Newbie question here?

[JohnV]

Ok guys I have a SP-135T (Yeah I know its a red box) and I have some questions about some test welds I made. I am doing some test welds on 1/8 inch stock to test out my abilities, the thing is I cannot seem to get great penetration in the 1/8 stock with my welder. The machine is setup with .30 wire running c-25 gas and was on the "D" tap which is the highest ad I setup the metal for a butt joint with a 1/16 space between them. The first few welds I was pushing and it looked that the penetration was crappy. So the next day I did a few more test welds pulling and they seemed better, but I still not get penetration all the way through across the whole weld. So then I figured what the **** let me try the hammer test on my welds and none of them broke...matter of fact the first weld that I made with the least penetration while pushing the weld did not break either? I completely hammered the **** out of it until the metal surrounding the weld bent to a 90 degree angle on the vice. So i guess my question should be is what can I expect to see when doing a weld like this...what is acceptable penetration...should I be going all the way through?

PS...No pics yet...the wife has the digital camera and she is on vacation

[INTP]

If you're welding hot rolled mild steel, cleaning it will help. Mine's also a 135A, and anything over 1/8, I'll bevel the edge to get penetration. Also, try different gaps if you're doing a butt joint. About 1/2 the material thickness is a good starting point.

[Roger]

I went to Lincoln Electric web site and down loaded the manual for SP135T welder. According to the setting chart on inside of your welders door Your welder can weld maximum .075" steel with setting D-4.5 using .030 solid steel wire and C25 shielding gas. To weld thicker steel requires gasless flux-cored .035" wire. Seems the chart is correct as 1/8 = .125. The SP135+ has settings for welding .105" steel in single pass using .030 solid wire with C25 shielding gas and 25 amp 115V circuit. My SP125+ has the same setting chart as SP135+.

While looking for his welder's manual found links for 2 of my favorite free booklets.
Use link below, under MIG Wires section download MIG/MAG Welding Guide and under Aluminum, Cast Iron and Non-ferrous Consumables section download Aluminum MIG Welding Guidebook. If you like them then order nice free copy on line. The aluminum guide is optimistic for 110V welder but both have great free information.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/products/litrequest/

[JohnV]

Barry....The metal was clean down to shiny metal...and I was welding up 1/8 stock...hence the 1/16 gap on the butt joint....so all was good thier

Roger....Hey thanks for the info...I figured I should really be welding the 1/8 with a fluxcore setup, but I was trying out different welds to see how they performed. Lesson learned!!! So next time I will try out the fluxcore wire and see how I do...thanks again!!!