Welding Settings Chart: The Complete Guide for MIG, TIG & Stick

A beginner strikes an arc on 1/8-inch steel, the electrode sticks, the machine sputters, and the bead looks like popcorn — and the culprit is almost never skill, it’s the settings dial nobody explained. The good news: every welder’s manual, door panel, and shop wall has a welding settings chart that takes the guesswork out, and once you understand how to read it, half your welding problems disappear before you even strike the next arc.

What Is a Welding Settings Chart and Why Does It Matter?

A welding settings chart is simply a reference table that matches your base metal and its thickness to the machine parameters needed to weld it well. You will find one taped to the inside door of your welder, printed in the back of the manual, or taped to the shop wall as a poster. Whichever form it takes, the columns are the same family of information: material type and thickness, wire or electrode diameter, shielding gas, polarity, voltage, and either wire feed speed (MIG) or amperage (stick and TIG). Read the row for your material, set the dials, and strike the arc with confidence instead of guessing.

The Physics Behind the Numbers

It helps to know what each column is actually doing. Heat input is roughly a function of amperage (or wire feed speed, which sets amperage on a MIG) multiplied by voltage and divided by travel speed. That number controls how much metal melts and how deep it goes. Voltage is a different knob: it controls arc width, fluidity, and how the transfer mode behaves. Too little voltage relative to your wire speed and you get a stuttering short-circuit arc with heavy spatter; too much and the arc goes sloppy and wide, undercutting the toes.

So the chart is really balancing two questions. How hot? (Amperage and travel speed decide penetration and whether you burn through or leave cold lap.) And how does the arc act? (Voltage and transfer mode decide spatter, bead shape, and freeze characteristics.) Once you see those two levers, a bad bead stops being a mystery and starts being a diagnosis.

Why Charts Matter So Much

The practical benefits are bigger than they look:

– Repeatable starting points. You dial in once on a test coupon and get the same result next Tuesday.
– Less wasted metal. Guesswork burns through plate and eats filler rod before you find the window.
– Fewer classic defects. Burn-through, cold lap, porosity, and popcorn transfer all trace back to a parameter that was off.
– Safety. Settings have to fit inside accepted work practices; OSHA 1910.254 covers arc welding and cutting equipment and practices in general industry (OSHA standard 1910.254).
– Muscle memory. After a few hundred coupons, you stop reading the chart and simply set it right the first time.

Three Different Things Called a “Chart”

People use the same phrase for three quite different documents, and confusing them causes trouble:

Type	What it is	How far you can trust it
Door chart	Machine-specific table printed by the manufacturer	Approximate, built around the maker’s assumed wire, gas, and lead length
WPS / PQR	Qualified welding procedure specification backed by a procedure qualification record	Contractual and exact; in code work you must stay inside its ranges
Rule of thumb	Quick mental math, e.g. about 1 amp per 0.001 inch (1 thou) of mild steel thickness for a flat fillet	Handy in the field, but ignores position, joint geometry, and heat sinking

A door chart for a machine like the Forney 210 might show the wire feed dial running from roughly 80 inches per minute at setting zero up to about 700 IPM at setting ten (Forney settings chart). That span is real, but which slice of it you use depends entirely on your wire diameter and gas.

Polarity: The Setting That Isn’t Always a Dial

Polarity decides where the heat sits. With DCEP (electrode positive), roughly two thirds of the heat goes into the work, giving deeper penetration; solid MIG wire and most stick electrodes such as E6010 and E7018 run this way. With DCEN (electrode negative), more heat sits in the electrode, which is why TIG on steel and self-shielded flux-cored wire prefer it. AC alternates direction and is the standard for aluminum, where the cleaning action breaks up the oxide layer that otherwise blocks a clean arc. Getting polarity backwards is one of the fastest ways to make a correct-looking chart setting produce a terrible weld — and electrode selection is where that shows up most, as our alloy steel welding electrodes guide illustrates.

When You Should Deviate From the Chart

Charts assume a flat, clean, open joint. Move away from that assumption and adjust deliberately: drop amperage roughly 10 to 15 percent for vertical-up and 10 to 20 percent for overhead; open up heat on heavy fixtures that pull warmth away from the joint; slow down and add heat when there is an unexpected gap; back off when welding thin sheet where burn-through is the real risk. Positional work is its own discipline, which is why all position welding rod selection matters as much as the dial setting. The chart gets you to the neighborhood; the joint tells you which house to walk into.

How to Read a MIG Welding Settings Chart

A MIG chart looks like a spreadsheet somebody spilled coffee on, but once you know what each column is asking, it reads like a recipe. The chart does one job: telling you where to set the two knobs that actually matter. As ESAB’s machine-settings guide puts it, voltage and wire feed speed are the two primary MIG controls a welder manipulates. Everything else on the chart — wire size, gas, polarity — is the setup that decides which row of numbers you should be looking at in the first place.

The Columns, Decoded

Work across the row, not down the page. A typical GMAW chart gives you:

• Base metal and thickness. Mild steel, stainless, and aluminum each get their own block, and thickness picks the row. Charts usually read in gauge for sheet and fractions for plate.
• Wire diameter. The common triad is 0.023 in for thin sheet, 0.030 in as the all-around shop size, and 0.035 in (sometimes sold as 0.036) for thicker material. Thinner wire needs less current to melt, so it lets you dial down on delicate work without the wire stubbing into the plate.
• Shielding gas. 75% argon / 25% CO₂ (the “C25” blend) is the default for short-circuit steel. 100% CO₂ buys deeper penetration at lower cost but throws more spatter. Tri-mix blends show up for stainless and high-speed steel work.
• Polarity. Solid MIG wire on steel is almost always run DCEP (electrode positive). Flip it and you’ll get poor arc stability and burned-through contact tips.
• Voltage. Sets arc width, fluidity, and how flat the bead ties in at the toes.
• Wire feed speed (IPM). Inches of wire pushed per minute — which means, as you’ll see below, it really sets your amperage.

