? on welding amps/voltage

[nickw698]

I am a newbie welder and recently got the Imig 200. When setting welder for materiel and thickness do I worry about the amps or voltage on welder? How do you view the amperage on the machine?

[Rambozo]

I am a newbie welder and recently got the Imig 200. When setting welder for materiel and thickness do I worry about the amps or voltage on welder? How do you view the amperage on the machine?

For MIG you set voltage and wire speed, the amperage will vary depending on a number of factors, and the machine will do what is required to keep the voltage constant.
For stick you do set the amperage ( I think it shares that function with the wire speed control in stick mode) and the machine will change voltage to keep the amps the same.

You can find several online weld calculators to get you in the ballpark. You will have to make slight adjustments depending on your technique and application. Here are some examples.

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/calculators/

Be sure to download the latest online manual for your machine. The one supplied in the box may not be as complete.

[DaveO]

Welcome, Nick- there's a series of MIG Basics videos offered by Jody Collier, here:
http://welding-tv.com/category/mig-welding/

Well worth a look!

[performance]

The unit will display the amperage as you are welding. The wire speed is set up to 600 ipm on that unit.

Something that will confuse you is how Jody explains setting the wire feed in one of his videos. It is a valid way to do it on transformers. However, if you measure out the wire speed on our units, it will be much different than the wire speed while welding. In fact it will be much slower without a welding load applied to it and measuring it out for 10 or 15 seconds will not give you a true wire speed. I am not sure why this is on our units, other than it has to do with how the DC is generated to drive the motor. It definitely will start to fly when welding under load on our newer units.

[nickw698]

OK. Thanks a bunch guys. I have watched all the videos and got alot out of them. So what your saying Mark, is to not measure out the wire speed by hand and offset the readout from you calculations just like Jody did? Is the digital readout for wire speed pretty accurate while welding?

[zoama]

OK. Thanks a bunch guys. I have watched all the videos and got alot out of them. So what your saying Mark, is to not measure out the wire speed by hand and offset the readout from you calculations just like Jody did? Is the digital readout for wire speed pretty accurate while welding?

It reads actual output amps while welding. I just use the readout as a reference point to set the machine. After you've used it for a while you'll remember settings for different thicknesses or you can keep notes.

[performance]

New units are much more accurate as far as setting the readout versus wire speed.