IMig 200 First Welds

[Kendall]

I got it cranked up to 22v today with a lot more wire speed and I was getting full penetration but man did everything speed up. It took some time getting used to moving faster and was harder to keep a straight line and not blow through. I'm guessing that i'm now a little hot but would rather be on this end than the cold side. All I can say is that at the higher speeds, you can burn through a small roll of wire in a hurry. Can anyone with a Imig 200 let me know what settings you would use for 1/8" steel with .030 wire. I was at 22V and the speed was around 3/4's of the way up. I know all the welders will be a little different but would be good to get close. I was having some issues with erratic arc starts and got some burn back a few times on time bad enough to foul the tip. I'm wondering if I need to check my tensions on the rollers and wheel to see if that's where my problems are. I was reading that burn back could be caused by to slow of wire speed but the speed seems really fast. Almost too fast?

[Rambozo]

If you are using 75/25 gas you could back down the voltage just a touch. That would slow things down just a little until you are more comfortable with it. For straight CO2 I would stay where you are. Unless you measure your wire speed, there is no real way to compare settings. I find that a line's width adjustment on the dial is often enough to go from bad to good. Doesn't that model have a burn back timer control, too?

[Jason]

As Rambozo said, you could count the wire to get an estimated speed. I know on my MTS unit I had to dial down the burn back some when I got it. Could be a possible place for you to check but if you are burning through the metal then you would probably be ok to slow things down a little all around. This would still push enough heat in.