You can see a worked example of this layout in a published MIG amperage chart, and most machine makers publish their own version — Forney’s printable settings chart is a handy reference to keep on the wall.

Wire Feed Speed Is Really an Amperage Dial

This is the single most useful idea in MIG welding: amperage is not an independent setting. The power source puts out a chosen voltage, and the arc current is governed by how fast you feed wire into it — the wire is the resistor. For a given wire diameter, pushing more inches per minute drives more amps; push less and the amps drop. That’s why charts list IPM instead of amps, and why converting between the two is so common. As a rough working range, 0.030-inch wire running around 250 IPM lands in the neighborhood of 130–150 amps, while 0.035-inch wire at 300 IPM is closer to 180–190 amps.

The practical takeaway: if your bead is too cold, the fix is usually more wire, not more voltage. If it’s too hot and washing through, back the IPM off first.

Voltage Picks the Transfer Mode

Transfer mode is how metal crosses the arc, and voltage is the switch:

• Short-circuit transfer (~18–22 V). The wire touches the work, shorts, and melts off many times a second. Low heat input, tight arc, ideal for thin sheet, gaps, and out-of-position work. This is the buzzing, bacon-frying sound most beginners hear.
• Globular transfer (roughly 22–24 V). Balls of wire cross the gap. Cheap on gas but messy, so it’s the range people accidentally drift into and call “spattery.”
• Spray transfer (24 V and up, high IPM). A stream of fine droplets sprays across a soft, cone-shaped arc. Deep penetration, smooth bead, no spatter — but it needs argon-rich gas and enough thickness to take the heat, so it’s a plate process.

A Starting-Point Chart for Mild Steel with 75/25 Gas

Thickness	Wire	Voltage	Wire feed (IPM)	Mode
22 gauge	0.023 in	16–18 V	160–180	Short circuit
16 gauge	0.030 in	18–19 V	220–260	Short circuit
1/8 in	0.030 in	19–21 V	280–330	Short circuit
3/16 in	0.030–0.035 in	21–22 V	330–380	Short to globular
1/4 in	0.035 in	22–24 V	380–450	Short to spray

Aluminum and Flux-Cored Charts Read Differently

Swap the material and the row you’re standing on changes. Aluminum MIG wants 100% argon (never CO₂, which oxidizes the wire), 0.035–0.040-inch 4043 or 5356 wire, and roughly 15–25% more wire feed than steel at the same thickness because aluminum conducts heat away so fast. Surface prep matters just as much as the numbers, so how you prep aluminum before welding can be the difference between a clean bead and a porous mess. If you’re still building confidence with the process, Aluminum MIG Welding: The Complete Practical Guide walks through the whole setup, and aluminum flux core welding covers the options when shielding gas isn’t practical.

Flux-cored wire flips the polarity: self-shielded FCAW (FCAW-S) runs DCEN (electrode negative) with no external gas, and the chart will show noticeably higher voltage for a given thickness than solid wire, plus a wider gap between settings for flat and vertical positions. Gas-shielded flux core stays on DCEP but still runs hotter than MIG.

Note: Many modern machines add an inductance or “arc force/spool” trim alongside voltage and IPM. Inductance doesn’t change your heat much — it changes how quickly current rises each time the wire shorts. Turn it up for a softer, quieter, wetter bead on thin material; turn it down for a crisper, punchier arc when you need penetration. On some machines this is a single “voltage trim” knob, and what you’re adjusting is the feel of the transfer rather than a number on the chart.

Once your numbers are close, the fine adjustments come from travel speed, gun angle, and stickout rather than the dial — which is exactly the skill the next sections of this guide build on.

Stick Welding (SMAW) Settings: Amperage, Electrodes, and Polarity

Stick is the process where a settings chart earns its keep fastest. With MIG you can fudge a bad setup with a trigger squeeze; with shielded metal arc welding, the rod tells you immediately whether you got it right. Too hot and the puddle runs wild until you burn a hole; too cold and the electrode sticks to the work, the flux chars, and the bead sits on top of the plate instead of biting in. A stick settings chart fixes most of that before you scratch an arc, and the fundamentals carry over, which is one reason SMAW still shows up beside robots on job sites — see our take on the advantages of stick welding for why.

Decoding the Electrode Number: What E7018 and E6013 Actually Mean

Every stick chart on earth is organized by electrode classification, so read the AWS designator first. In E7018, the E simply means electrode. The 70 indicates a minimum tensile strength of 70,000 psi in the deposited weld metal. The third digit, 1, tells you the usable welding positions — a 1 means all-position capability (flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead), while a 2 limits the rod to flat and horizontal fillet work. The final two digits describe the coating and recommended current: 18 is a low-hydrogen iron powder coating that runs on DC or AC.

