When you’re setting up your MIG welder for whatever job you’re going to do, you have to get your settings right. Let’s say you have some 1/8″ steel plate, so you might start out about 20 volts. Then you need to figure out how much wirefeed you need. Or maybe you know what wirefeed you want for the size of weld you want, but how much voltage do you need?
A lot of welders go by the sound. That tells them when they have everything dialed in just right. It just sounds right.
But there is a cheater’s way, a quick way to do it!
Kevin is using AHP’s AlphaMIG 250, because it is an inverter machine. He once again emphasizes DON’T DO THIS WITH A TRANSFORMER-BASED WELDER because you can blow it up. The transformer welders don’t like it when you change settings while they are welding, but the inverters don’t care.
Adjusting welder settings on the fly is easier with an inverter-based machine like this analog welder because it uses knobs instead of digital adjustments, which are simply harder to advance than the knobs.
As Kevin gets ready to adjust settings while welding, he urges viewers to listen to the sound – put on headphones or turn up the volume to really hear the difference.
Next he welds with his right hand while adjusting voltage with his left hand. You can hear the change in the sound.
When Kevin started, the voltage was just over 20 volts. When he finished, it was 15.2 volts. That’s a big change!
Kevin hopes that gives you another tool in your toolbox. It might even impress your buddies when they see you adjusting the settings as you weld!
He is going back to work, but you might want to stick around just a little longer to see why cleaning is a bad idea!