Mig Welding Pulse Spray Settings for a Lincoln PowerMig 350mp

Mig Welding Pulse Settings are pretty confusing...and one of the reasons is that a lot of Mig Welding machines capable of pulse settings, use what is called a synergic control. 

In other words, no matter how you set the controls, the machine circuitry is rapidly making adjustments on the fly..Its not as simple as just setting voltage and wire speed.

I have  been messing around with this  powermig350mp for a while now and am learning quite a bit about it...but I am still not quite where I want to be.

The PowerMig 350mp is a beast. and MP stands for multi process.

It will do TIG lift arc on DC, Mig, Flux Core, and Stick.

There are so many different ways to  weld with this thing with each process and I am learning how to find  mig sweet spot settings several different ways.

I will give you an example.  For pulse spray mig, I am using 90/10 argon/co2 but occasionally short circuit mig will work better for a certain application...like when I am welding a lap joint on a piece that is not as thick as the rest of the project.  There is a 3/16" thick plate that serves as a track for steel trolley wheels to travel on and for that plate, instead of turning the machine way down while set on pulse spray, I just reach over and swap the mode to synergic mig( where you set wire speed and voltage follows automatically).

90/10 is not my first choice for short arc but it works good enough and short circuit mig is cool to have on hand with the flick of a switch and without changing the gas type.  There are mixes of gas that allow for using spray, pulse spray mig, and short circuit.  Those gas mixes tend to be around 17-18% co2 and the rest argon. They are available but some welding supply stores dont offer them and the guy behind the counter will look at you like you have a third eye if you ask.

With the powermig 350mp, you can use the generic gmaw mode where you set voltage and wire speed independently, or you can select synergic gmaw, where wire speed is the main setting and the machine sets voltage for you (but you can adjust voltage if you want to).

There is also a separate mode for gmaw pulse synergic mode where the voltage setting is called "trim".

I found some uses for the trim setting on one of those flare bevel welds.

Setting the trim less than 1.00 lowers voltage and helped to focus the arc deep down in a groove whereas a higher trim setting widened the arc and melted the edges. 

I wont forget that because my first few inches of that weld looked like Fido's Butt.... And the last several inches looked pretty good after I got the trim setting right.

So why pulse mig in the first place?

Why not just crank up the voltage to 23-24 and wire speed to 400 and use short arc?

Several reasons.  But number one is I wanted to learn more about my PowerMig.

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