wtf is wrong with this mig wire
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Postmaster
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,724
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From: Clarksburg WV
wtf is wrong with this mig wire
I have an 88 amp Craftsman gasless mig which has served me faithfully for probably 5 years now, and it uses .030 flux core wire.
Last time I got wire, I picked it up from the local Amerigas store because I could get a 2 lb spool there cheaper than anywhere else. I was welding some exhaust pipe the other night and I ran out, so I went by there and picked up another 2 lb spool. I noticed after I got home that the wire was almost black in color, whereas the old stuff was silver, but it was .030 flux core, same alloy, exactly the same as the old stuff had been (it was a different brand though).
So, I put it in the welder and fire it up and...what the hell, this wire sucks. Trying to weld on something where the old wire was doing a great job on at the same setting, it acts like it doesn't have a good ground, popping and making ugly welds and not working very well in general (To give you an idea, I was doing this pipe on Low-1 with the old wire and it would burn through if I held it in one place too long. With this new crap, I could put it on Low-2 or even High-1 and I'm not even sure I could have made it burn through if I wanted to).
Why does this stuff work so bad? If this is how bad it's gonna work, I don't see much sense in continuing to use it.
Last time I got wire, I picked it up from the local Amerigas store because I could get a 2 lb spool there cheaper than anywhere else. I was welding some exhaust pipe the other night and I ran out, so I went by there and picked up another 2 lb spool. I noticed after I got home that the wire was almost black in color, whereas the old stuff was silver, but it was .030 flux core, same alloy, exactly the same as the old stuff had been (it was a different brand though).
So, I put it in the welder and fire it up and...what the hell, this wire sucks. Trying to weld on something where the old wire was doing a great job on at the same setting, it acts like it doesn't have a good ground, popping and making ugly welds and not working very well in general (To give you an idea, I was doing this pipe on Low-1 with the old wire and it would burn through if I held it in one place too long. With this new crap, I could put it on Low-2 or even High-1 and I'm not even sure I could have made it burn through if I wanted to).
Why does this stuff work so bad? If this is how bad it's gonna work, I don't see much sense in continuing to use it.
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 18,488
Likes: 22
From: The Big, Oregon
Did you get innershield or dualshield wire? The dualshield requires gas also.
In my experience running both those wires, you usually have to crank up the temp and the feed speed to get a decent weld. I used to run 1/16" dualshield, and had to run about 30volts and ~270fpm, making for about 250amps of power. For a comparable MIG weld, it would have been 25-26 volts, and about 230fpm, running at around 210-220amps.
If the wire is innershield and not dualshield, I'd use some scrap to get it dialed in, and it should run fine in the end.
In my experience running both those wires, you usually have to crank up the temp and the feed speed to get a decent weld. I used to run 1/16" dualshield, and had to run about 30volts and ~270fpm, making for about 250amps of power. For a comparable MIG weld, it would have been 25-26 volts, and about 230fpm, running at around 210-220amps.
If the wire is innershield and not dualshield, I'd use some scrap to get it dialed in, and it should run fine in the end.
