welding

[Dave Adams]

being self taught i find out things by accident......

my Snap-on welder came with a 5kg reel of  0.6 wire and that's what i have been using....its taken ages to use it all. and  it only ran out two nights ago when i was welding my fuel tank together. i would have thought that 0.6 mm wire would have been the best for welding thin steel (1mm) but i also want to weld thicker steel and the 0.6 wire needs about 90% wire speed to give enough filler to weld at high amps so i bought a reel of 0.6 mm and a reel of 0.8 mm wire and as an experiment used the 0.8 mm on my tank. the wire speed had to come down from 50% (for the 0.6 wire as any slower caused the wire to constantly stick to the tip) to 10-15% to weld with the 0.8 mm ....... but it was so much easier to get good welds with the 0.8 mm wire on the 1 mm thin steel......

any experts out there with an explanation?

[Steve Kerswell]

I think you have answered your own question Dave. The wire should be proportionate to the thickness of plate, especially on thin stuff. On mig, wire speed is more crucial then many think.