Pulsed Mig welding anyone?

[Brink]

So I just got a new machine. Having never pulse mig welded before I'm not entirely sure where to begin. Thought I'd throw up some pics and see what thoughts are out there. All I've done is try the adjustments at various settings 1 at a time untill things "felt" and looked like a weld. I was expecting more of a dime look with the pulse but maybe not. All welds are just straight push, no extra gun action at all. With my Miller 350 I always whiped but these are just as the wire came out of the machine....
The machine controls.....


The welds..... Like I said no dimes. Although dimes are not actual the way mig is suposed to look. Seems to me that for the most part these look like decent MIG welds. I didn't do any cleanup after incase there was anything I'd clean away that would give any info to anyone....








So what's your thoughts? Like I said...I really thought it would be a cheater way for a tig look without the unacceptalbe bump the trigger method.
Observations is that it felt like it went in really hot. Sounds a lot different also. It has a buzz instead of a sizzle.

[Gadget]

Looks good to me but I'm no MIG expert.

[SICFabrications]

dood, i can explain that entire phenomena to you.... i just dont have time to o so right now..... pulsed mig isnt a pulse like as in tig, it actually forces the wire into spray transfer through the frequency changes of the pulse.... like i said, tomorrow, i will explain it in full detail

[arandall]

Looking forward to it SIC

Cheers,
Art R.

[KHK]

I am MIG ignorant so this is a great post.

[SICFabrications]

im gonna give a lil bit explanation right now.... if you are looking for bead characteristics and a very noticeable profile of the bead, then the "trigger bump" is very incorrect, inconsistent, and it WILL cold lap... i used to work for a fab shop a few years ago and the fella that ran the joint said that he should be able to walk through the shop and know who welded what by the weld beads.... my shop? i run it the same way.... it is arguable as to whether a mig weld that looks pretty or a mig weld that looks smooth is proper or not, but i am here to tell ya... as a customer, i WANNA see a pretty bead as well as the rest of the customer world...

the way to achieve the "signature" mig weld bead appearance is through torch manipulation and having the settings proper for the size of wire, gas and size of parent metals. once you have found the "signature" weave, keeping it steady and even all the way through... inconsistent torch movements will show in the weld bead... faster, slower, wider, more narrow all of it WILL show

pulse mig.... (this is the one that i still gotta get back to ya'll on...) and i wish that i had some peeps around with a decent enough vid camera that could shoot vid of my welds in progress so that ya'll could see what im tryin to say.... especially on aluminum tig... it would save me tons and tons of typin....lol

maybe simon will take a vid at fab tech and i could get a bead or 3 filmed there... who knows...

(sorry about jumping around on topic) anyway, tonight when i get back from the gas wells, i will explain pulsed mig and also critique the above welds....

[ISKI]

Nice welds but it's not just the machine, it also takes a steady hand, great eye hand coordination, and strong arms.

[SICFabrications]

sorry, just got in from the gas wells and gotta roll right back out for a dump truck repair....i'll try n catch up in the a.m.

[Kel Fab Creations]

IMO "trigger bumping" is totally acceptable under certain circumstances. I have used that method on mild and chromolly steel 1/4" and under for enough years to vouch for it. I have never had a single weld fail in the 9 years I have been fabricating and have seen it used a ton in the sand rail and prerunner industries. The biggest missconception is that people think its just tack,tack,tack but in order to do it correctly it is a series of small drags and you don't stop and wait for it to cool before you pull the trigger again. Another is you have to turn up the heat. You can actually more evenly distribute the heat of the weld as you won't get the cold start that u would if you were set up to do a continuous drag. All this being said I use a continuous drag/whip motion as much as I use trigger welding. Trigger welding does take a bit longer but is easier to get a consistent bead if you are not totally dialed on you MIG skills. So to say trigger welding is wrong is false. I have proven plenty of people wrong on this. Of coarse your not gonna be welding some thick tractor stuff or anything of that nature. If you do it correctly it is as good or better than a continuous drag.

---------- Post added at 07:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:06 PM ----------

This stuff was welded with the continuous whip method.









---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:21 PM ----------

This stuff was welded with the trigger method

[SICFabrications]

not to start a flame war with ya, sir, but the reason why i claim it to be incorrect is this..... under the aws guidelines d 1.1 it isnt acceptable as a transfer method for weldments and filler... i do agree, it has its niche, but my take is this.... i refuse to teach improper technique to someone that doesnt know any better and then they try to test and fail because of a technique that i have described....

as for the trigger bump, bet ya next weeks paycheck that if you tried to take a structural cert using the trigger bump, you wont pass (that is if the cwi is doing his job properly and watching you weld) or even try to pass high pressure asme coded pipe, still wont pass.... that is the reason why i say it is improper...

as for the reason why i am a stickler for coding, i run a coded shop... everyone that can use a welding machine is certified to said procedure using said method.... therefore, i can manufacture bridge parts (because bridge parts REALLY pay the bills well)

having said that, if someone came to me, asked for a job, and started trigger bumping, i would send em packing before the metal cooled off... it is what it is....



now, lets get to the topic at hand.... as to the OP's first statement regarding pulsed mig and why it doesnt look like a "mig like tig" is this.... pulsed mig is great for lightweight metals and extremely heavy weight metals.... the pulse width allows you to focus or "unfocus" the arc... meaning that you can widen or make more narrow the actual arc itself.

pulse frequency gives the arc length according to the settings... as i said before pulsed mig actually forces the wire into spray transfer. if you switch your shielding gas over to a c-10 (90%argon 10%co2) you will get even better results from the settings as the lesser amount of co2 will take some of the "heat" out of the weld...

also, you guys should know that pulsed mig is NOT recognized by the aws as an acceptable method of transfer...


now to another topic... the "pulsed mig like tig" that youre looking for is called synergic pulse on pulse... it's where the wire feed drives as well as the current are synchronized to each other accordingly.... as the current drops of for the pulse, so does the wire feed speed.... the pulses are more defined and much slower, giving you the pronounced bead appearance that youre trying to cheat into....

synergic pulse has only 1 advantage.... it lets those that know jack squat about aluminum make pretty aluminum welds... steel holds it heat better and it doesnt pronounce itself quite as good (meaning you still get a bland looking weld bead)

i have said it before and i will say it again, pulsed tig and pulsed mig isnt needed.... once you learn to read the puddle, you will find that pulse is only a crutch... i own several machines that are pulse capable and only 1 has ever had the pulse function turned on, and that was the longevity 200pi (just to see if it worked and what the various settings accomplished)

again, kel fab, im not trying to start a flame war here, just stating factual proof as to why trigger bump isnt proper