How to Weld - MIG Welding

Step 8 Common Problems

It can take a good amount of practice to start welding reliably every time, so don't worry if you have some problems when you first stop. Some common problems are:

• No or not enough shielding gas from the gun is surrounding the weld. You can tell when this happens because the weld will start splattering little balls of metal, and will turn nasty colors of brown and green. Turn up the pressure on the gas and see if that helps.
• Weld is not penetrating. This is easy to tell as your weld will be weak and won't be fully joining your two piece of metal.
• Weld burns a while right through your material. This is caused by welding with too much power. Simply turn down your voltage and it should go away.
• Too much metal in your weld pool or the weld is globy like oatmeal. This is caused by too much wire coming out of the gun and can be fixed by slowing down your wire speed.
• Welding gun spits and does not maintain a constant weld. This could be caused because the gun is too far from the weld. You want to hold the tip of the gun about 1/4" to 1/2" away from the weld.

Comments

[Mr. space]

it works without shielding gas too. it reqires practice...
the only problem is oxidation. after the weld you must grind and protect against rust.

[brandon_a_boyer]

Wrong, using solid wire without shielding gas will also cause sub-surface porosity.

[mojo59]

great info for me i'm a beginner, just curious tho do you need gas all the time to weld or can you weld without the bottle

[M4industries]

You can use flux core wire, which is messier and more spatter, but you can weld thicker metals.

[jschmadeke4life]

Again, awesome job and very informative. Thank you.

[KJHARCH]

Thank you for the great tutorial.

[The Lightning Stalker]

The term is spatter.