Just bought a new mig welder and have been playing around all weekend and just when I've got the hang of making a nice weld I run outa wire.
The kit came with some flux core and gas wire, as I wasn't too keen on spending $50 on a disposible bottle of argoshield so I got a big 5kg roll of Flux core stuff to play with while I wait for smith city to get some CO2 regs in stock.
Any how, the new wire I got just doesn't seem to work the same as the old stuff. It pops fizzles and make nice little round balls but just would squirt out in a line. Whats worse is the balls it makes are hollow.
Has anyone had this problem? or did anyone else try the 5kg Fux core stuff from Smith City?
Gaseless wire is not a nice weld to look at, check if you have to change the gun polarity for gaseless[ fluxcore] wire.
I have a dive bottle with a CO2 tap fitted, so only need to pay for the CO2 . No more hire cost for bottles.
"Oldblue" Electric to Manual Hub Conversion's 03 5447586
Pete, Smith city had little disposible Argon CO2 mix bottles wasn't very big about the size of a 1kg fire extinguisher. Aparently they last for about an hours welding.
The flux cored wire that came with the welder worked mint, left very little splatter and looked reasonably neat. The new stuff I got will only make blobs
Also re those disposible bottles, talking to the guy in the shop, apparently if you don't stick the hose in the reg properly and it blows off, they empty in about the time it takes to turn the tap off again.
drtylilman wrote:The flux cored wire that came with the welder worked mint, left very little splatter and looked reasonably neat. The new stuff I got will only make blobs
What model of Mig and what did it cost you?
I might be looking at getting one myself soon, to replace the small arc welder I have.
Seems as though I will be getting a new winch for Xmas and will have to look at making a new front end for the Terrano to fit it to.
Ok people, move along. Nothing to see here. Thank you, move along. Ph 0212078472
It's a little Decoweld (ryobi) 135E. Got it from Smith City for $699. Probably could have gotten something better at a better price, but couldn't be bothered shopping around.
Are you sure you have flux-cored gasless and not flux cored gas wire? I believe there is a difference. What info is on the side of the reel?
What happens when you turn the settings fully up?
And what size is the wire? 0.8mm?
Oh, and Pete, that little MIG will not be grunty enough to do chassis work with - you want something with at least 165-170A if you want the front end to stay in
flux core costs a lot more then normal wire, justabout pays for the gas bottle, plus u get a real weld.
i struggled with spitting bloody flux core and then changed and my welding has benfitted heaps
0.9? I'd have thought your wee welder would have been pushing it to run 0.9... might pay to check with a welding shop rather than smiths city... Get some advice from someone that knows what they are talking about rather than a pimply young retailer who's just trying to sell enough to make bonus this month...
What size was the stuff in the kit you got with the welder? Is there a size stamped on the brass tip of the handset?
And how is the wire feed speed controlled? If its a dial, turn it right up and do a test weld - I'm wondering if its arcing when it hits the metal but doesn't have the current to keep the arc alive and is just blowing bubbles? Just a theory...
If it was mislabeled and it was actually normal wire it would weld, but the finish would be all pocked with little craters.
Oh, and one more thing. If you plan to go gas in the future don't use gasless wire anywhere you will need to reweld later - welding over a weld done with gasless wire is a nightmare and makes a real mess...
I seem to remember some where that you reverse the polaroty of the gun (and the earth) by switching a couple of wires inside the machine. And no I dont mean to bodge something up ther is a facility to swap them around in some machines. Should be near the feed rollers (with butterfly nuts perhaps) and hopefully labeled if all machines are created equally.
Of course I could be totally wrong and this could be related to some other welding practice. Do a search on line for your welder and for flux cored wire and see what comes up.
I have used soda streem bottles on my mig in the past . If you only do a bit of welding every now and then and want to use gas but don't want the rental its an option . They are only co2 . At the moment I use argoshield , I think , from boc seems ok .
Somewhere here I think I have a reg for using soda stream bottles... never used it - must see if its still here or gone to the dump...
Argoshield is nice, the finish of the weld is very pretty but it doesn't allow as good penetration as you get with CO2 - and its more costly...
If you are using Argoshield in Chch I'd recommend you drop into Asco Gas, just behind the big Mitre 10 mega on main south rd in Hornby - they have a product called Southern Shield which is apparently the same blend, just cheaper.
Also down here the best guys I've found for good advice and good prices are (well, they used to be) Independent Welding Supplies in Annex Rd - not sure if thats what they are still called... they are on a corner and I think its the second one after the railway lines coming from Blenheim Rd...
I'm not getting paid by either of them, its just nice to be able to do something for them since they've both helped me out over the last few years.
Thanks Steve, if you find that reg I'll buy it off ya. My kit came with a reg but it only fits the disposable Argoshield bottles. I may give the guys at Annex Rd a yell too and see what they have in MIG wire.
I took that stuff back, Smith City was really good, full refund no questions asked.
When I brought my Migmate , it came with a throwaway bottle, I then brought an "adaptor" that fitted the Migmate regulator to a CO2 bottle.
Think it came from NZIG.
"Oldblue" Electric to Manual Hub Conversion's 03 5447586
As Steve said, Independent Welding Supplies on Annex Rd are the guys to see. I got a cheap gasless mig from (cough) Repco - 100A, so only light stuff. I got a replacement 1kg spool of wire from IWS and it went better than the crap that came with the welder. Talk to the experts.
R
for get about useing it for a good welding job it realy is only any good for welding up galvanised pipe thats all we used it for in the building of cowsheds.
It is also the most messyest weld you will most like ever encounter although the hard wire or gas shielded wire may be more expencive it is also a far far stronger weld as compared to the gasless.
long wrote:for get about useing it for a good welding job it realy is only any good for welding up galvanised pipe thats all we used it for in the building of cowsheds. It is also the most messyest weld you will most like ever encounter although the hard wire or gas shielded wire may be more expencive it is also a far far stronger weld as compared to the gasless.
Actually the gas-less wire is significantly more expensive than standard mig wire... about 4 or 5 times the price last time I checked. And if you get the settings right you can get a decent weld from it - and engineers do use it for working in the field, just as you mentioned, although if you are after a good penetration weld in the wind you'd use arc instead.
I've had a look for that reg, and unfortunately I can't find it which means its probably gone. I'll keep my eye out tho, as there are lots of places it could be hiding here
Cheers everyone. I've decided I'm going to make the switch over to gas as the wire is sooo much cheaper that afer zapping through a couple of KGs it would have just about paid for the reg and bottles.
