Hello,
I am new to welding and new to this site. I purchased an 80 or 90 amp Marquette Welder. I've attended a welding course, however, I used a much larger and professional welding machine. Ever since I have used mine it seems to want to sputter.
It's the wire feed mechanism that sputters. If I point the gun up in the air, then the mig wire comes out steadily and at the right speed correctly. It's when I am pointing the gun at my work that the wire feed
'sputters'. In fact, the entire wire feed mechanism is jerky. The prolem is in the molten puddle I think. The sputtering is actually the wire feed cutting off and on rapidly (I think).
Today, I happened to purchase a spool of fluxcore wire that is also .030 size. And today I tried it on my welder (with no gas tank, of course) and it seemed to work fine!! Finally, I think I'm getting penetration!!!
So, my question is: What was I doing wrong earlier? I had tried .024 and .030 mig wire that I had just purchased from Lowe's. I was attempting to weld 14 or 18 gauge galvinized sheet metal. Of course, I had to reverse the wiring to convert the machine from gas to fluxcore. I had een using 75% argon gas. I know Im inexperienced, however, I should have gotten a steady feed or mig wire.
Can someone please help. I've got noone else to ask.
Thanks,
Paul Dorsey