MIG flux core welding wire

[Hedgehog]

Do you have a favorite wire? I just gt my MIG Welder, it's a pawn shop special Lincoln 140 in very good condition. There's no problem with the welder, what I'd like to know is, do you find differences in wire and what is your favorite type.

I've burned up a small spool (I pound) of Lowes wire, then after a suggestion I bought a spool (2 pounds) of Harbor Freight wire. I must say the Harbor Freight wire seems to be more difficult to use, more spatter, more bubbles in the weld. I will admit that I sorta' don't want the HF wire to be any good.

 

[PaRenegade]

Since I got a new MIG that can use gas I haven't used any flux core. Course I really couldn't if I wanted since I'm welding (or was) sheetmetal I've been using .023 wire. But the few times I changed to a larger wire I still used solid and gas.

 

[BusaDave9]

Flux core isn't as good and doesn't produce as good of a weld. The advantage of flux core is it doesn't need a shielding gas. Only use flux core when you can't use a shielding gas such as outdoors when it's windy.

Here's an excellent training video on MIG welding. It's 45 minutes long and has lots of info.

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[BusaDave9]

I use .030 solid core wire for most my welding.

If you have to switch to flux core you also have to switch the polarity.
With solid core wire you use positive electrode with a negative ground clamp.
With flux core switch to negative electrode with a positive ground.

Happy welding

 

[BusaDave9]

Here's a chart to match wire size to what you are welding.

 

[BusaDave9]

Hey, here's a good video on MIG welding with flux core wire.

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[Hedgehog]

Is there a particular brand wire you prefer.

 

[CJ]

Is there a particular brand wire you prefer.

Are you talking flux core or solid? Since I have never used flux I just use a USA made wire, no brand...

 

[Hedgehog]

Do you have a favorite wire? I just gt my MIG Welder, it's a pawn shop special Lincoln 140 in very good condition. There's no problem with the welder, what I'd like to know is, do you find differences in wire and what is your favorite type.

I've burned up a small spool (I pound) of Lowes wire, then after a suggestion I bought a spool (2 pounds) of Harbor Freight wire. I must say the Harbor Freight wire seems to be more difficult to use, more spatter, more bubbles in the weld. I will admit that I sorta' don't want the HF wire to be any good.

As threads like this tend to experience a natural drift, I must refer to my original post which was all about flux core wire. I will eventually move to gas and solid wire, but I don't have a tank, a cart or gauges. Eventually yes, right now no. Project "Witch of the West" has drained most of my money and I've got to be realistic about what I actually need right now. Also my welding is being done out doors where there's some sort of constant breeze. From the local sources I have available flux core wire is what I need to use in the conditions I'm working in.

 

[BusaDave9]

I don't have a favorite brand of wire.

You'll do fine with flux core. You'll get more splatter and it won't work as well on thinner metal.

 

[Hedgehog]

I've been welding up holes and stress cracks for a week now. Some of the welds aren't pretty and I certainly have learned how to fill holes, but I am pleased with the results. A while ago researching welders I hit a thread somewhere that talked about different brands of wire. Some had definite preferences about brands of wire. Lately it seems that all wire .... except for size .... is the same. It's a bit hard to believe, but I defer to those that know.

 

[Scooter402]

I beg to differ with flux core not producing as good of weld as solid wire. Where I work, we use flux core (Hobart Triple 8 -- requires 100% CO2 shielding gas) for everything except exhaust and sheet metals of 1/4" or less. I've welded steel plates 1 1/2" thick and bigger, multiple passes of course. But it's with the machine below:


BUT, that's a Miller 452, quite the large and rather expensive machine. As you can see, it's set up to run flux core (on the left) and solid wire (on the right). It is also outfitted to stick weld. The thing with flux core welding is that when running vertical welds, one must run the weld uphill, i.e. starting from the bottom of the pieces being welded and working your way up. Most welders run vertical downhill, which is fine for solid wire. With flux core, the flux will pool/puddle ahead of the weld, and you will get slag inclusions in the weld. Going uphill eliminates this. The other advantage of vertical-up welding is getting deeper penetration into the joint.

My home welder is a Hobart Handler 140. It's set up for gas, but I don't use it, as I am renting a place right now and don't really have the space to store a gas bottle. So I use gasless flux. I can't stand the HF wire, it is C R A P...as stated, lots of spatter, and weld quality is very, very poor. I use the Lincoln gasless flux wire from Lowes. If your machine is set up correctly, it will not get any spatter. What little I get, I can scrape off with my chipping hammer.

Here's a vertical-up weld, and a flat fillet.


Obviously, being painted, you can't quite tell the quality of the weld, but there was no sanding involved in cleaning the weld other than chipping off the flux and then using a wire brush to scrape away the remnants.

Here's a 6G weld (basically welding around a pipe/tube) with the same machine.



You can see where I overlapped my welds, as I welded from 6 o'clock to 3, then 9-12, then 6-9, then 3-12 to try to keep the inner C from pulling out of alignment (after it was tacked well, of course).

