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Overhead mig Welding help?

bails85

NAXJA Forum User
Location
phelan
I had to replace the exhaust on my jeep. I setup what i could on the welding table and i was able to weld everything perfectly fine. As soon as i got under the jeep and started trying to weld overhead/upside down my welde acted like a completely different machine. All it did was heat the wire and puddle to shit or stick to the metal or nozzle. It wouldnt arc at all. I cleaned all the metal made sure i had a good ground and tried different settings. My welder is a panasonic gunslinger. It has a freshly filled tank and the wire is lincoln .035. I also put a new tip diffuser and nozzle on it. Any idea what is wrong or what im doing wrong?. Scratching my head here. Im not new to welding but fhis has me stumped.
 
There's a reason why overhead welding has it's own AWS certifications... It isn't easy.

For newbs welding sheetmetal OH, the easiest thing to do is simply make tacks. Stack them so that they cover at least 50% of the previous tack. This will help prevent crater cracks as well as insufficient fusion.
 
It sounds to me like you may be having a wire feeding problem. I run up against this every now and then. It usually means I am trying to make too tight of a bend with the gun, or I have a loop in the cable and have pulled it to too tight of a radius. It could also be marginal rollers, lack of enough pressure on the rollers or a worn liner. It might help just to pull the liner out of the gun (probably have to disconnect the entire assembly from the machine to do this) and shake it out or even blow air through it. I was amazed at how much metal powder came out when I finally broke down and replaced my liner. I should have pulled it out and cleaned it a long time before then.

If the machine is fairly new you can probably discount the likelihood of a worn liner or material built up in the liner and focus more of pressure at the feed rollers and keeping the line as straight as you possibly can. Depending on what sort of difference that does (or doesn't) make you can then adjust course accordingly.
 
turn up your speed and turn down your voltage. make small adjustments until you get it so its welding cleanly.
 
Thank you all for the help. I will try all the above. It seems like i have better luck with thicker material. Im going to try smaller gauge wire like .030 or .023. Talking with a couple welding shops..... it seems that even though i have a machine that is very capable for variuos material thicknesses .035 on that strong of a machine is just too much for anything under 1/8. All 3 shops said i would have the problem im having. Ill try some thinner wire and post up my findings.
 
I've welded over head on the bucket with .035 030 in fcaw and gmaw flux only sucked on real thin sheet like 18g, but 14and up was ok and gmaw was easy the only time it still sucks is if I got a gap since gravity is not working the puddle in your favor ...lol...jeans and t-shirt is not the hot set up for this., but it us what I wear and have the marks on my arms to show the lack of sense , but I do wear eye protection and ear plugs under my hood for overhead .
 
How did this turn out, I know I'm 12 days after the Original post

The overhead welds are harder to see, and you tend to let too much wire out of the gun-- too much "stick out"

Make sure you are just as close with the tip of the gun as you would be when welding #1 position -- an inch is too far and really easy to do on your back, upside down

Get the gun up in there...
 
How did this turn out, I know I'm 12 days after the Original post

The overhead welds are harder to see, and you tend to let too much wire out of the gun-- too much "stick out"

Make sure you are just as close with the tip of the gun as you would be when welding #1 position -- an inch is too far and really easy to do on your back, upside down

Get the gun up in there...


He dead .
 
I have been doing a lot of welding upside down lately and I can tell you that your wire should be .23 or .030 max. Wire feed should turned up a half more than power for example if your power is set at 1 your wire feed should be 1.5. Your gas should be cranked up a little more as well. Weld dip will help as well its cheap like $7.00. Try not to run consistent beads it will generate to much heat do stitch welds, I use my Ming like a twig when I weld on sheet metal or anything thinner than 12 gauge.
 
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