The same grammar applies across the common mild steel rods:

• E6010 — 60,000 psi, all positions, cellulose coating, DC only (almost always DCEP). Deep, forceful penetration; the go-to root pass rod and the one that handles dirty or rusty plate best.
• E6011 — the AC-compatible sibling of 6010, for machines without DC.
• E6013 — titania coating, softer arc, easy starts, forgiving on thin and dirty metal. A teaching and repair favorite.
• E7014 — iron powder coating, fast travel speeds, all positions, smoother and quicker than 6013 on clean steel.
• E7018 — low hydrogen, high toughness, structural work. The rod behind most code welds.

The numbering logic extends well beyond mild steel, as our guide to alloy steel welding electrodes covers in more depth.

Diameter vs. Amperage: The Numbers That Matter

Amperage is the primary dial on a stick chart, driven almost entirely by rod diameter and material thickness. Published ranges for common mild steel electrodes, drawn from manufacturer and distributor charts such as Baker’s Gas electrode amperage chart and Hobart Brothers technical guidance on 7018 amperage, look like this:

Electrode	Diameter	Typical Amperage (flat)	Common Use
E7018	3/32 in	60–90 A	Thin plate, root passes, positional work
E7018	1/8 in	100–130 A	The all-around shop rod for 1/8 to 3/16 in
E7018	5/32 in	160–200 A	Heavy plate, multi-pass, thick structural
E6013	3/32 in	40–90 A	Thin sheet, repairs, beginners
E6010	1/8 in	75–125 A	Root passes, pipe, dirty or painted plate

These are starting windows, not commandments. Within each range, the right setting gives you roughly a 1/8-inch arc length, a fluid puddle that wets into both sides of the joint, and a bead that solidifies with a slightly convex profile. Hobart’s team also notes that E7018 electrodes deliver reliable starts and restarts, which helps eliminate porosity at the stop-and-start points where welds most often fail — so if pinholes appear only at rod changes, suspect restart technique and rod condition as much as amperage.

Polarity: DCEP, DCEN, and AC

Amperage gets the headlines, but polarity decides how the arc behaves. On DC electrode positive (DCEP), roughly two-thirds of the heat sits at the electrode, giving deeper penetration and a stable arc — this is why E6010 is a DCEP rod and why most shops run 7018 on DCEP as well. On DC electrode negative (DCEN), more heat goes into the work, which suits some surfacing and brass brazing setups but is not where you want a structural 7018. AC flips polarity sixty times a second and works for AC-rated rods like 6011 and 7018, though the arc is slightly less stable than straight DC. Get polarity wrong and no amount of amperage tuning will rescue the bead.

The 1 Amp per Thou Rule (and When to Break It)

The stick welder’s shortcut: use about 1 amp per 0.001 inch (one thou) of material thickness in flat position. A 1/8-inch plate (125 thou) lands you near 125 amps with a 1/8-inch 7018, which sits neatly inside the published range. Rod diameter usually follows thickness too — 3/32 for material under about 1/8 inch, 1/8 for 1/8 to 3/16, 5/32 above that.

Then adjust for reality:

• Vertical up: reduce 10–15% from flat amperage, because gravity pulls the puddle down and heat builds in the joint as you climb.
• Overhead: reduce 10–20%, shorten arc length, and keep a tighter bead so the puddle does not sag.
• Root passes with a gap: drop amps slightly and slow down; the open root conducts heat away faster than a closed butt joint.
• Thin sheet: go smaller diameter and lower amperage before you go faster — travel speed alone rarely saves a hole.

Our all position welding rod guide breaks down technique by position if you want to pair the settings with hand movement.

Low-Hydrogen Rod Storage: The 7018 Oven Rule

Here is the failure mode that never shows up on a settings chart but ruins welds anyway. The flux on a 7018 is engineered to keep hydrogen out of the puddle, because hydrogen in a strong, restrained weld is the recipe for delayed cracking. That flux is hygroscopic: it pulls moisture from humid shop air, and open-rod life in a warm shop can be as short as a few hours to a couple of days. Re-baked rods recover; rods that absorbed moisture and never saw an oven do not reliably.

When a bead comes out wrong, read it like a symptom chart. Excessive spatter, a loud crackling arc, and a flat, wide bead mean too many amps; a bead sitting proud with cold, rolled edges means too few. Sticking at the start means too cold, a long arc, or a stale electrode. Aim the arc at the leading edge of the puddle, hold an arc length roughly equal to the rod core diameter, and remember that the chart gets you to the right neighborhood — your eyes on the puddle finish the job.

TIG Welding (GTAW) Settings: Amperage per Thickness and Pulsing

If MIG settings forgive a lot of sins, TIG does not. With a tungsten that only has to glow, not melt, and a foot pedal acting as a live throttle, almost every problem you see in the puddle traces back to a number: too many amps for the thickness, too few amps for the travel speed, or a gas setting that never protected the weld in the first place. That is exactly what a welding settings chart for GTAW is for — it converts thickness into a starting amperage, and amperage into a dial position you can actually remember.

How a GTAW Chart Is Built

A TIG chart is simpler than a MIG chart because there is no wire feed speed column. Instead you are matching four things: base metal type and thickness, tungsten diameter, filler rod diameter, and amperage. Filler rod is usually chosen close to the joint edge thickness, and tungsten is sized to carry the current comfortably — a 1/16 in electrode is a fine all-rounder for light sheet, while 3/32 in is the shop default for anything from roughly 1/8 in plate upward.

