Need help with MIG setup

[RcRacer]

I have a Pro Mig 175 that has run only flux core up until today. I now have it setup with C25 gas and Lincoln L56 .023 wire. The polarity is set to positive electrode and the gas flow was at 25 scfh with the trigger pulled.
I ran a few test beads on some scrap 1/8" stuff. The settings chart shows that with .023 wire, the max voltage and wire speed will do 12 guage ( .105" ). So I'm assuming that I should really be using .030 for the material I was working on. What I'm curious about though is the appearance of the beads. They weren't as shiny clean as I have seen in some of the pics I've seen you guys post in here. Here are some pics:
The first is just a flat bead on a scrap piece of 1" angle. There appears to be spatter and "crud"?? The beads I was running seemed dull??


The next two are a T joint with some scrap that has a cross section cut.




The final one is the result of som BFH action.



Any comments and advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for your help!

[blueoval557]

Rc, they are really not that bad. In the first picture, it looks like you could of used a little less wire and a little more heat, but overall, not bad at all. As for the "shinyness" of the beads, for one, alot of what you see on here has been wire brushed or what not, 2, it could be that your base metal was not clean enough. In the first picture, I noticed alot of brownish colored "powder" surrouding the bead...whenever this has happened to me, it seems to come down to material prep. What are you doing as far as cleaning?
GOOD LUCK!
Kyle

[dda52]

IMO, the appearance isn't abnormal. The "crud" is the silicon islands that are from the silicon content in the wire. It is normal. It looks like the weld metal is piling up a bit, either too fast wire feed speed, and or travel too slow. Excessive spatter is often a result of voltage being too high.

I'm not familiar with the PM175's settings so , I can't comment, but they sound ( and look) too high. If you are planning on doing 1/8" much, IMO, you'd get better results from .030. Other than that, it looks like you are doing fine. Just tweak it around till you get rid of the piling up and spatter without sacrificing the weld stregnth. Oh yea, clean the base metal a little...MIG hates crud.

[RcRacer]

Thanks guys. I'll just practice on some thinner stuff till I get some .030 wire. For prep, basically all I did was wire brush because I was in such a hurry to try the new setup
I guess a little grinding is in order next time. Off to the garage for a little more experimenting ......

[Sundown]

Flap disk (or a wire cup) on a 4 1/2" angle grinder is a good way to get prep done.