What flux core wires to keep on hand?

[A-one]

I am still a bit fuzzy on the definitions of Push and Pull that I hear folks talking about but I weld MIG just like I do stick with the electrode pointing toward the puddle and pulling the torch back down the groove.

When there's slag, you drag. With stick and flux core, you drag away from the puddle. It's basically using the arc to help keep the slag pushed back to lessen the chances of having slag inclusions.

With MIG, you push with the arc going into the base metal with the puddle trailing. My uncle says it should be more of a back and forth motion. Base metal, backstep into the puddle, base metal, backstep into the puddle. I assumed it was to help with penetration. I don't have a gas bottle yet, so I have yet to try it on my own. The friend that gave me the scraps let me use the MIG welder at his job on one of his projects once.

I can honestly say a 480V welder doesn't have any problems with fusion. I didn't really get to enjoy it though. The feed speed was so high, as quick as I started a weld it was over. They had it loaded with .045, and he said they use that 1 size on everything. I've gotten 12 gauge sheet up to 1/4" angle from their scrap bin.

 

[Gary Fowler]

When there's slag, you drag. With stick and flux core, you drag away from the puddle. It's basically using the arc to help keep the slag pushed back to lessen the chances of having slag inclusions.

With MIG, you push with the arc going into the base metal with the puddle trailing. My uncle says it should be more of a back and forth motion. Base metal, backstep into the puddle, base metal, backstep into the puddle. I assumed it was to help with penetration. I don't have a gas bottle yet, so I have yet to try it on my own. The friend that gave me the scraps let me use the MIG welder at his job on one of his projects once.

I can honestly say a 480V welder doesn't have any problems with fusion. I didn't really get to enjoy it though. The feed speed was so high, as quick as I started a weld it was over. They had it loaded with .045, and he said they use that 1 size on everything. I've gotten 12 gauge sheet up to 1/4" angle from their scrap bin.

Actually with solid wire you can weld either way without much difference in appearance or fusion when welding in the 1G. I equate the welding with solid wire to TIG welding and it can go either way if necessary, FCAW is more like stick welding and can also go either way. IF going Vertical downhill, point the wire into the puddle (drag I suppose)but it running vertical up you need to work in a U shape pointing the wire up ahead of the puddle just like welding with a stick rod.

When I said I didnt quite know what all the push pull stuff means, I didnt mean to imply that I knew nothing about wire feed welding. I have been doing it on construction jobs for over 30 years, mostly on structural or non pressure welds. I recently bought a hobby unit for my shop piddling, so I am getting back into it. Most engineering and petroleum processing owners wont allow wire feed (MIG) for field welding due to the high probability of non-fusion between passes. Some will allow only shop fabrication where it can be rolled out with positioners. Processes using TIG with automatic wire feed work very well and are very fast and are have been used on Alaska pipeline installation with good success.

All this silliness about push, pull, drag means nothing to me. I just weld it so I can control the puddle, burn thru and metal build up which ever way I need to go to do that. In the last month or two is my first experience with welding with 110/220 home machines and smaller wire than .045. They do weld quit different from the 480V heavy construction machines. FCAW without gas has really come a long way from when I first tried it 30 years ago. You absolutely couldnt weld anything without bug holes everywhere in the weld. I can weld with a shop fan blowing 20 MPH wind on me and not have any porosity in the weld. I have ran some pretty good root passes with FCAW which could never be done with the old wire and flux. I am beginning to like it more than stick but I still keep my Miller stick machine around for the heavy duty welds.

 

[A-one]

I know nothing. Hadn't touched a welder until a couple of years ago. Bought a 70 amp Campbell-Hausfeld for $40. Then watched a lot of YouTube videos and did a lot of reading, all while I was running beads on anything I could find. Then I ran into a Craigslist ad by someone looking to trade a brand new Pro-Mig 180 for a truck. Just happened to have an old F-150 sitting in my brother's backyard.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I know nothing. Hadn't touched a welder until a couple of years ago. Bought a 70 amp Campbell-Hausfeld for $40. Then watched a lot of YouTube videos and did a lot of reading, all while I was running beads on anything I could find. Then I ran into a Craigslist ad by someone looking to trade a brand new Pro-Mig 180 for a truck. Just happened to have an old F-150 sitting in my brother's backyard.

Well you did get a good welding machine, capable of making solid and nice looking welds.

I have all this nice welding equipment so I have been thinking about advertising my services as a welder /fabricator (I did that as a journeyman and managed a fabrication shop a couple of times in my career). If I get some action, I might just buy one of those ARC PIG contraptions to hook on my Miller to TIG weld aluminum. I have 3 TIG rigs and 3 flowmeters so I could hook up as many as I need, but would have to get a Tee so I could run 2 flow meters on one bottle. I sure wont be buying another $320 bottle again soon.

 

[Yomax4]

Well you did get a good welding machine, capable of making solid and nice looking welds.

