Been welding with my wire feed for some time and have always used argon gas for a shield at the tip.The welds are smooth ,good penetration and have been satisfied except working in a breeze or wind, as most of you know, then the quality of the weld drops considerably.. Welded today, I changed I tried .030 ( rosin core wire,) a little expensive $ 20.00,a spool,but I would save on the cost of gas since I would not be using it. Here's my question ,it works great ,satisfied with the weld ,but now I get a lot of slag slag droplets around the weld that have to be ground off. Is this common used rosin core wire ????? Gene in Farmington, Mn
“They” make a spray that lets you just wire brush off the splatter, in most cases it can be just rubbed off. Just ask for MIG welding spray at your supply store. PS, 75/25 mix is less expensive and works fine as well. When I wire weld outside in windy conditions, I try and set up some cardboard, plywood, etc to block the wind.
Probably hard to find these days, but when all the computer monitors were that tan color, I scarfed a couple of the fronts from some s**** ones. Then you can set them near your weld to block the air, and curious kids can also watch what you are welding.......... Never used flux core wire, always find a way to avoid it. But thats just contrary me!
Between the cost of the spray, the higher price of the wire and the extra clean up time I prefer the bottle. I too run the 75/25 mix. .
As I have mentioned before, learning to weld with flux core is a great skill. If only for the fact your tank will someday go empty at 10PM on a Saturday night while you are thrashing to get your car done!
In general, flux cored wire works better on thicker material, not really for sheet metal. As mentioned, you have to change polarity. Anti-spatter spray will help. Also, the gas helps cool the gun. No gas, no cooling for the gun, can't weld as long.
If the rosin core works for you, that's cool. Try it on sheetmetal, any Flux core on sheetmetal causes issues for me, seems to get hotter and blow thru at same settings. Lower the settings and the weld is cold. Running bead I do fine with it. Admittedly, I've never spent much time on Flux core wire. Most of my welding lately is bodywork, I keep .025 set up, if I need to weld something heavier, I'll usually do a push weave, versus switching wire.
I used to have my wife come out and face the wind, I’d get her going on something that usually brought on a rant from her, generating enough hot air turning the wind around giving us a nice little breeze from the opposite direction.
Whatever you do, don't weld any sheet metal for your body with flux core wire! It will contaminate the metal, and you'll never get all of it out. Once it's primed and painted the paint will go bad over any welds done with flux core. Saw this happen on a friend's car and it began to blister and bubble after 6 months. The body shop ground out the areas, and used a epoxy resin to coat the weld joints before repainting. But 6 months later it began to bubble again.
Solid core, 75/25 mix makes the best looking mig welds. Flux core on thick stuff, farm repairs….. is cool. Some OEs recommended flux core for some ch***is repairs. For sheet metal, flux core is a last resort.
Hamb is a good place to learn. Have used the websight for years. Thank you much for the feedback No I have never welded sheet metal with anything other than using the argon gas. This is something that I thought I would give a try on some s**** stuff had laying around Gene in Mn
CO2 is a reactive gas while argon is inert. Argon does nothing but shield the weld from atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen but CO2 plays an active part in the weld process. Specifically, CO2 in a 75/25 mix increases the fluidity of the puddle. You end up with a better appearance as well as better penetration as compared to using straight argon.
^^^ C25 (75/25) mix for MIG on steel is the preferred gas. I use tri-mix for MIG on SS, and argon for TIG. I rarely use flux core, and only then on thicker material.
That would seem logical as the flux provides more m*** and needs additional heat to melt it. Amp setting and wire size are pretty touchy for sheetmetal, so I want to be able to use the lowest amp possible. Personally I have no interest in using flux cored wire and don't want to run it thru my machine. I decided that I'm too lazy to do all the parts and wire switching when I need to do some sheetmetal........and I expect to be doing a lot of sheetmetal on some of my projects. I still will be doing plenty of thicker stuff too. Since I already had an extra bottle, I just bought a smaller (ESAB) and set it up to just do .023 wire. That way I can weld whatever I want whenever I want......and if I run out of gas on one machine, I can just move the bottle easily. Honestly, a small welder set up just for the thin stuff doesn't even have to be expensive. Locally, if I see a bottle available cheaply, I buy it. The weld gas place will recertify it for 10 years for about $40. Auctions are an excellent place to pick up a bottle cheaply, and they can purge and change the gas to make them for 75/25 in many cases, if they originally held some other gas. I paint mine and stencil my name on them. Then paint the cap with black/yellow stripes so they stand out and are easy to locate when you go pick them up.
Like others have said, try out 75/25. It's a little cheaper and the CO2 helps cut through garbage / penetrate deeper. I tried flux core once and hated it, even with the polarity set correctly it just makes a mess. Spare small tanks can be purchased pretty cheaply. I ended up getting tired of switching wire sizes and finally bought another small MIG just for sheetmetal. Both welders are stacked and I have a Y fitting splitting off after the regulator to both welders. When one tank goes dry swap it out. Just have to refill before the other tank goes dry.
A junk yard had a bunch of bottles dropped off. They gave me a few. I chose the ones with the sticker for our local supplier. They swapped em out. Plus the re-fill. Got oxygen and acetylene set up for less than $50.
I have an unmarked tank that I will not let them swap. I actually get refills 2 hours away where my work has a gas company contract. I get company bulk price with ID. It's inconvenient, Ive always been able to time it when I need to be at that location anyway. The local suppliers want to swap my unmarked tank and charge me double.
I am a sub-dealer for a welding gas supplier, I have their tanks here where people exchange their empty tanks for full tanks. I have people complain about the rising cost of welding gas nearly every day. I just smile and nod my head, then I show them the price sheet I use is dated Feb 2, 2019! That is the correct current price sheet, the prices haven't changed since Feb 2, 2019. Back when the current price sheets first were used, the prices were in even compe***ion with other welding gas suppliers in the area. The customer's complaints about the rising cost of welding gas usually ends instantly.
I’ll be darn, maybe location has something to do? I had an acetylene tank swapped out a month or so ago, counter guy told me “boy, this has gotten expensive this year “. He was right
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