I start with rec'd settings and get tons of spatter and black soot.
.030" solid wire, C25 welding .125" wall and clean material.
Push welding.
What are the settings your running with great results?

Is the wire perhaps contaminated (water, dirt, bacon, whatever)? Have you tried a seperate spool of the same wire?

I never use 30, but with 35 I run the 175 on heat setting D and about 13psi on the gas. I then play with the wire speed to get it right for me (around 5-6). This is for most stuff. If I need to I crank it up to E and keep burning. For sheetmetal I go down to A or B and wirespeed it to around 3.5.

Is the wire perhaps contaminated (water, dirt, bacon, whatever)? Have you tried a seperate spool of the same wire?

I'll check that out. The 10# spool was new Lincoln wire when I bought the 175+ about two years ago.

I never use 30, but with 35 I run the 175 on heat setting D and about 13psi on the gas. I then play with the wire speed to get it right for me (around 5-6). This is for most stuff. If I need to I crank it up to E and keep burning. For sheetmetal I go down to A or B and wirespeed it to around 3.5.

I use .035 for sheet but that's a technic thing I do.
My psi is set at 28 right now, I should turn it down. I know too much argon will cause spatter.


My original post here was quick because I got called away.
The machine has little hours on it for the last two years I've owned it. I'm using a flow meter, the tip is new.
I'm getting great penetration, at the factory settings for my app I'm getting too much wire and still alot of spatter. I turned the wire down now I'm getting a good bead size, just still alot of spatter and black soot around the bead.

I set my psi by starting low. Then I slowly turned it up until the weld looked right. The lincoln book says to have it up around the 20's, but it all looked bad so I started at around 8 and worked my way up. now I use less gas, and the welds look better. Did you swap your polarity when setting the machine up for gas? How clean is the metal you are welding on?

The gas is measured in cfm... I think I run mine at around 15-20 cfm, any more than that is probably too much and may be causing problems with arc blow. Most welding shops have a cool little plexiglass device with a rubber snout on it that you can attach to the end of the gun to get the gas dialed perfectly. You cant assume that dialing in 20cfm on the regulator means you are getting 20cfm at the gun tip.

Edit: just saw you mentioned a flow meter.... thats the term I was looking for.