Mig polarity and other stuff...long...sigh

Some time ago, I traded into an absolutly MINT Arco PulseArc 350 mig
welder. Only problem was..I made the deal before looking at it closely
and when I got it home, discovered it was 3 phase. Sigh... So I loaned
it to a friend who I guess never used it.

I got it back a couple weeks ago, and tonight I decided to try to see
if it would run on 1phase 220. I could get the fan and controls to
work..but no arc, by supplying 220 to two of the three leads. I didnt
try to put power on 1 and tie 2 together. Shrug.

So I put a longer power cord on it, and plugged it into my 5 hp 3phase
rotary converter, which brought it to life. I had to futz with the
drive rollers, and play around with wire speed and amps before it
would actually start to run a bead with that frying bacon noise..and
not ratsnest the wire in the wire drive. I noticed I was getting burn
back, and while the beads looked great..I had nearly no penetration.
It worked and sounded wierd. That machine has some sort of pulse
mechanism in the arc, so wrote it off as that. Until it hit me....I
was using straight wire, no fluxcore with 75/25..and so I checked.
Sure as ***..the machine was hooked up electrode negative. (sound of
Gunner slapping his head..hard)

A quick change over..and voila..it runs a great bead, with good flow
of the glassy smooth puddle with a hell of a lot less amps, and I can
see good burn into the parent metals. Still has a wierd sound to the
arc though and is picky about wire speed and amps adjustments, even
with a consistant stickout distance. I was even able to weld a couple
pieces of .060 *** metal together..which surprised the *** out of
me as Im using .035 wire. And for me..thats damned good cause Ive
never claimed to be anything more than a low grade dauber. And no back
plate either. <G>

Anyone have one of these? Any hints on setting it up? The amp dial
goes from 0-35, which has no corresponding marks, but there is are amp
and voltage dials..which are of some use.

Another question...Ive got at least 3 BIG rolls of .045 Dual Shield
and the proper contact tips. Since this stuff is flux core, to be used
with shielding gas..do I leave things electrode positive, or do I swap
it over for normal flux core polarity..electrode negative?

Im also having a small issue with something that I cant quite
understand, and it may be related to having the thing running off a
RPC. Or maybe its just being a newbie without a clue...

At low currents, like the *** metal above..it tends to sputz out a
bit of wire before the arc gets really well established and starts to
melt. About an inch or so, Now Ive never used pulsed mig before, and
as I understand it..this is spray transfer(?) and the wire never is
supposed to be in the puddle? This welds far differently than my old
Dan Mig, even the arc is differnt, not counting the sound with that
hum in the arc. Im used to nearly dragging the wire in the puddle and
this has the melting zone a fair amount above the puddle..which is
strange to me (but then..I wake up in a strange new world every day
<G>) This bit of wire is not melted into the puddle. It may stand
proud sticking out of the bead at the first, or coil up a bit. Its
really disconcerting and it may be the result of too little amps set
at the output via the amp dial ? Do I need to crank up the amps and
live with a hotter arc than I think there should be? Or am I being
fooled by the sound/sight of the pulsed arc and am thinking Im really
cranking out the power where Im actually not?

And lastly....the amp control goes from 0-35. It seems that with the
..035 wire Im using, it gives me a good arc at around 22-25 with a very
fast wire feed. The amp gauge shows around 100-125 amps. and about 25
or so volts. If the welder is 350 amps..shouldnt that be a lot higher
amps? Or is there some relationship between the wire size and what
the arc actually "draws" and if I left the amp setting at the same
place, but ran .45 wire..the arc would "consume" more amps and the amp
gauge would read higher?

What am I looking for when I both first start an arc, and when I run
it, visa vis arc length, sound and so forth? Pulse is totally new to
me and is quite different than short circuit type mig.

Thanks

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the *** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner
.