Maybe you should continue practicing with Mig applications, testing different settings and finding that sweet frying bacon sound.
Also try shortening your wire stick out to 1" or 3/4". 🙂

actually I'm using 1/2 inch or a bit less sa stick out... sa picture lang na yan mahaba hehe. so far so good naman ung build ng steel storage rack ko. I kinda like this machine... its big so the feel is more industrial than hobbyist.

Yes your HiTronic 250F Mig machine is an industrial grade welder, it can weld 3/8" to 1/2" in one pass. Its big brother the
RILON 250F Mig machine is also the same, only of yellow color and more popular plus a bit more expensive by a few
thousand pesos.

Anyway I bet you are really enjoying playing with and getting good results from your new Mig welder. :2thumbsup:

Cheers and enjoy your Mig ! :whistle:

Yes I'm enjoying it a lot. Its a big improvement over the stick welding... less smoke, less heat, faster welding, and steady arc. The only cons of this setup is that it is too expensive and there are a lot of parts to consider . But if I will start over again, I will still start with stick welding not mig.

.....having quality equipment, and using it at a DIY level, will make the costs stay way down....!!
I started out on stick welding, and it remains my "go-to" favorite.

Learning "stick welding" will greatly help solve welding problems with other welding processes!!
For the thinner stuff, I use a 3/32" (2.4mm), and I really like having a DC machine - E6010, and E7018 on DC+.
That's just me...that's what I started out on many years ago (O.K. - the late 1960's!!!)!!
(Oh, and BTW, my first computer experiences were with DOS - Windows wasn't invented yet)!!

TIG is my next favorite.....it's slower than MIG....but, a lot more flexible.
The liner in a MIG makes them less flexible than TIG, and a "stinger" for welding rods.
But, that's just me....I like to be comfortable when in a welding position....make better welds that way!!

MIG does have its place....if welds are mostly continuous, and easy to maneuver around.
Once you learn to weld in all positions....MIG will allow 1 start, and 1 stop - better looking/quality welds.
You just have to be able to position yourself to be comfortable, and be able to navigate around the needed weld.
Welding won't have to be accomplished in the flat position only!!

You have good equipment....you will get to know the capabilities and enjoy!!

I started also on MIG which I am pretty happy, but I'm curious how other welding processes works like Stick and Tig so I bought a machine to try it out, its dissapointing special for TIG I did a lot otry and until now pangit pa rin welds ko, ang hirap pala. hehe I need a lot of practice pa and research sa settings and skills building pa more. I wish I started on stick so when I switched to MIG feel na feel ko differences. But as always different process have their own applications ika nga, as a DIYers and doing indoor and fab stuff MIG is almost the best choice.

Yes agree maneuverability I think is the biggest disadvantage of MIG, the cart carrying the welder and the gas tank is around 150+ kgs and that's really heavy. And the mig gun and cable is just about 2.5 meters compared to stick welder where you can easily extend the lead cables you can reach anywhere just carrying the electrode holder