welder help

well i went outside to start welding my fenders and getting them ready to be welded to the truck and as i started to fit the first piece to the fender my welder welds real crackly....i thought maybe it was a dirty surface but i grinded it again to make sure. i have my bottle regulated at about 17 psi and i had the settings set according to how the book recommends welding with 18 gauge. and still it sputtered and crackled and turns out black...i could rarely get a good run out of it and im not sure what the problem is...its a clean surface. luckily i just had to weld a tab on a fender well tonight that cant be seen so it looks fine on the outside but it still pisses me off. could it be bad wire? not enough sheilding gas maybe? any help would be great. thanks in advance.

It sounds like its not getting any shielding gas. Are you out of gas, is it turned on? Turn your welder on and purge the gas amke sure its getting to the tip. Make sure your tip isn't all cruded up and your contact is in good shape.

Check your gas

THE BOTTLE HAS LIKE 15OO PSI STILL IN IT, ITS REGULATED AT LIKE 17 PSI RIGHT NOW, IM GONNA BUMP IT UP TONIGHT TO 20 AND SEE WHAT HAPPENES. YOU CAN FEEL THE GAS COMING OUT IF YOU PUT YOUR HAND UP TO IT AND PULL THE TRIGGER BUT I WILL CHANGE THE TIP TONIGHT AS WELL. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL FIX THE PROBLEM. THANKS.

Sometimes its a matter of too much pressure. The shielding gas will come out so fast it will siphon oxygenback and ruin it. But thats usually when its way too high.

What kind of gas are you using? Is it pure argon or 75/25 mix?

ITS A 75/25 MIX.

This is a longshot but, pending on what brand welder you use. Is the hose kinked or the wire feed kind of jerky?? Could be the liner simply needs to be replaced. A while back I thought I had the wrong gas but whatever was going on got fixed when I replaced the wire liner in the handle.

THE WELDER IS A LINCOLN 220V WIRE FEED. ITS ONLY A FEW MONTHS OLD PRACTICALLY BRAND NEW AND THE ONLY THING IVE USED THIS WELDER FOR PRIOR TO THIS WAS TO WELD UP A SEAT BRACKET I BUILT FOR OUR TRACTOR. WHEN I DID THAT I HAD USED FLUX CORD WIRE. BUT I RAN OUT OF IT AND DECIDED TO USE THE GAS BECAUSE IT GIVE A CLEANER WELD THAN FLUX CORD...I CHANGED ALL THE ELECTRICAL WIRING IN THE WELDER TO ACCOMODATE THE DIFFERENT STYLE OF WELDING WIRE. BUT ITS BRAND NEW SO I DONT THINK THAT THE LINER WOULD BE THE PROBLEM. BUT THEN AGAIN ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

can you hear the gas come out, on my lincoln u can clear hear the burst of gas coming out the tip. this may have been over looked but did u forget to change the gas ditribution tip?<i think it is called something like that... not the small contact tip but the thing with the big I.D.

yeah you can hear the gas coming out, you can feel it on your hand when you put it up to the nozzle. my dad said when he hooked the bottle up to it he put a new tip on it. ill look at it when i go out there tonight and change the tip again to make sure...ill take some pictures of the weld it gives off and of the nozzle tonight if the problem persists after i try replacing the tip and bump the argon gas up to 20 psi.

either i suck bad at welding with this welder i have, or flux core just puts out some shit ass welds that are all bubble looking shit
wtf