Spatter problem/ Lincoln powerwave 455/STT

By mhill018 Date 02-18-2008 23:09

i'm currently in training, using a lincoln powerwave 455/STT. i messed around with the mig a little bit before the actual training started and became slightly familiar with it. My first exercise is to lay down STT stringers across a 6in. x 6in. plate and blend them together with no exception to undercut. After a couple of days i took care of the undercut and the welds are flowing together perfect but i'm running into a slight problem. For some reason im building up a lot of spatter on my piece. I've tried everything to try and get rid of it but nothing seems to work. Its not as bad as it was when i first started but i still seem to catch a little spatter. Me and one of my buddies were talking about it and thought the the stt setting was mainly for open root stuff and that might be the cause of it. I can switch to pulse and run two beads perfect, no undercut or spatter. Any tips???

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 02-18-2008 23:46

I don't know why you would need a $11,000 pulsed mig power supply to make a pad of beads but ok.

Your powerwave 455 really ought to be able to do what you are talking about... Are you sure your using the proper program for the gas and filler diameter you are running?

Each gas and wire has it's own stt program.

Tell us what you are running for gas and wire and how thick your base metal and help will come.

By mhill018 Date 02-18-2008 23:58 Edited 02-19-2008 00:06

Its a tri-mix/ gold mix, Argon-Carbon-Helium, i'm running .045 wire and the metal is 1/2in thick. I'm on the right program i know that, its 43, but when i switch up to 44 which is pulse i catch no spatter at all and everything runs good. And im on one of the lincoln's cause they wont let me play with the fronius' yet lol

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 02-19-2008 13:45

MHill,

I think you are mistaken about your program selections for your Powerwave 455 STT.

Program 43 is not STT, It is plain CV mig with pre-set Voltage/WFS separation to accomodate He Ar CO2
and provide a Pinch type transfer for operations on stainless steels with 0.045 diameter filler wire.

Program 44 is a Pulse program for the same wire and gas.

The STT program for 0.045 stainless with Ar/He/CO2 is #124 or 125

If you are working on plain carbon steel you would be using another program set.

Here is the key
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/powerwave/system/pdfs/Z051970I_Power_Wave_455M.pdf

STT is pretty much designed for stainless sheet and open root pipe... You are wasting your time on 1/2 inch carbon steel... You would be better off setting the thing to Program #5 or #21, Set your wire feed speed at 350 and your voltage at 27........ Of course you could also do that with a 30 year old Lincoln CV unit :)

Maybe they will give you some rusty galvanized for that Fronius :)

By aevald

Date 02-19-2008 00:36

Lawrence, maybe we need to be playing where he's playing. Someone has deep pockets. Allan