Re: 51Packard's....51 Packard

Posted by Terry Cantelo On 2011/5/11 2:07:36

Hi Packard 51,
I've been following your blog with interest. Firstly I take my hat off to you for tackling such an immense task.
Let's see if we can help with some of your welding mysteries.
Firstly you should be using the smallest wire that you can get say 0.6mm or american equivalent.
Check that your inner nozzle and drive rollers match the size of wire.
Make sure that you have a good earth(sorry ground)m.i.g welding does not like dirty connections.

Apart from the on/off switch you should have 2 major controls Voltage setting (usually 4 positions) and wire speed, dial type control which alters the amperage.

Set the voltage to position 1 and turn the wire speed control. At this point you will need to try out on a piece of scrap metal Try the control until you get the desired weld. If no success at this point change the voltage switch to the next position and repeat until your happy with the weld result.

When tacking and welding the rule is TO MAKE HASTE SLOWLY do not try to weld in one hit. When tacking hold the torch at an angle of approx 45 degrees and rest the outer nozzle onto the work and pull the trigger on the gun intil a tack takes place. Move on a short distance and repeat. When you get the hang of this you canuse what we call "triggering" and produce lots of tacks over the distance that you want. Finally make all the tacks into the length of weld that you want.
I hope this helps you a bit more.
Regards
Terry