If you are welding a lot of 14 ga, I'd suggest going to some .023" wire.
Buy a 10 pound spool for a trial. Have somone play with the wire feed
speed while you are welding, there is a magic spot where it all starts
working. You can easily hear it, the sound gets crisper, less variation.

Emmo wrote:
Thanx to all. I do currently use three 4.5" grinders, (2 from HF, 1 DeWalt)
with a grinding wheel, a coarse grit flapwheel sanding disk, and a finer
grit flapwheel, all plugged in all the time. But I have not been doing much
of any v-grooving or other prep work. This is mostly 14 gauge tubing, so
penetration is actually less of an issue than burning through, at least for
me.

Thanx to these responses, I plan to go ahead and use this month's HF
discount coupon and pick up one of these 7" grinders, and I also plan to do
a lot more experimenting with prep and with my settings on my Hobart 175.

"RoyJ" wrote in message
ink.net...

I have a good 7" grinder, two 4-1/2" grinders (the el cleapo from Harbor
Freight), and a nice 4" Mikita. The 7" grinder with a disk will take off
way more metal than the 4". If you want even more serious metal removal,
use a grinding stone (be careful to get an appropriate guard, when a stone
blows up it gets messy!)

Assuming that you have a high interest in cosmetics and require flat weld
areas, I suggest:
-Weld prep with a fairly deep 'V' grove, gives you good pentration, keeps
your weld bead down flat. This can be done with a grinder (lay a whole
pile of parts with the edges raised on a 2x4 and do them in quantity) but
a 2" vertical belt sander is the best way.
-Practice your weld technique to get good looking welds on the underside
that don't need any touchup, minimal bead on the outside that need to be
ground.
-Use a 7" grinder with a disk to knock down weld bead.
-Use a 4" or 4-1/2" with as sanding disk to clean and polish the surface.
These grinders are cheap, have one loaded with 40 grit paper, another with
60 or even 80 grit. Use a cube tap and have all of them live at one time.

Emmo wrote:

I mig weld square and rectangular tubing to make furniture. I use a 4
1/2" grinder to grind down the welds. I think I am spending more time
grinding than welding. I am wondering if getting a 7" grinder would make
this go any faster? Thanx!

__
"All it took was all I had..."