Amperage comes from two widely used rules of thumb:

• Mild steel butt welds, flat position: roughly 1 amp per 0.001 in of thickness. An 0.080 in coupon wants about 80 amps before you touch the pedal.
• Aluminum: commonly cited at about 1 to 1.2 amps per thousandth. WeldingTipsAndTricks guidance suggests about 1.2 amps per thousandth up to roughly 0.125 in as a starting point, and many fabricators also use the quick metric of 35 amps per 1 mm of aluminum thickness.

These are starting points, not laws. Position, joint type, and heat sinking all push the number around, which is why the chart is where you begin rather than where you stop.

Material	Thickness	Starting Amperage	Typical Tungsten
Mild steel	16 gauge (~0.060 in)	40–60 A	1/16 in
Mild steel	1/8 in	80–130 A	3/32 in
Mild steel	1/4 in	200–250 A (multi-pass or high-heat start)	3/32 or 1/8 in
Aluminum	1/8 in	110–150 A	3/32 in, flat ground

Cross-check any chart against a published table such as this TIG welding amperage chart, then verify on your own machine.

AC vs DC: Why Aluminum Changes Everything

Steel and stainless run on DCEN (electrode negative), which puts about two-thirds of the heat into the work and keeps the tungsten cool. Aluminum and magnesium need AC, because alternating current delivers the cleaning action that breaks up the oxide layer. The numbers explain why: aluminum melts at roughly 1,220°F, while its oxide does not soften until around 3,200°F. A puddle cannot form until that oxide is removed, and AC does it every half cycle. Proper cleaning matters so much that a dedicated prep step — deoxidizing cleaner, fresh stainless brush — pays off before the arc ever starts; see Aluminum Cleaner for Welding: How to Prep Aluminum Right. On modern inverter machines, AC balance lets you trade cleaning width for penetration, and higher AC frequency tightens and stiffens the arc.

Gas Flow, Cup Size, and Tungsten Prep

Typical argon flow is 15–20 cubic feet per hour at the nozzle, trimmed up slightly in a drafty bay and down if you hear the gas hissing hard enough to pull air in. Bigger cups and gas lens setups straighten the column and let you run cleaner coverage at lower flow. Postflow matters too: keep argon over the hot crater and the cooling tungsten, or you will get a grey, oxidized tip and a contaminated start on the next arc.

Grind tungsten with longitudinal (not rotary) marks, with the included point generally between 60° and 90° for DC work. For AC, use a flat or lightly banded tip so the arc does not wander around a sharp point.

The Foot Pedal, Downslope, and Pulse

The pedal is the real TIG “setting.” You strike the arc hotter than welding amperage to get started quickly, ease down to the chart value as the puddle develops, then back off at the end. Downslope ramps the current down automatically to prevent crater cracks, and postflow holds gas over the cooling weld. Pulse mode alternates between a peak current that melts and a background current that lets the puddle solidify slightly — brilliant for thin material, root passes, and out-of-position work where a continuous arc would simply fall through.

That combination — a thickness-based starting number, AC for aluminum, clean gas coverage, and a pedal you actually use — is what turns a GTAW settings chart from a wall poster into a repeatable workflow. Dial in the number, run one coupon, adjust a single variable, and write down what worked.

Shielding Gas, Wire, and Electrode Selection Tables

Amps and voltage get the attention, but shielding gas, wire diameter, and electrode choice decide whether those settings work. Two machines running 0.030 wire at identical dial settings can bead completely differently if one runs C25 and the other 100% CO2. Consumables are the second half of the chart: they tell you which numbers apply in the first place.

Shielding Gas Selection Chart

Shielding gas keeps oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen out of the molten puddle. What you mix into it changes arc stability, penetration, spatter, and travel speed.

Gas Mix	Best For	Trade-Offs
75% Ar / 25% CO2 (C25)	Mild steel sheet, tube, short-arc MIG	Low spatter and easy starts; slightly less penetration than pure CO2
100% CO2	Thicker mild steel, 16 gauge and heavier	Deeper penetration and cheapest gas per cubic foot, but more spatter
100% Argon	All aluminum MIG, all TIG	Required for aluminum; too penetrating for short-arc steel
90He / 7.5Ar / 2.5CO2	Stainless short-arc MIG, positional	Best puddle control; expensive, heavy cylinders
98% Ar / 2% CO2	Stainless spray transfer, heavier sections	Fast deposition; carbon pickup risk on thin root passes
Ar/He blends (75/25 or 50/50)	Aluminum over 1/2 inch, TIG	Helium adds heat and penetration; costs several times more than argon

C25 is the default for hobby and light-fabrication mild steel because it makes short-circuit transfer forgiving. Pure CO2 penetrates deeper and costs less, so shops use it on 16 gauge and heavier parts where extra cleanup is acceptable. Switch when the material is thick enough to absorb the heat and appearance is not critical.

Wire Diameter vs Material Thickness

Wire diameter limits how much heat you can push into a joint without melting the wire back faster than the arc establishes. Thinner wire runs at low amperage; thicker wire needs more current to melt consistently.

Wire Diameter	Practical Thickness Range (Mild Steel)	Typical Transfer Mode
0.023 in	22 to 20 gauge sheet	Short circuit only
0.030 in	18 gauge to 3/16 in	Short circuit, light globular
0.035 in	16 gauge to 3/8 in	Short circuit through spray
0.045 in	1/4 in and heavier plate	Globular and spray

Manufacturer charts published by Forney and SimpleWeld’s MIG amperage reference match these ranges closely. Diameter and current travel together: about 1 amp per 0.001 inch of wire at short circuit, which is why 0.023 wire at 160 amps and 0.045 wire at 450 amps are both reasonable setups.

