Mig welder settings

[pepo1]

Hi there,

I want to start learning to mig weld so I can patch up my car. Bought this little 175 Xcel-Arc welder second hand but cannot find any information on the settings. There's no handy chart on it. Just wondering if anyone can give me some basic starting settings : Gas (75-25 Argon-CO2), wire feed and voltage settings. I guess using mainly 18-20 gauge steel for panels, but also heavier gauge, say 2-3mm for chassis stuff.

Any help greatly appreciated.
Paul

[paintman]

www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/

After that it's experimentation & practice.

[Mikey G]

For Mig welding only the middle and right dial will work. the one marked m/min is your wire speed and the one next to it is the voltage, both of these will alter your amperage on the mig welder, higher amps = hotter weld. so for instance with the wire speed at its slowest and voltage right down you should be having a low power weld for thin sheet, and put both up to max you will be able to weld thicker materials, a combination of any in between will be used for differing thicknesses. You tend to set the wire feed speed first depending on thickness of metal and then adjust voltage to get the weld to melt perfectly. I wont go into too much but a lot of the time its trial and error and practice.

The other knob is used for arc welding only and is a direct control for the amount of amps required in the same respect for low amps thiner materials and high amps for thick stuff.