Long story short, for gasless flux, I'd go with the Lincoln brand wire from Lowes.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hedgehog]

EXACTLY what I needed. I started with the Lowes wire. It's too bad that wire comes in 1 lb. rolls. There is a welding supply company here in town that will give me a discount so I will stop in there for a bigger roll. I have not been impressed with the HF wire. Oh, it gets the job done for a hack like me, but the spatter is awful. Then there is the color of the weld. After wire brushing the weld is the same grey. With the l Lincoln wire the weld is nice a bright.

Oh yeah, everybody mentions this, the welder is setup for flux core wire.

Here's a question, come to think of it, this happens mostly with the HF wire. When welding flat, why am I getting bubbles in the weld. I can see the weld pool bubble as I go along. I've tried several things, going slower, faster, higher temp, faster wire feed, different angles ....... bubbles in the weld.

 

[Scooter402]

My local Lowes has wire available in 10 lb. spools...Might want to try looking online?

As far as bubbles in the weld puddle...Without seeing exactly what you're seeing, it's hard to say. It could be that with the HF wire, the flux core actually might not have too much flux in it, causing air impurities in the weld as it cools...it could be impurities in the metal, i.e. if there happens to be surface rust, scale, dirt/oil, etc.

When you scrape the flux/slag off the weld when you're done, is there porosity in the weld bead?

 

[BusaDave9]

Normally bubbles mean one of 2 things:
1. impurities on the metal you are welding
2. shielding gas

Since you are welding with flux core, the flux is what should prevent the bubbles. Maybe the higher quality wire will help.
The other possibility is rust or paint on the metal you are welding.

 

[Hedgehog]

I'm getting fewer bubbles now. But....

Scooter402 - Yes the bubbles are actually in the weld bead. When I experienced it most was on the front floor pan where the rust was deep enough that I couldn't clean it off. I wire brushed the scale off and used rust restorer on it to stabilize the floor. This is not the original floor, the metal is somewhat thicker than the original, which by-the-way is still in place under the new floor. At this point I really wish I'd removed the second floor. From under the jeep I can see no real problems with the stock floor. What I do see I could relatively easily patch. I'm really liking this wire feed welding.

Busadave9 - Most of the bubbles don't show until I wire brush, (with an aggressive wheel on a 4.5" grinder) the weld. This is something else that I find interesting. With stick welding the weld can look beautiful until you knock off the slag, then the true beauty or ugliness of the weld is exposed. With wire feed I've often been disappointed with the quality of my weld, then hit it with the wire brush exposing a far more attractive weld than expected.

Back to the bubbles. I've actually seen the bigger ones forming in the weld pool. About 1/4" or so behind the weld pool I can see the cooling pool start to move, then like a volcano the bubble will burst, burst fairly slowly like you see in lava. When stick welding, even on very dirty steel I've never seen that happen.

 

[BusaDave9]

I'm getting fewer bubbles now. But....

Scooter402 - Yes the bubbles are actually in the weld bead.

When stick welding, even on very dirty steel I've never seen that happen.

One of the biggest advantages of stick welding is you can weld very rusty or dirty steel.

One of the biggest disadvantages of MIG welding is you need good clean metal to weld.

 

[Scooter402]

One of the biggest advantages of stick welding is you can weld very rusty or dirty steel.

One of the biggest disadvantages of MIG welding is you need good clean metal to weld.

This.

One rig we were working on at work (I build drilling rigs for a living) was so big in it's final assembly stages that we had to work outside on it...through the dead of winter...in PA. Yeah, not so much fun. Anyway, we were all stick welding since it was too much of a PITA to try and get a wire feed welder with gas on the assembly pad. Old paint, rust, scale, grease/grit, whatever...no match for the welding rod, especially when we were putting some heat to it.


Other way around with a wire feed. It's got to be near clean enough to eat off of. I found that out when I first started welding with wire feed, too. I thought it was fine if it was "clean" enough to strike an arc. That's not the case here. It's got to be very, very clean. The porosity in the weld likely is dirty steel. If it is still the HF wire you are using, it could be that, but it's unlikely. I've only used one 1 lb. spool of that stuff, and was very displeased on anything except exhaust work.

Wow, that was a long way about saying it's probably dirty steel. Forgive me, I talk a lot.

 

[Hedgehog]

Nothing wrong with a long well written post. It shows thought went into the answer. It is frustrating to write a relatively long question just to get answers like, "No" or "Maybe" or "You can't get there from here". This site is pretty good about giving decent answers and not tearing someone a new one for making a simple mistake.

 

[gaspipe]

One of the biggest advantages of stick welding is you can weld very rusty or dirty steel.

One of the biggest disadvantages of MIG welding is you need good clean metal to weld.

Hedgehog, it's darn near impossible to mig rust. Or any steel with seam sealer, paint, etc. Likely the source of the bubbles.

To answer your question, when welding sheetmetal, I use 10lb .025 Lincoln wire with a gas shield on my somewhat vintage Lincoln 100. For field welds were I'm not very particular, I use Lincoln .035 flux core since I am loathe to drag the gas bottle with me.

Lastly, IMHO, welding is lifelong pursuit. There's always someone better, and always more to learn, and everyone can use more practice. A Jeep is a great canvas to work with.