clamp has a good clean connection at the cable also .

 

If you get stumped, contact the manufacturer re local warranty service. You said it's a year old. IIRC, Lincoln and Miller both have pretty decent warranties on their welders-3 years?

 

The porosity and the smoke around your weld bead are saying no gas shield. Figure out why there's no gas coming out the nozzle and your problem will be solved.

 

Is it possible that the bottle was left disconnected from the regulator for awhile? I know it's a long shot but look for spider balls. You know, those little white egg sacks that spiders leave around. You would think that they would blow through, but those things are tough. Or maybe the cablehose is not pushed all the way into the machine. Other than that, a few good F bombs and throwing some shit around the shop might fix it, but I doubt it.

 

While working in the fab shop, some asshole thought it was funny to cut a slit in the gas hose. Took sometime to trace the problem.

 

Make and model input might be of some value here. We are living in troubled time in regards to source and manufacturing standards, all things which do not appear to exempt the large scale welder suppliers(i.e. red and blue... for those who are sensitive about such things}. A recent product purchased from lincoln.....oops! ....I mean red".... exhibited some of the same characteristics as the op's photos. The issue turned out to be electronic in nature and required a card replacement. Again, not knowing make and model, this input may be of no value, but with more and more dependency on circuit boards in these units to actuate about every function,if the obvious has been trouble -shot completely, then it might be a consideration.

 

In general, there is no need to use the lubricant on the wire wipers. The wiper is there to clean the wire a bit before the gun. Just helps the liner last a bit longer.
Straight CO2 gas is "colder". You will have to turn the machine up. The Argon/CO2 mix is "warmer" and should help the bead wet out better.
Technique is huge. Push, pull, angle, tip to work distance, arc length, all contribute to good/bad welds.
The wire will rust inside the machine if left sitting for a while. You might consider taking a few pounds off the spool. Best way to do it is to turn gas off, turn wire feed speed all the way up, pull the trigger and let the wire fly. Trim it, then reset everything.

 

KevKo, that seems odd to me. When I got my new blue machine with tri gas, I was having problems with the bead just kinda sitting on top of the metal. Couldn’t seem to get proper penetration even by changing feed or heat. Even had the seller come out and he couldn’t get it to weld just right. Struggled along on my project till the tri gas bottle was empty, changed to straight co2. The welds were much better with it, easier penetration, smoother welds, to me it welded “ hotter” than the tri gas. It was 19 years ago, but that’s my memory.








Bones

 

Oh, lots of variables. Everything has to play nice together. The MIG process is basically designed around straight CO2, so it is supposed to work. Gas mixes can help tailor the process to a specific application. Remember welding supply shops like to sell mixed gases because it is more profitable.

 

Snap On used to sell Century plasma cutters with a Snap On name on them. Friend traded me one that he didn't use any more. First time I used it, it went up in smoke. Used it as a trade in on a Hypertherm and they gave me more trade in than I had in the SnapOn. I assume they do the same thing with their welders. I've had a succession of Miller Migs and been happy with every one, I was able to sell at good prices because of the name recognition and then catch sale prices, so I upgraded each time. The 350P I have now is a great machine and its the first one I have had a problem with. BUT.....it wasn't the welders fault and was a simple fix. I'll explain in my next posting.

 

FIRST I want to THANK EVERYONE for trying to help me with this frustrating problem. When you have been welding just fine and suddenly it turns to crap.......its frustrating. I tried many of the suggestions you guys made. Got up this morning and tried a few more things. Loaded it in my truck and took it to a pro. He had it fixed in ten minutes. Apparently I had managed to pull the welding lead connection down slightly by probably stepping on the cord (more likely stumbling over it). Anyway, where it slips into the machine there is an O-ring seal that keeps the gas flowing to the gun. You could not tell it was pulled down slightly causing the o-ring not to seat....so all my gas was exiting there, and little to none was making it to the nozzle. Dumb mistake on my part, and certainly not the fault of the machine. So now I'm fat dumb and happy again and my welds look muuuucccchhhh better. Thanks again to everyone for trying to help me solve this problem.

 

Coulda saved you a trip

 

I did take the gun apart and clean it as you suggested, but didn't remove the lead from the machine. I had called Miller's customer service and talked to a technician this morning. He had me go through the setup program to insure factory settings. I told him that I had tried to get the factory settings per my instruction manual and it didn't do anything. Turns out you have to press/hold the reset button in BEFORE you turn the machine on. Never heard of doing that before. Anyway as he walked me thru the setup, a couple of expected things did not happen.
He then suggested that I take to a local service center to be checked out. The guy started at the back of the machine and decided the flow valve was working. A couple more quick checks and he found the leak. Everything seemed to be working normal when he tested it. Offered not to charge me, but ,.........
Anyway, you were correct about the problem but I was tired of fooling with it. Again, thanks!