Miller Electric

A little preventative maintenance goes a long way in keeping your welder/generator in top shape. The article below walks through best practices for maintaining the gas engine in your welder/generator, and the consequences of poor maintenance. Regular maintenance will:

• Extend engine/welder life
• Ensure peak performance at all times
• Maintain reliability/avoiding costly breakdowns
• Prevent voiding warranty coverage
• Maximize resale value

Read on to learn more: http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/articles/the-secret-to-long-engine-life–advice-from-the-experts-on-maintaining-your-welder-generator-s-gas-engine/

Chris Wierschke
Product Manager
Bobcat and Trailblazer

Buzz Johns, head fabricator at ThorSport Racing, explains how to fabricate an upper control arm. Watch this two-part series for a step-by-step process and tips for keeping weld distortion to a minimum.

Part one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UDfxGK1Jt4

Part two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKJgO-Y5NX4

There are a few simple checks that can make plasma cutting work like a dream or can cause extreme frustration. Below are the 5 most common problems and questions people seem to have when using a plasma cutter.

1) Work Clamp (or “ground” clamp): The work clamp needs a good electrical connection. If you are cutting on rusty, galvanized, painted or dirty material, you will need to grind off a place for the work clamp. The torch will cut at its rated capacity, provided the work clamp has a good connection.

2) Consumables: If the torch consumables are worn beyond the manufacturer’s recommendation, you may experience arc outages. Normally, for tips, if the hole in the end has doubled in size when compared to a new tip, it is time to replace it. Electrodes need to be replaced when the Hafnium in the center of the electrode has reached a depth of 1\16”. Always check your manual for specific information on when to change the consumables. In standard applications, you may be able to use 2 tips for every one electrode.

3) Standoff distance: Typically a recommended standoff height is 1/16” to 1/8” off without touching your work piece. Remember electricity is lazy. It wants to take the path of least resistance. If you get too far away from the work piece, resistance between the work piece and electrode (cutting circuit) is much higher than the resistance between the tip and electrode (pilot circuit). This will cause the machine to stay in pilot and shut off after the five seconds.

4) Retaining cup: If the cup is on too tight, it prevents the electrode from moving freely. This will in turn prevent the arc from transferring. When threading the cup onto the end of the torch you should be able to feel and hear the cup switch in the torch click. Once this switch has been closed the cup does not need to be tightened any farther.

If there is any moisture in the air supply it can prevent arc transfer and create arc outages. Also, excess moisture in the system can lead to premature consumable wear. It can also cause the tips to wear unevenly which can cause problems with the kerf angle of your cut.

Following these simple guidelines will help you ensure that your machine operates to its full potential and will help extend the life of your machine and consumables.

Tim Lux
Plasma Service and Applications Specialist

When utilizing the pulse feature on the Miller Maxstar or Dynasty products, there are several variables to adjust that can yield significant benefits. With the proper settings of these variables, the pulse feature can increase weld quality, weld penetration, and travel speed – all of which translate into increased productivity. The three variables are:

1. Pulses Per Second [PPS] (the number of times the machine switches from a high to low amperage each second)
2. Peak Time [Peak t] (percent of the pulse cycle spent in the high amperage)
3. Background Amperage [BKGND A] (low amperage as a percent of the peak amperage).

A good starting point for these variables is 120 hz, 40%, and 25% respectively.

Adjusting the PPS provides the most visible change to the weld operator. Increasing this frequency will tighten the arc cone which can result in better directional control, a smaller weld puddle, and increased penetration.

Andrew Pfaller
TIG Solutions Product Manager/Weld Engineer

If you already own a MIG welder, you may be wondering what it takes to start using that machine to weld some aluminum. Miller® has continued to provide spool gun solutions that are simple and directly connect to your welder for welding aluminum. This makes changing to aluminum faster and less expensive than you may think.

First, you’re going to need a spool gun. Why another gun? Well, the column strength or the amount you can push on Aluminum wire without buckling is only about one-third the amount that mild steel wire can withstand. This causes feeding issues if you try to push the aluminum through a standard MIG torch. Spool guns only push the wire a short distance in a straight line from the drive rolls, so feeding isn’t compromised. The Spoolmate™ 100 Series spool gun is a direct connect option for the Millermatic^® 140 Auto-Set™, 180 Auto-Set and 211 Auto-Set with MVP MIG welders, and the Multimatic™ 200 MIG/TIG/Stick welder. The Spoolmate™ 200 Series spool gun is the entry level spool gun for the Millermatic 212 Auto-Set and Millermatic 252 MIG welders. For the more industrial user, the Spoolmatic^® 15A or 30A guns are a better fit on those machines.

The next thing you’re going to need is different shielding gas. Aluminum requires 100 percent argon shielding gas. Any shielding gas containing oxygen will cause an unstable arc with impurities when welding Aluminum.