I have all this nice welding equipment so I have been thinking about advertising my services as a welder /fabricator (I did that as a journeyman and managed a fabrication shop a couple of times in my career). If I get some action, I might just buy one of those ARC PIG contraptions to hook on my Miller to TIG weld aluminum. I have 3 TIG rigs and 3 flowmeters so I could hook up as many as I need, but would have to get a Tee so I could run 2 flow meters on one bottle. I sure wont be buying another $320 bottle again soon.

The "T" you will want is part # T-92 might be able to find a used one. I have a couple of Victor dual flowmeters. Seem to work well.

 

[Gary Fowler]

The "T" you will want is part # T-92 might be able to find a used one. I have a couple of Victor dual flowmeters. Seem to work well.

One regulator will definitely run 2 flowmeters. I used to put them together like that for my TIG welders when I was a welding supervisor. One gauge, one bottle and you had the torch and a purge meter to use. I once had a nice double set up with Smith flowmeters. They were a lot more durable than the Victor but also much heavier.

 

[Yomax4]

One regulator will definitely run 2 flowmeters. I used to put them together like that for my TIG welders when I was a welding supervisor. One gauge, one bottle and you had the torch and a purge meter to use. I once had a nice double set up with Smith flowmeters. They were a lot more durable than the Victor but also much heavier.

We used to use the T-92's on argon tanks to hook up 2 separate regulators for Plasma Welding. Back in the day.

 

[Gary Fowler]

We used to use the T-92's on argon tanks to hook up 2 separate regulators for Plasma Welding. Back in the day.

I have used them on Liquid Argon tanks to hook up two double flow meters and they work great for that two. Those big chunks of brass are likely a bit of $$ now. Back then the company was paying so it wasnt a big deal.

 

[A-one]

Well you did get a good welding machine, capable of making solid and nice looking welds.

I have all this nice welding equipment so I have been thinking about advertising my services as a welder /fabricator (I did that as a journeyman and managed a fabrication shop a couple of times in my career). If I get some action, I might just buy one of those ARC PIG contraptions to hook on my Miller to TIG weld aluminum. I have 3 TIG rigs and 3 flowmeters so I could hook up as many as I need, but would have to get a Tee so I could run 2 flow meters on one bottle. I sure wont be buying another $320 bottle again soon.

Don't worry. You'll get some action.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I need to put up a sign and do some local advertising and then see what happens.

 

[California]

I need to put up a sign and do some local advertising and then see what happens.

Rural area? Just put a sign on a fencepost next to a stop sign. This gives time to read the sign and take a picture of it for future reference. You'll soon be well known in the neighborhood.

 

[Yomax4]

I did this once and was swamped with small welding projects. Mower decks, Trailer fenders, Tractor implements and a ton of bent stuff. I couldn't keep up and really didn't have the time in the 1st place. Post a sign and they will come !

 

[California]

I did this once and was swamped ...

In tht case find someone at a distance in your region, or someone with a slightly different specialty, and make arrangements to refer unwanted work to one another.

 

[California]

... swamped with small welding projects. Mower decks, Trailer fenders, Tractor implements and a ton of bent stuff.

That sort of minor farm repairs is what I bought a welder for. Then another inexpensive welder, another, and finally the ones I use now. Overall, cheaper to DIY than pay someone as much as his specialty is fairly worth.

And the implement or whatever is back in service the same day.

Also for fabricating stuff I can tack together a prototype then modify it, if needed. It would get expensive paying a pro for a cut n try project.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I got my sign up on the fence right by a bunch of equipment that I need to sell: 8 foot landscape rake, 6 foot box blade, TG-72 King Kutter tiller and a 2 row cultivator. Anyone nearby interested in those items let me know.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Well, sold all my equipment and one of my tractors that I wasnt really trying hard to sell but it did need to go since I rarely used it anymore. I also have my fabrication/welding sign up so folks coming by my house can see it.

 

[A-one]

I don't have a sign up and I get small jobs here and there. It's just word of mouth. If you have a sign out, you'll be swamped before you know it. It'll make you pull that sign down.

The one thing I have discovered though, is that it doesn't make sense to pay anybody to do some things. By the time the materials and labor are paid for, whatever product is wanted could've been bought from a retailer.

Somebody paid me to make a couple of awning frames for one of their customers. I made the frames and that was it. He brings them back and wants me to cover them too. Them he paid somebody else to paint them. He could've just bought 2 from Home Depot, charged an installation fee, and been done with it.

 

[PILOON]

Curious here, I came across a coil of aluminum flux core wire on sale. (bought it-$5.00)
How effective is aluminum flux core welding?

 

[Yomax4]

Curious here, I came across a coil of aluminum flux core wire on sale. (bought it-$5.00)
How effective is aluminum flux core welding?

Likely just a Solder?

 

[CA_Bgrwldr]

Likely just a Solder?

That is my understanding as well, while it is spool, it is designed for brazing and soldering, not arc welding, and the claims otherwise are false. Like this add here
Gasless Flux-Cored Mig Welding Wire Aluminum Magnesium Alloy ER5356, when you look up just ER5356, you come up with it being standard MIG aluminum wire, Airgas