OT Mig welder

What pressure should I run on sealing gas?

Pat, it's not pressure, but volume. It depends on a lot of things but 20 cfm will get you in the ballpark.
Larry

10 use to work for us , when I worked as a millwright .

I run 15-30 cfm depending on conditions.

Depends, mine is set on 45 psi, I am not running a flow meter.

20 is a good number per my instructions. I just went through just what's in and out of the bottle and if interested here it is.

I have a #4 tank from TSC (the 48 x 6 1/2 approx bottle), great way to buy gas as it's available, price is $50 for the refill, they sweat the periodic safety check and all. I called the company that supplies the bottles to TSC and they fill the bottles to 2000 psig.

In the #4 tank this gives you 125 cu ft of gas. The smaller of the two gauges and the regulator set the flow rate of gas out of the bottle, not pressure like in acetylene and oxygen.

The flow rate is in cubic feet per HOUR. The MIG tip is supposed to (mine does and it's a Harbor Freight 151) to turn the flow on and off as you depress the trigger.

Therefore with the flow set to 20 you get 125/20 (6 1/4) hours of usage out of the tank for the $50. That's 8 bucks an hour for welding gas and to me that's a deal.

Oh, while on the subject, I had an aluminum welding job I thought I'd try. In short, the .030 alum wire is very brittle as compared to the steel and much harder to keep fed in the standard welder.

I think (opinion) the spool handle gadget where the spool is in your hand, not down the pipe in the welder would work much better even though you may get tired of holding it. I didn't have one so I got some alum sticks for my stick welder to do the job which got-r-done whereas the alum MIG was a waste of time and money......course I am a farm welder, not a registered professional with experience. Big difference in me and the equipment.

HTH,
Mark

These guys that responded must have been drinking when they posted. LoL Shielding gas is measured in volume and not pressure but 30 CFM would be worse than no gas at all! 30 CFM is what you need for heavy gouging! Whether you have a flow gauge or a flow meter the pressure is at a preset level, usually around 20/25 PSI and you adjust the CFH. Cubic feet per hour. Generally 25 to 30 CFH is the norm. Certain types of wire may use more or less. All wires will have recommended settings and gas flow rates though.

Stick, I have a 20 year old Hobart BetaMig 250 that has a flow meter, and "20" works quite SWELL!

This spring, my renter bought a new Miller 250 MIG (different color, same company) and his has a PSI gauge only, much to my surprise.

My tank pressure monitor is in PSI and Bar (of Mercury). Are both his gauges in psi? Is the gauge right for the gas?

Mark

Do you seriously think these guys are setting their flows to 30 cubic feet per MINUTE?

They're setting the flow meter to 30. They don't know/care if it's minute, hour, day, year, or century!

Surely they mean 30 CFH, but mis-typed because CFM is the more commonly used/heard term.

MiG flow meters are marked in CFH. You can't even turn one up high enough to achieve 30 CFM (1800CFH).

OOPS! CFH, My bad lol.

Thanks for all the replies, got to go check my gauge and see what it says.

And you wonder why parts guys get frustrated at some
customers... I'm going by what was typed.

Good. I didn't say 25 to 30 was mandatory.