Help with mig welding a trailer

by Stan
(Indiana)

I have an old trailer I made it a long time ago with a friend we started with and old trailer frame add box tubing and we used his lincoln stick welder(buzz box)to build it. Its painted and rusty know. I purchased a Lincoln 180c mig welder to train on the trailer it works fine I think... I cleaned the area's that I wish to weld, I think I have a good ground cleaned an area but the frame is rusty. I'm not sure of the settings the metal is thin (body panel) thin on the trailer and a quess 1/32 gauge box tubing so I set the machine power to C its in letters... wire speed to 2-3.I'm using gas 75%argon 25%Co2. gas set at 35, my wire is .25 it came with the machine.
I seem to have a problem. I can't get a straight weld it puddles. I'm all over the place! I'm not sure of the settings the inside cover there are basic settings.
I'm brand new at this! I do not have any training I'm just learning reading trying and asking questions. I also set up a test piece of steel 1/8 thick to practice on.. I'm like a drunken sailor my welds a crooked, I can't seem to keep the sweet spot, I find it lose it etc. my welds look like drops with small line connections.I think its my settings,I don't know. any suggestions. Stan

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It sounds like you need to slow down quite a bit.

using the settings recommended by lincoln, just leave the settings alone for a while until you can get a pretty uniform bead on a test piece or scrap.

once you get a uniform bead, you can tweak the settings to improve it further.

also, its tough using a mig to weld over stick welds...nothing you do is going to make that a lot better. you might be better off using a stick welder if that is what you feel comfortable with....A stick welder wont be all that sensitive to slag, paint and rust.

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