Hey wire welder guys

[greg g]

I have an elcheapo flux wire welder from the Chinese Embassy. Itsa 110 I have it pluged into a dedicated plug short wired through a 30 amp breaker to an outlet. I was trying to use it the other day while trying to cobble up my leaf picker. I was welding angle iron cleaned of paint, to some scrap pieces I had that were ground down to bare metal. after a couple of tacks I welded short beads, but none got any penetration. I looked at my cables etc ad found the ground clamp wire had apparently been pinched or something half way through. I repaired that but it made little difference.

I had the heat on high and the wire speed at 8 (out of 10) is there such a thing as having the wire speed to high? it seemed to make a decent bead but it just layed ontop of the surfaces.

Gonna try to do a little more welding tomorrow on some lighter stuff. I am fabricatinng some items from the strap steel bars from the hardware store, ad some fender washers, where I will be welding through some cut notches and holes to a piece behind. Do I need to slow down the wire feed to get some penetrations.

[Rusty O'Toole]

Yes you can have the wire feed too high. Try cutting it way down to 2 or 3 and welding slower. You may have to cut your power a little too. You should get good penetration and not waste so much wire. Go so slow you can't stand it then speed it up a little.

By the way when you need more wire do not buy the cheap stuff get a good name brand like Lincoln, it will be like night and day. It is possible to get a decent weld even with a cheap flux core welder if you use good wire and take your time.

Edited October 28, 2011 by Rusty O'Toole

[Joe Flanagan]

A technique I learned was to weld a piece of scrap while turning the wire speed control until you find the optimum setting. Too fast will give you rapid popping sounds. Too slow will also be obvious. When you get that nice even sound like a buzzer, you're there. I just hit the trigger and tune the dial in until I'm there.

I've never had good luck with flux core, though. I found it spattered a lot, too. Could be operator error, but I've done much better with gas.

[Rusty O'Toole]

No doubt gas is far superior but not everyone has the choice. And sometimes it's not worth the bother, I don't do a lot of welding so if I run out of gas, will fall back on the flux core for small repair jobs until I really need the MIG. Then go get a new gas bottle.

[deathbound]

Is there a chart on the inside of the door with heat/wire speed settings for a specific thickness? Could there be any voltage drop @the outlet? I'm not an electrician, but maybe your not getting a full 110 volts (or whatever it should be). Like what was mentioned earlier, start on high heat & lowest wire speed & have somebody slowly turn up the wire speed til it sounds smooth....like bacon frying.

[greg g]

I have been gettin wire at the local welding supply house. It does make a big difference.

Bacon Frying, whats that??? Haven't had bacon in this house since forever. My cardiologist has an order of protection between me and bacon.

[wayfarer]

Here is a link to the Airgas site with lots-o-info...

http://www.airgas.com/content/details.aspx?id=7000000000143

[Daliant.]

There are alot of variables when it comes to welding especially when it involves an inexpencive (horrible freight?) welder with limited heat and wire speed settings. Keep your ground clamp clean and clamp near the area to be welded. I'm assuming you only have a high or low heat setting on your welder so you will have to fine tune your weld penetration with the wire feed speed and how fast you move. Without knowing what guage steel your working with and not being familiar with your machine I cant say what settings will work best, but I would say that your wire speed is too fast if your welds look like caterpillers. Slow your wire speed down to the point where the weld kinda balls up and burns up to the tip of gun, then turn up the wire speed one notch. If you start to burn through then move a little faster. Flux core wire is pretty forgiving when it comes to welding dirty (painted/rusty) metal but the cleaner you can get it the better.

The problem could also be with the 110v side, you said the welder is on its own dedicated line (which is good) but there could be a bad connection somewhere like a plug or even in the breaker box itself.

[Harvey Tank]

I adjust my wire feed and volteage untill it sounds like beacon frying. try it, it works for me.

[dezeldoc]

MMMMMMMM Bacon!!!

Edited October 30, 2011 by dezeldoc