Filler Metal Matching

For mild steel, ER70S-6 is the workhorse: the “S-6” adds extra deoxidizers, so it tolerates mill scale, light rust, and imperfect cleaning. ER70S-2 is the cleaner counterpart, preferred when the joint is ground bright and appearance matters.

Aluminum filler splits into two families that beginners confuse constantly:

• ER4043: silicon-bearing, flows beautifully, resists cracking, and stays fluid on thin sheet. The friendlier choice for automotive and general fabrication.
• ER5356: stronger, with better saltwater corrosion resistance, so it suits structural marine work such as boat hull joints. It cracks more readily in thick 6061 unless you control heat, and it anodizes gray rather than clear.

For a full walkthrough of aluminum wire, gas, and machine setup, see our aluminum MIG welding guide. On cast or previously machined surfaces, prep matters as much as filler: proper aluminum cleaning prevents the oxide and oil contamination no filler can overcome.

Stainless needs its own filler family: match 304 sheet with ER308L, 316 with ER316L, and keep heat input low to preserve corrosion resistance.

Stick Electrode Selection by Position and Material

Stick charts organize around electrode classification and joint position. Quick decode: E7018 means electrode, 70,000 psi tensile strength, all positions, low-hydrogen iron powder coating. E6013 is sheet-friendly and runs on AC; E6010 burns deep for root passes on pipe and open-root joints.

• Flat and horizontal fillet work: 7014 for speed, 7018 for toughness.
• Vertical and overhead: 7018 and 6013, both all-position capable. Our all-position welding rod guide covers the nuances.
• Root passes and dirty or galvanized material: 6010 or 6011 for penetration.
• Alloy and structural steel: step up to a matched classification rather than guessing. See alloy steel welding electrodes for selection basics.

Porosity: When Gas Coverage Fails

Porosity is almost always a gas story, not a metal story. Typical causes and the settings fix:

• Flow rate too high: past roughly 35 to 40 CFH the stream turns turbulent and sucks in surrounding air. Run 20 to 25 CFH on MIG, 30 to 40 CFH on pure CO2, and 15 to 20 CFH on TIG argon.
• Flow rate too low: below about 15 CFH leaves gaps in coverage, especially out of position.
• Drafts and fans: air movement across the work strips shielding gas as effectively as a leaky hose.
• Contaminated base metal: oil, paint, rust, and mill scale release gas as they decompose. Our Airgas welding supplies guide covers cylinder buying.
• Wrong bottle: an argon mix on steel sheet welds hot and erratic. Label your regulators.

Flux-cored wire has its own signature: worm tracks usually mean moisture, self-shielded wire run with gas on, or gas-shielded wire run without it. Check the spool label before troubleshooting anything else.

Before you touch a voltage knob, confirm the gas mix, wire or electrode classification, and diameter the chart assumes. Then dial amperage for that combination, run one test coupon, and trim only after that. Get consumables right and half the settings puzzle is solved before you strike an arc.

Metal Thickness, Joint Design, and Position: Adjusting the Chart

Every welding settings chart is written for an idealized joint: flat position, clean square-butt plate, open frame, and no clamps. In reality, those conditions are rare. The same 16-gauge sheet can call for different settings depending on whether it’s loose or tacked into a chassis, and a 1/4-inch plate can behave differently as a square butt compared to a beveled joint. The chart is a starting point, not a final answer.

Joint Geometry

Not all joints move heat the same way. A butt joint spreads heat evenly between two faces, so chart settings will usually stay close to the recommended range. A lap joint, on the other hand, has one plate shielding the other from direct exposure. On thin sheet, this allows for slightly lower heat and a faster travel speed with a slight push angle into the overlap.

A T-joint acts as a heat sink, pulling heat away from the fillet. Larger legs will often require the upper end of the range and may need multiple passes. For a corner joint, there is almost nowhere for heat to go, making burn through a real threat. Drop to the low end of the range and rely on travel speed to control it. Similarly, an edge joint fuses two thin, stacked edges that melt away very quickly, so a lighter touch is needed.

Heat Sinks and Fixturing

Clamping is often the biggest unaccounted variable. Steel welding tables, copper backing bars, and thick fixtures all pull heat away from the puddle at a much faster rate than an open coupon. This can lead to cold lap and a lack of fusion, even if your machine matches the chart exactly. To compensate, you may need to increase amperage or wire feed speed, slow your travel speed, or remove the work from the fixture when possible.

Aluminum is especially aggressive in this regard due to its high thermal conductivity. For more in-depth considerations, our Aluminum MIG Welding: The Complete Practical Guide goes over the increased feed speeds and preheat factors for the process, while Aluminum Boat Welding details how hull fixturing creates its own unique heat sink effects.

Positional Welding

Once you leave the flat position, gravity becomes your opponent. A puddle that holds in 1F or 1G will want to drip in vertical or overhead positions, so heat must be backed off to maintain control. As noted by ESAB in their guide on fine-tuning MIG machine settings, position is an integral part of the welding system, not an afterthought.

