On Monday, September 21, 2015 at 8:56:18 PM UTC-4, wrote:
I hardly ever weld stainless steel with my little MIG welder. Ernie
says if I use C25 gas mix the weld will be OK but will need wire
brushing for cosmetics. So I try C25 but the welds look like ****.
Ropy and lots of oxidation. And the wire won't come out right. And I
keep getting burn back. So I finish the gas mixing manifold so that I
can get just 3% CO2 in the mix. Welds still look like ****! Thinking
that maybe the gas isn't getting mixed well enough in the mixer I make
a new one. No help. And not only does the wire keep burning back but
the contact tip is getting red hot! Now, you may think I'm stupid
because I didn't check the welder setup to make sure the polarity was
correct before starting. Well, I'm not stupid for that reason because
I did check the polarity. I'm stupid because I have spent hours trying
everything to get good welds. Stupid because even though I checked the
polarity and compared the cable connections to the diagram inside the
welder cover I STILL GOT IT WRONG! Stupid because I have had the cover
open so I could keep checking the setting of wire and feed and
comparing them to the chart inside the cover. This means that every
time I looked at the welder I could see that the polarity was wrong,
but didn't. Finally, frustrated, I sat down and stared at the welder.
And see the polarity is wrong. Anyway, I'm getting good welds now.
Almost looks like I know what I'm doing.
Eric

Grin, I think this may be part of male pattern blindness,
we have a hard time seeing what is right in front of us.

George H.