Harbor Freight 90 Amp Welder

[OKType3Tim]

[67ctbug]

Been using the new mig for a while and I am having some trouble. I can't find the right setting, the chart is bad IMHO and it burns through everything. I'm welding replacement panels in today or tomorow and am welding OG steel right now and I don't want to keep having to make huge piles of weld to fill holes. Does anyone else have this welder? What settings are you running. Ive seen some beautiful welds come from this machine in pictures so I know it's possible.
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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[theKbStockpiler]

I would put the voltage on 1/3rd of it's dial to start. What gauge and type of joint ,etcetera are you going to do ,.025 wire with gas?
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My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.

[67ctbug]

20 gauge, butt joint. 0.023 wire with 75/25.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[theKbStockpiler]

A butt joint on 20 gauge is going to have to have perfect to virtually perfect fit up to do a continuous weld AND you are going to have to keep the edges from warping apart about every 1/4 of and inch. This means you can't be able to see light between the pieces at all or Very Very little. I have never tried to back the seam up with copper but I'm informed that it is a technique that works. Sometimes a work around is a bigger hassle than it's worth.

If you use the 'repeated spot weld technique,butt weld with gap,manually pulse weld etcetera', you will avoid a lot of problems butt welding thin metal.

There are a few threads on how to do this in this forum.
_________________
My beetle is not competing with your beetle. I have the yellow beetle in my town. There is a red one, a green one ......
Use all safety devices including a mask.

[67ctbug]

I'm using the spot in different places technique. I actually did what you said to do with the voltage and it started working . I got the new piece in almost perfect except I messed up the cut, but I made a patch for that too.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[modok]

yeah you have to pulse 1/8 inch at a time, and freeze, then 1/8 inch, freeze, repeat. Control the heat with the how long you pause.
You don't want the voltage too low. If it's not high enough compared to wire speed you blow holes, as the wire doesn't melt fast enough it puts too much heat in the metal. More volts less wire speed you start melting the wire before it actually hits, part of the time, and that can let you weld really thin stuff, if you can get it working for you at the right rhythm.
On my old miller 130 I would use #1 voltage for around 18 gauge, but to go even thinner often back up to #2 voltage with the wire speed set about as low as practical. My eastwood with the infinite adjustemtents isn't really any better at that. it surely has a "smoother" arc but that smoothness actually does not help much when pulse welding, but does ok, I've welded packing straps together with it just fine, they are less than .020 thick!

[67ctbug]

I actually did what KBStockpiler said to and got the panel in. Now I'm just filling pinholes because my panel cutting skills are a little bad and I may have had to fill a 1/4" gap with weld and a bad homemade patch.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[modok]

Lots of practice. The worse you are at fitting, the better you will be at gap filling

[67ctbug]

No joking there, you should have seen my floor pans before the seam sealer went on. There was 1/8" lap from the pans to the lip on the tunnel in some places I couldn't even attempt plug welds . The Firewall which I'm taking out still looks like someone put the heat on high and did beads on it in some places from the old flux core welder.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[beetlenut]

I found that panel fitment should take at least half the time it takes to do the whole job. Your gap all around your panel has to be the same, which is about the thickness of the metal you are welding, and you have to be careful with the first 5 or 6 welds to get them spaced equally around the panel circumference. You also don't want to put a spot next to another spot. You want to put the next spot as far away on the panel from the previous spot as you can. Some people use a spray bottle with water, or compressed air, to cool the metal as they go.
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