Position	Amperage vs. Flat	What to Expect
Flat (1F, 1G)	Chart value	Puddle sits and wets out normally
Horizontal	Flat value or slight reduction	Watch for buildup on the top edge
Vertical up	Reduce roughly 10–15%	Puddle must be kept tight to prevent sagging
Overhead	Reduce roughly 10–20%	Small, fast puddle to prevent dripping

Not all consumables can handle these changes. Some rods are specifically formulated for all-position work, and our All Position Welding Rod Guide: Types, Uses & Tips breaks down which classifications to reach for when leaving flat. For TIG, positional demands can differ even further, as shown in this 11-gauge aluminum T-joint in 2F example, where the fillet position requires more amperage than a flat butt of the same thickness.

Bevels, Root Openings, and Multi-Pass Work

Preparation can override thickness entirely. A square-butt 1/4-inch plate has very little to fill, but the same plate with a 30-degree bevel and a root opening creates a groove that needs to be fused at its bottom without melting the sidewalls. For this reason, the root pass should run on the low end of the recommended range, with hot passes and cover passes stepping up as the groove fills and the joint preheats itself.

A common example is a 1/4-inch plate joint with a 6010 root and a 7018 cap. The deep-penetrating 6010 is run lean and fast for the root, while the 7018 is used for the fill and cap to tie into the sidewalls and build a smooth profile. On multi-pass welds, be sure to keep your interpass temperature in check, especially for alloy and stainless steels. For more information on those consumables, see our Alloy Steel Welding Electrodes: Selection, Use & Safety.

Travel Speed as the Final Trim

When geometry, fixturing, or position shift, resist jumping straight to large machine changes. Travel speed, gun angle, and stick-out are often enough for fine tuning. A slightly faster hand can shed just as much heat as dropping several amps. Only adjust the machine after trying manual trims, and change one variable at a time to know exactly what’s correcting the bead.

Common Settings Mistakes and How to Troubleshoot Bad Beads

Almost every ugly weld is a message. The bead tells you what the machine was doing, what the metal was doing, and what your hand was doing, and once you learn to read that message you stop guessing. The trick is to work backward from the symptom to the setting, change one thing, and run a coupon. Below is the diagnostic map we use in the shop.

Defect-to-Setting Quick Reference

What you see	Most likely cause	First correction
Cold lap / lack of fusion (bead sits on top, no bite)	Travel speed too fast, amps or wire feed too low	Slow down first, then add 5–10% heat
Burn-through / blowout	Too much heat, travel too slow, open gap	Reduce settings, speed up, close the gap
Porosity (pinholes)	Surface contamination or gas coverage problem	Clean the metal, then check flow rate
Excessive spatter	Voltage too low for the wire feed speed in short arc, wrong polarity	Raise voltage slightly or lower wire speed
Sticking stick electrode	Amps too low for that rod diameter	Turn amps up in 10 A steps
Popcorn / irregular transfer (MIG)	Mismatch between voltage and wire feed, or a feeding problem	Check liner/contact tip first, then trim settings
Worm tracks (FCAW)	Moisture, dew point, or wrong shielding gas	Dry the wire and the joint, verify gas
Tungsten contamination (TIG)	Touching the puddle, wrong gas coverage, scratch start	Regrind tungsten, check cup and flow

Cold lap is the one beginners argue about most. If the bead rolls over the base metal instead of wetting in, the travel speed is almost always too fast for the heat you are putting in, or the heat is simply too low for the joint. Pushing more amperage on top of a fast hand rarely fixes it; slow the travel, let the puddle wash into both sides, and only then nudge the settings up. Our Aluminum MIG Welding: The Complete Practical Guide walks through the same wetting logic on aluminum, where the window is narrower still.

Porosity: Look at the Surface Before the Dial

Chronic porosity on steel is usually a cleaning problem, not a machine problem. Oil, mill scale, paint, rust, and moisture release gas as they heat up and the shielding envelope can’t compensate. Grind the joint bright, wipe it down, and retest before you touch a knob. On aluminum it is even more aggressive: the oxide film and any residual cleaner will punish you, which is why proper prep matters so much in Aluminum Cleaner for Welding: How to Prep Aluminum Right.

When the metal is clean and pinholes persist, look at the gas. Excessive gas flow can actually introduce porosity by creating turbulence that pulls air into the shielding envelope, so a hose cranked to full blast is not “more protection.” Most short-circuit MIG work sits happily around 20–25 CFH of regulator flow, and a breeze or a long torch extension will do more damage than a slightly low number. ESAB’s guidance on fine-tuning MIG machine settings makes the same point: verify the whole system, not just the display.

Spatter, Arc Blow, and the Polarity Check

Excessive spatter in short-circuit transfer almost always means the voltage is too low for the wire feed speed: the wire short-circuits violently instead of melting smoothly. Raise voltage in one-volt increments or trim wire speed, and the buzzing “frying bacon” should settle into a steady crackle. Wrong polarity shows up the same way. Solid MIG wire wants DCEP; running it on DCEN gives you a soft, spattery arc with poor penetration. If a rod misbehaves, confirm the lead connections before you condemn the electrode — a published electrode amperage chart only helps if the machine is actually set the way the chart assumes.

Arc blow is a separate animal. As weld current crowds toward the end of a joint or a grounded fixture, the arc deflects sideways, causing undercut at the ends, erratic travel, and spatter that seems to come from nowhere. Remedies are practical: reduce amperage slightly, move the ground clamp closer to the weld, use a longer arc, or swap to AC on DC-only setups for the worst cases.

The Troubleshooting Loop

When a bead goes wrong, run this sequence instead of turning knobs at random:

1. Name the symptom precisely — cold lap, not “bad weld.”
2. Pick the single most likely cause from the table above.
3. Change one variable by a small amount.
4. Run a test coupon on the same material and thickness.
5. Compare, then write the result down.

