weld popping problem. What causes?
 

I saw this on youtube. This is similar to what I experienced sometimes. Does anyone know why?
Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CHxuHNgN3s

Too much wire speed or reversed polarity. Is this a brand new welder? Are you using argon/CO2?

Heat's to high and the surface is not clean enough. The second lesson I learned was that the metal has to be very clean or it will pop like crazy. The first lesson I learned was to not weld in tennis shoes!

I think if the heat was too high, then the wire would vaporize and not arc. I'm going to say also too much wire speed, or heat not high enough. Maybe not using a 30 amp circuit if it's a 110.

This video is not mine. I am using a Lincoln 100. no gas, I know that polarity is correct (I checked). I sometimes get similar pop with all kind of heat ranges and wire speeds. What I know is that I am lazy to clean up the surface. Maybe this is an issue. I remember the worst I got, on popping, was welding the rebars, lot of surface rust.

What wrong with tennis shoes?

Thanks guys.

Not a thing. Guys that weld in tennis shoes are good for my business.

+1
When the heat it too high the wire sticks out, strikes the arc and immediately burns back to the tip (the "pop"). Wire feeds out again and repeats. It will eventually burn clear back into the tip and jamb. Speed up the wire feed or turn down the heat.
Too much stick out can cause popping too.

Nothing like a ball of glowing steel burning through your shoe to remind you to cover up.

I am converting to gas so I am looking for a tank. While I have several propane tanks for BBQ. Can I use the propane tank for welding gas?

This is what I meant BBQ tank: http://cdn.shocho.co/sc-image/6/0/1/7/60173085a571148fc42342fc0857d414.jpg

You need to add gas.

So you're using flux cored wire no gas? Electrode negative?

I was just thinking the same thing. I just assumed he was using flux core already when he said "no gas".

yes

Go to the weld shop for a proper gas cylinder. And add gas. It will be like day and night. I went through the same experience, same welder. They do sell the gas kit.

G

Listen to me. You have a ground problem.

I know your ground area is clean enough. Put a c-clamp on the ground alligator clip and squeeze.

Let me know. Went through this last year.

If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'.

It will be "crappy" with no gas but you can still lay a bead and it won't sound like a drive by shooting.

aigel,
I have the gas kit already, a welding tank of argon for aluminum. I need another tank for 75/25 argon/co2 and wonder of I can use one of the BBQ tanks I have instead of buy another tank.

Bob,
watching youtube, I can see that people are lay dimes with flux, no gas, and I wonder why I can't. Well, sometimes I can't but most of the time I can't. My buddy also suggested it's ground problem. Yesterday, I spent time to clean up things, tight up ground, then tried to weld 2 pieces of clean brackets. It gets much better but still nowhere close to dimes.

Searching the right tank size for home use, I ran into several gas tank explosion video clips; which looks scary. Does anyone know if there is a risk of explosion if it is in a hot garage? Summer here can get up to 100+ in the garage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1LGKieTxY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KuE8aFjR8U

Just came by to post that. SmileWavy

Daniel, Bob,
I will have a task which need to do some welding soon. I will try that c-clamp.
Just a note, my alligator ground tension is very strong. When I am tired, I have to use both hands on it.

You can use the alligator. Just grind the metal you clamp it to until it is a shiny, so you get no resistance.

It might be worth taking it to the welding supply and having one of them take a look at it.

Could be the welder itself:
-Liner needs to be changed out because wire is sticking inside (that happened to me).
-Feed spool is too tight and binding/jerking.
-Diodes transformer or whatever are not working properly.

You should double-check the wire feed before at different angles before laying any bead. A few inches of wire lost is nothing. Try to maintain a straight line right to the work. Always keep the gun tip clean as snot.
This eliminates one possible big problem.
(But in my case it is usually operator error.)

We just got our new miller 252? or something like that in our shop, Im new to mig, its been all tig and gas welding for me til now: I was having popping problems, watched the vid, set it all up and still had the problem, ended up being the tension on the wire feed, it looked fine but when you go to weld the slight pressure of the wire going into the work paused, or slipped a bit so the wire was stopping and starting, increased the tension and works perfect!

What voltage and wire feed speed are you running? What size wire?

Popping is usually caused by low heat. What is your setting on now?

