Adjusting the welding machine

MIG/MAG Welding basics for beginners and less experienced welders.
Adjusting your welding machine with a simple and easy exercise.

Adjusting a welding machine is one of those things many people imagine to be full of secret knowledge and mystery. That’s a misconception. In reality, the basics of machine settings can be learned very quickly—during my courses, the exercise takes about 15 minutes per student, and after that, the concept is understood. This exercise also isn’t dependent on the brand or model of the machine. Kemppi, Esab Whether it’s Kemppi, Esab, or literally any other manufacturer, the same practice applies to all MIG/MAG welding machines—regardless of brand or age.

Situations and conditions vary—and the settings change along with them. You need to learn how to use your machine’s controls and understand how they work. This isn’t very difficult, as long as it’s explained in a simple and clear way.

Take out your welding machine and try the exercises below. I promise your understanding of the settings will grow quickly.

Exercise for adjusting - Voltage
This is a familiar exercise from the course. Take two steel plates and set them at a 90-degree angle. Use plates that are long enough to give you plenty of room for welding—several smaller pieces will also work just fine.

Next, set the voltage and wire feed speed on your machine roughly to the middle of their adjustment range.

Example:

• On the course, the machine’s voltage adjustment range is 10V–26V, and the “rough midrange” used in this exercise is 18,5V.
• The wire feed speed range is 1,0 m/min–13,0 m/min, and the “rough midrange” setting used is 8,5 m/min.
  

Now, let’s begin: turn the voltage down to its minimum setting. Weld a short 10–20mm bead starting from the corner. Then, increase the voltage by 2V (10.0V → 12.0V) and weld another 10–20mm bead right next to the previous one. Repeat this process until you reach the maximum voltage setting. You'll notice clear differences between each adjustment.

If your machine has a different adjustment mechanism, divide the settings into suitable steps. For example, if your machine has a dial numbered 1–8, you would adjust in steps of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. A good step size is one that allows you to go through the entire voltage range in 5–8 increments.

Exercise for adjusting - Wire feed
Now that you've tested how to adjust voltage, you’ll do the exact same exercise for wire feed speed. Set the voltage roughly in the middle of its range, then test the wire feed extremes with large steps—for example, increasing in 1.0–2.0m/min increments.

Weld a short 10–20mm bead starting from the corner. Then, increase the wire feed speed by 2.0m/min (1.0 → 3.0m/min) and weld another 10–20mm bead right next to the previous one. Keep repeating this until you reach the maximum wire feed speed. You’ll notice a difference with each adjustment.

Why do it this way?
By practicing this way, you’ll quickly understand how and where the settings affect the weld—you’ll feel the difference after each adjustment. Later on, you’ll be able to fine-tune much more effectively because you’ll truly understand what each control does, rather than just guessing.

Even experienced welders can benefit from this simple technique when facing a difficult or new situation where the settings don’t seem to be quite right. Instead of fine-tuning by adjusting 0.3V of voltage in one direction or 0.2m/min of wire feed in another, try a more decisive approach:

If you’ve been welding at 16.0V, drop the voltage to 13V and perform a test weld. Then, increase the voltage by 1.0V and weld again. Repeat this in 1.0V increments until you reach 19.0V. You will clearly notice where the correct voltage range was—at that point, you can fine-tune with smaller increments to dial it in perfectly. The exact same method applies to wire feed settings. Bold tests instead of minor tweaks.

Try these adjustment methods next time you weld. You’ll see that setting up a welding machine is much simpler than you might think.

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If you ended up here by accident and haven’t taken the course yet—but welding still interests you—go check out our articles on welding basics. You’ll find plenty of useful tips there.

Articles:
Adjusting the welding machine
Push or pull?
Contact tip to workpiece distance
Welding torch work angle
How quickly can you learn welding?

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