Finally, you will need to be sure you have good MIG welding technique.  Aluminum requires you to push the torch to ensure effective shielding gas coverage. Everything else in your technique is the same as welding mild steel, but at a faster pace. Due to the high thermal properties of Aluminum, more heat is required to start a molten puddle. This increased amount of heat then requires a higher travel speed once the puddle is established to prevent burn through. Aluminum MIG welding doesn’t have to be difficult with the appropriate equipment and some practice.

When welding thick to thin or thinner material, concentrate or point the gun more at the thicker material and roll the bead toward the thinner material. This will help with adequate penetration on both the thick and thin piece. Take precautions to prevent warpage. When welding thin material, you may want to place a thicker piece of copper or aluminum behind the weld area to help “sink” the heat away (which prevents warping). This also will help with burn-through. Keep in mind that if you are welding on a table, you’ll want to get one with a thick metal top. A top with a ¼-in steel plate or thicker will not warp while you are welding on it. Do not place a metal plate on top of a wooden table. It will still burn the wood. I know it sounds like common sense, but it happens….

Until next time,

Andy Weyenberg
Motorsports Marketing Manager

Consumable matching is key when welding. If you are running .030 wires in your MIG welder, make sure the liner, drive rolls and contact tips match. Any mismatch will cause feeding and weld consistency problems. It’s also important to pick the right wire size for the job. Don’t use .035 wire to weld 22 gauge steel. As a rule of thumb, the wire shouldn’t be bigger than the material thickness. If it is, you’ll spend most of your time blowing holes in the base metal instead of melting the weld wire.

Gas is technically a material, too, so determine the correct mix before beginning. Miller offers some tips on consumables here. For MIG steel, a 75/25 argon/CO2 mix will give great results. Straight CO2 can also be used to get more penetration, but this gas will also produce more spatter. Typical flow rates are 25-30 CFH. Too high of flow will cause turbulence and contamination. Too low flow will not give enough shielding of the weld area and also produce porosity of the weld bead. For all TIG processes and MIG aluminum, 100 percent argon gas is typically used. Flow rate will depend on cup size with most flow rates being near 12-20.

Until next time,

Andy Weyenberg
Motorsports Marketing Manager

In this video, I used a Diversion™ 180 TIG welder to create an aluminum air pan for a ’48 F1 Ford pickup truck. In this video, you’ll see that I also demonstrate how to weld with different material thicknesses. As always, make sure you start with clean material. I am using 5356 aluminum filler for this particular project, but cut it in half for easier use. When you’re welding with materials with different thicknesses, the Diversion™ 180 is an ideal welder for the DIYer because of its ability to let you easily dial in the material type and thickness on the machine. When working with thinner aluminum material, consider skipping welds to prevent warpage and evenly distribute the heat. An example of skip welding would be making a one-in weld and then skipping six-inches before making the next one-in weld. When skip welding, try using silicone filler to create a better seal. Another tip to remember when using different material thicknesses is to preheat. In this video, the ½-in plate is outside maximum capability of machine. To get around it, preheat the thicker material to make it easier for puddle to wet out.

John Swartz
TIG Commercial Product Manager

Clamps, vise grips and magnetic squares help keep materials in place and offer stability while you’re welding. The magnetic square is a useful tool if you’re welding at a specific angle. For example, if you have two pieces that need to be welded together at a 45-degree angle, you would set your magnetic square to 45 degrees and use it to connect the two pieces of material. Clamps, vise grips, magnetic squares and fixtures definitely benefit the DIY welder, because they let you keep your hands free and your materials in place. This is especially helpful when TIG welding, because you have your TIG torch welder in one hand and the filler material in the other. Unless you’re pretty flexible and can use your feet to hold your materials in place, use a vise grip or clamp. The Miller ArcStation™ includes an optional X-pattern that allows you to insert and slide clamp placement as you progress through a job.

Until next time,

Andy Weyenberg
Motorsports Marketing Manager

Looking for some tips on plasma cutting? On a visit to see our friends at Cotati Speed Shop in Santa Rosa, Calif., we created a cylinder rack for welding gases. Here are a few suggestions and watch the video for more! We start by measuring out the plate size, making sure to compensate for the edge of tip. Roll the tip over and see where the plasma is going to penetrate the metal. It’s important to be comfortable when you’re plasma cutting, so don’t press down too hard on the metal. Let the tip sit on your work piece and drag, using your free hand for leverage. Before cutting, test the cut and make sure you’re able to make the cut comfortably in one move, so that it is as straight as possible. If you’re cutting a bevel, use a stand-off guide to make sure you don’t damage your tips and to get a perfect cut. When you begin cutting, start and an angle and roll the tip until it pierces the metal – this keeps the splatter from getting back into the tip.

Steve Hidden
Plasma Product Manager