Low heat also causes bad weld penetration. I like to start at higher heat and adjust wire speed till you get the frying bacon sound and stack of dimes flat welds.

I still have not tried it after the last response. My Lincohn 100 has 3 settings for heat: B, C, and D I think. And wire speed from 1 to 10 (or 9). I tried all heat settings. On wire speed, I tried between 4 to 7. On welding thin metal, maybe 1/16", I felt that the wire was moving faster than my hands. I usually use flux wire 0.035.
When I pull the trigger without welding (without touching the metal), I see/feel that the wire coming smooth.
Sometimes I got good bacon frying sound and laying dimes nicely, but rare.

Make sure the wire can feed smoothly directly from the gun without welding. That's step one.

And make sure your tip is not worn out.

polarity is reversed if using flux core vs wire with gas.

not an expert at welding by any means but even rusty or dirty metal wont cause it to pop, I have tested welding rusty crap like rebar.

someone said it earlier. too much heat with too slow a wire feed.

here is what I have done when I first started.
while welding, take your other hand and adjust the wire feed up and down. listen to how it sounds when the wire feed is too fast and too slow.
listen for when it sounds like bacon cooking.

change the heat setting and then repeat and notice how the weld changes.

I practiced a lot with flux core just because it was cheaper.
if the polarity is reversed you will get a lot of little balls that will stick to the metal that are a pain to remove.
it seemed like the flux core welded cheap soft metal better.

I also spent a lot of time trying to weld thin metal. I figured that was harder than thicker.

my welder will also do stick welding. my stick welding is worse than my mig so I work on that more.

I cant believe I went as long as I did with out a welder.
Saturday I welded an allen wrench to the small screw that holds a brake rotor on.
then welded a bar to large nut that holds the shock inside a front strut.

Does anyone know if I can weld iron to aluminum?

Hahahhhah du bist blöde...

Crazy glue.

Not possible.
Aluminum is very tough to weld. Because it conducts heat so well it just burns through in a giant blob. There is no color change or indication of when it is hot and about to melt. It just suddenly melts and usually burns through.

For a MIG setup:
Aluminum wire is too soft for any welder to push through a line.
You need a special powered spool gun at the end and different gas.
Even then results will be very substandard without a ton of experience.

Practice make perfect, so get a bunch of scrap and practice.

I love our spool gun, getting better at it

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...ae05a6e3cc.jpg


Sent from me

will try. thanks :D

Thanks John,
I know it's impossible when seeing 1990C4S response.

I tried this again today, after cleaning up everything, include ground cable and clamp. This is a great method to find the hot spot, thanks.
I used to adjust the wire feed knob with 1 increasement, then weld then increase again then weld. This was hard to find the hot spot. And I used to hold the gun with both hands tight, to the point my hands get tired. Today, I can relax holding it with one hand and adjust the wire feed with the other hand. I could easily find a good spot, but still feel that it is not good enough. I was welding a clean rebar to a clean galvanized pole. I tried both of the higher temp settings. At the spot where it sounded like frying bacon, then I feel wire comes out too slow (weld mark looks too thin. It's called cold weld?). If I increase the wire speed just a little, then it start popping a little, then I back down. Maybe that is the best my Lincoln 100 can do?

I suspect your machine is the limitation.

I am a decent welder. I can rarely make a good weld with the basic 'garage welders'.

Hold the gun in mid-air and pull the trigger. Try to stop the wire from feeding by squeezing it between your fingers. If it is feeding well it will be very hard to stall the wire feeder. If it stall easily your wire feed is part of your problem.

"I was welding a clean rebar to a clean galvanized pole"
you're never going to get a clean weld with no popping welding on galv. I was a welder for many years and welded on lots of galv. grating. inhale a bunch of the galv. smoke and the fun starts later that night when you start puking your guts out

This is the problem I had, the wire fed out fine until it hit the work, fought that problem for awhile until I if figured to increase the tension on the feed, what a difference when its setup right.

And please don't breath the green gas when doing galvanized metal, put me out of commission for a week!

This is great info. There is a dial inside the box to increase the tension on this new MIG 180 Lincoln I have. Can you go too far the other way? Too much tension?

I am such a noob.

if you tighten the tension too much and happen to short the tip and block/weld the wire in it, you have a nice bird's nest of wire inside the machine past the tensioner/drive wheel