Changing voltage, wire speed, and gas at once teaches you nothing, because you cannot attribute the improvement. One variable, one coupon, one note. That habit is what eventually lets you diagnose a bead by sight alone, and it is the fastest route from reading a chart to trusting your own eyes.

Digital Calculators, Door Charts, and Building Your Own Reference

You now know how to read a welding settings chart, but where do you get one you can trust? Most welders have three sources in front of them: the manufacturer’s online calculator or setup app, the door chart riveted to the machine, and a personal notebook of settings that have proven themselves. The first two are convenient. The third one is what ends up taped to your welding table, and this section explains how to build it.

Manufacturer Calculators and Setup Apps

Every major equipment maker offers some version of a digital settings tool. Lincoln Electric runs an online support portal where you enter process, material, thickness, and wire diameter and get suggested voltage and wire feed speed back. ESAB publishes calculators and educational material through its ESAB University library, including a detailed walkthrough of fine-tuning MIG machine settings. Forney offers a downloadable PDF chart, while Miller and ESAB both provide mobile apps that replicate the door chart experience on your phone.

These tools are genuinely useful, especially when you are welding an unfamiliar material or process for the first time. They are also doing exactly what the door chart does: returning values based on their assumptions about wire diameter, gas mix, lead length, and joint type. Treat the output as a suggested starting window, not a final answer. The coupon still decides.

Why Door Charts Are Only as Good as Their Assumptions

A door chart is a generous thing for a manufacturer to include, and it deserves a fair reading. It is calibrated for the wire and gas that manufacturer sells, usually a flat butt or lap joint on clean mild steel, with a full-length gun lead at room temperature. If your shop runs a 15-foot gun instead of a 10-foot one, welds on a heavy fixture that sucks heat away, works in a cold bay in January, or feeds budget wire with a slightly different alloy coating, your machine’s real sweet spot will drift from the printed numbers.

None of that makes the chart wrong. It makes it a reference range. A Forney example like the Forney settings chart PDF is a solid place to start a job, and printed shop-wide charts keep a whole crew on the same page. But a chart never tested against your setup will cost you a few coupons every time you switch jobs.

How to Build a Personal Settings Chart

Building your own reference takes one afternoon per process and pays for itself in scrap saved. The method is straightforward:

1. Pick three thicknesses per material. For most hobby or small-shop work, 20 gauge, 1/8 inch, and 1/4 inch mild steel covers what walks through the door. Add a thickness each time a job forces you outside that range.
2. Run a test coupon at the chart’s suggestion. Weld a short bead, let it cool, then evaluate penetration, profile, and spatter honestly.
3. Adjust one variable at a time until the bead is what you want, then confirm with a second pass.
4. Record everything that produced that bead: machine model and serial, wire or electrode diameter and classification, gas mix and cylinder lot number, polarity, voltage and wire feed speed (or amperage), lead length, joint type, and a photo of the finished coupon.

Recording gas and wire lots is not fussiness. A cylinder of 75/25 from one supplier can run slightly richer in CO2 than the next, and gas supply consistency is worth tracking when porosity appears out of nowhere. Likewise, when you move from mild steel to aluminum, your chart needs an aluminum page, and a resource like our aluminum MIG welding guide helps you populate it with realistic 100% argon starting values.

The Calibration Reality Check

Inexpensive machines often have front-panel dials that do not precisely match what the machine is delivering. A clamp-on ammeter around the welding lead gives you a true picture of actual output versus indicated setting, and it is a cheap diagnostic: if your dial says 130 amps and the meter reads 112 at the same electrode, your personal chart should record the meter reading, not the panel number. For MIG specifically, wire feed speed is effectively setting your amperage, so a quick sanity check of IPM against a published amperage-per-IPM reference, such as a MIG welding amperage chart, keeps both numbers honest.

Fine Trims: Travel Speed and Gun Angle

No chart, calculator, or app can set how fast your hand moves. Travel speed is the fine trim that turns a correct setting into a good bead: too fast on 16 gauge and you get cold lap even at perfect voltage, too slow on a corner joint and you blow through. Gun or torch angle works the same way, usually 5 to 15 degrees of push or drag depending on process and gas. When a bead looks close but not right, try a 10% travel speed adjustment before you touch a dial. Most “bad settings” turn out to be bad timing.

Start with the calculator. Verify against the door chart. Trust your own coupon log more than either. That hierarchy, built patiently over a few weekends, is what separates a welder who guesses from a welder who knows.

Safety, Certification, and When Settings Become Code

Everything up to this point has treated the settings chart as a tool for making a better bead. In a professional shop, those same numbers do a second job: they prove the weld was made under control. Understanding where “helpful reference” ends and “documented requirement” begins is worth a few minutes before anyone asks you for paperwork.

OSHA, Fumes, and the Basics You Don’t Get to Skip

In the United States, the general-industry rulebook for arc welding and cutting is OSHA 1910.254. It covers the equipment and the work practices around it: grounding and electrode holders, guarding or screening the arc from bystanders, ventilation and fume control, compressed gas handling, and fire protection. Notice what is missing from that list — amperage. OSHA does not care whether you ran 118 or 125 amps, but it cares a great deal about what those amps put into the air you breathe.

Fumes are the settings decision most welders never think about. Welding stainless steel can generate hexavalent chromium, which OSHA regulates under a strict exposure limit of 5 µg/m³ averaged over an eight-hour shift. Galvanized coatings give off zinc oxide, the culprit behind metal fume fever’s chills and aching. Stick and flux-cored processes add manganese to the list. The control hierarchy is the same one you learned in every safety course: improve ventilation first (downdraft tables, local exhaust, position yourself so the plume rises away from your face), then add respiratory protection, then rotate out of the task. A chart tells you how hot to run; a fume strategy tells you whether you should be running it at all.

Eye protection is a settings-driven decision too. The arc’s ultraviolet and infrared output scales with process and current, so AWS lens shade guidance recommends shade numbers that rise with amperage — a light TIG pass and a 150-amp stick pass do not belong behind the same lens. Add the familiar triad: dry leathers to limit shock and burns, a fire watch during and after hot work, and never striking an arc on wet metal or with compromised insulation.

When the Chart Becomes Law: WPS, D1.1, and ASME Section IX

Here is the shift that surprises newly certified welders: on code work, you do not get to choose your starting point. A welding procedure specification (WPS) fixes the essential variables in advance, and the welder stays inside that range. Under AWS D1.1, the structural welding code for steel, essential variables include the process, the welding position, and the filler metal, along with variables like thickness range, preheat, and heat input. Change the process from FCAW to SMAW, or swap E7018 for a different classification, and the procedure may no longer apply — which is why knowing electrode classifications matters as much as knowing amperage, and why guides like this all position welding rod guide earn their shelf space.

Behind every approved WPS sits a procedure qualification record (PQR): a test coupon welded under those exact variables, then subjected to the mechanical and visual tests the code requires. ASME Section IX works the same way, with its own list of essential variables for pressure-part work. The important distinction for your career is between two kinds of qualification. Procedure qualification proves the recipe works. Performance qualification proves you, the welder, can execute it — typically by passing a test in the position you intend to weld. A shop can hold a perfect WPS and still fail an inspection if the welder wanders outside its ranges or the inspector finds a bead that shows they did.

That is also why formal training keeps coming up in this trade. Structured programs, whether an aluminium welding course or a structural certification track, spend as much time on paperwork and code philosophy as on arc time, and employers notice.

Conclusion: The Five-Step Chart Routine

Across nine sections, the whole method fits on an index card:

1. Match the thickness. Find your material and gauge in the chart, whether it is the door decal, the manual page, or your own log.
2. Set the starting parameters. Voltage and wire speed for MIG, amperage and polarity for stick, amperage and tungsten for TIG, plus the correct gas and wire diameter.
3. Run a coupon. A scrap piece on the same thickness tells you more than any table.
4. Adjust one variable. One dial, one pass, one observation. Change two and you learn nothing.
5. Write it down. Machine model, wire and gas, settings, position, result. Do it a dozen times and you will own a chart more accurate than anything printed on a machine door.

The chart was never the destination. It is the starting line that turns welding from guesswork into a repeatable, inspectable, and steadily improvable craft.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a welding settings chart?

A welding settings chart is a reference table that matches your base metal type and thickness to machine parameters such as voltage, wire feed speed, amperage, electrode or wire diameter, polarity, and shielding gas. It gives you a tested starting point so you dial in the machine instead of guessing.

What are good MIG settings for 1/8-inch mild steel?

For 1/8-inch mild steel with 0.030-inch solid wire and 75/25 argon/CO2, a typical starting point is roughly 21–22 volts and about 250–350 inches per minute of wire feed, adjusting for joint type and position. Always verify with a test coupon and fine-tune voltage to the bead profile.

How do I choose stick welding amperage?

A common rule of thumb is about 1 amp per 0.001 inch of material thickness for flat mild-steel welds, then reduce roughly 10–15% for vertical-up and up to 20% for overhead. Your electrode diameter sets the safe range — an 1/8-inch 7018 typically runs around 100–130 amps.

Why does my MIG welder spatter even though I followed the chart?

Spatter in short-circuit MIG usually means voltage is too low for the wire feed speed, or polarity is wrong, or the work is contaminated or magnetic. Increase voltage in small steps until the arc becomes a consistent sizzle rather than a crackling, popping sound.

Are door charts on the machine accurate?

Door charts are reasonable starting points, but they assume the manufacturer’s wire, gas mix, and ideal joint conditions. Your actual machine output, cable length, and joint geometry differ, so treat the door chart as a baseline and refine with test welds.

Do TIG settings differ for aluminum versus steel?

Yes. Aluminum needs AC balance and much higher amperage than steel of the same thickness because aluminum conducts heat away quickly and its oxide layer melts far higher than the base metal. Steel TIG runs on DCEN with lower amperage for the same thickness.

What gas should I use for MIG welding mild steel?

For sheet and general fabrication, 75% argon / 25% CO2 gives clean short-circuit welds with low spatter. 100% CO2 costs less and penetrates deeper but produces more spatter, and it suits thicker material where spray or globular transfer is used.

How do I know when to deviate from the settings chart?

Deviate when the joint is atypical: heavy fixturing pulling heat away, gaps, vertical or overhead position, or thin material with poor fit-up. Change one variable at a time and test on a coupon so you learn what actually fixed the problem.

Is a welding settings chart the same as a WPS?

No. A WPS (welding procedure specification) is a qualified document that legally defines parameter ranges for code work, backed by a procedure qualification record. A settings chart is a general starting-point reference and is not a substitute for a qualified WPS.