i have no experience w/ a flux core cant weld w/a buzz box but i do prstty good w/ a mig (yea a fat guy thing) its kinda like painting thereis a flow to it and you have to have all the little duckys in a row for it to come out right
its all heat wire speed and control my suggestion would be to get some scraps about thesame as you want to welg get comfortable a nd practice
also get some book smarts on it too it never hurt to get technical on your self
see i cant stick cause i learned on a mig so i cant compensate for the rod disapearing hahaha sound stupid huh you might think of going up to a mig

oh yea go to the knowlegbase i saw somw threads about differtnt types of flux core wires also they make a splatter sray to keep slag and dots from sticking good luck w/this let us know how you make out
sr66 :thumbup:

 

Mike,
Please post a picture of your welds. I might be able to 'read' your welds better with a pic than just a description.
I posted a reply to I believe it was one of Cboys welding questions awhile back...there might be some info in there that you could use.
I will do a search later to see where it was posted.
Later,
WEIMER

 

One small thing that can make a difference,if using extension cord,be sure it is heavy enough.

 

i have same welder, it a good home welder, you may be moving to fast with your weld, also watch wire speed, practice with 1/8 metal, wont burn through , like rob said, practice

 

Wwelding (learning on your own)

Mike,
First thing is to read the manual...thinner requires less heat...thicker more heat..

Now get some scrap metal (clean) and start by laying down some beads on the flat...get away from the zig-zag and just run back and forth..(a twisting of the wrist) easier to show than to write about..

Staying in one spot will burn thu..so we use this little bit of knowledge to adjust our feed rate or weld speed..enough weld speed to get a good bead..slow enough to get a good burn in..that takes some practice..

It is kinda like learning to play a musical instrument..one is not good till one plays a while..so time spent burning wire is well spent..

Homework..set up and weld three days a week for an hour..it will come to you..!!

OMT

 

Hey Mike,

This might be the thread Weimer mentioned...if you missed it at the time:

http://www.hotrodders.com/t57713.html

I got lots of good tips and advice by posting pics. Don't be shy about showing how bad your welds look at present. Believe me, it's the best way to figure out what is going wrong and to start getting better.

Also, as mentioned in the above thread, I found it extremely helpful to find somebody who will spend a couple hours with you as a "hands-on" welding coach. They a) have to know their stuff, b) watch you weld first hand, and c) have the ability to "teach" without making you feel like a complete ninny. So pick your coach with some care.

BTW, I still lay down some pretty crappy looking welds, especially when I have to gun at an odd angle or I get into some new thicknesses of material...so we are both still in the "Bad Welders" club.

Dewey

 

Make sure the metal that you are about to weld on is very clean. Use a wire brush to remove ANY rust from the piece. If you are welding hot rolled steel (dull, not shiny finish), then use a grinder to take off the mill scale on it. Open the side panel on your welder where you access the wire spool. There should be a settings chart on the back side. It will tell you the right heat setting and wire speed for what thickness of metal you are welding. After you weld with flux core, there is a layer of slag on top of it. This must be chipped off with a slag hammer, or a hammer+chisel. If you made a good weld, then the slag will almost fall off by itself. Metal is getting very expensive these days, so don't waste any scrap! overlap your beads about halfway running parallel next to each other. Once the piece is covered with beads, run them perpendicular to the previous beads. This is called making a pad. Good luck!

 

I agree with the others, but I am NOT a big flux core fan...
Is your machine both flux core/ gas compatible?
Is the polarity reversed for changing between the two? Might be worth looking at?

 

1. Flux core is meant for 1/16" or thicker steel, anything thinner it will just burn holes in and warp.
2. If the machine is Flux core & MIG, make sure the polarity is correct, flux core uses a NEGATIVE groud, while MIG uses a POSITIVE ground.
3. Dont weave sideways accross the weld seam :nono:. You don't run sideways on a football field if you want to score a touchdown, so why would you weld sideways if you want a good, strong bead?

 

Allright guys, thanks a lot. There IS a conversion kit available for my welder, but right now I'm not gonna spend the $$$ so I'll stick to my flux core.
On the welder it says that it welds up to 1/8" steel.
I'll post a pic of my welds, even though they look like a pile of crap. Dont have one now but I'll post one as soon as I can.
Now I still dont get why I shouldnt weld across? Most of the time I leave a tiny gap in between materials so that the weld can fill it up.
The red line shows the pattern I use

Mike

 

Tiny circles works better, less slag inclusion.

 

your pattern looks to fast, slow down, try circles that over lap like 4 jaws said

 

You can also try a crescent weave. You make a curve to the left, then curve to the right keeping your travel speed the same. Also an important tip: don't weld too far away. If you are more than 5/8" away, then the wire will just melt and lay across the weld and your bead will go nowhere.

 

It is more difficult to weld with flux core than using a 70/25 gas mix(argon-co2).There is no need to have a zig-zag pattern. Learn to weld using a straight line bead.....Don

 

so guys & gals with the flux core there is NO sheildin it is basically a stick w/ a contiuos feed? and w/ the F C do you still need the little eye ball in the stitch???

hey does any body elses spell checker work?? i need spell check

 

Tiny advancing circles work well for me. I don't think I could get a decent weld by going in a straight line.

Vince

 

Well of course you can do straight "stringer" beads as well, but he was asking questions about a weave pattern. When I MIG weld, I do stringer beads. Sometimes a weave is needed, but that's not the subject here is it?

 

nightfire
my best suggestion would be to move up to a decent mig system

also when practicing keep in mind not to do too much in one spot so it dosent get all warped to hell
again sorry for the spelling
do you have a tech college near by ....now there is a good susgestion
good luck

sr66

 

Thanks for all the tips, I'll post a couple of pics tomorow, one with the circling, one with straight down pulling the pool, one with the crescent method and one with pushing the pool and you guys can judge from there.
I do not have the money to upgrade to a full MIG system and wont for a while. Not like I'm welding a top chop with this one, just hobby welding.


thanks,


Mike

 

thats a good welder to learn with, just practice

 

I find that just straight line the weld looks interupted (I cant go too steady) and builds up on a really narrow line really fast. So you have a narrow tall line of weld.

Anywho, here are my embarassing welds....

I was using fairly thin metal strip and when I flipped it over I got some nice penetration and on the big pool I burned all the way through.

Let me know if you need more pics or bigger pools or whatever and keep the laughter to yourself.

Thanks,

Mike

 

Mike,

Does your welder have infinite wire speed control? If so, one of the first things you might try is having a buddy come over and slowly move that control up and down as you are welding. From what little I know of welding, I would say you just need to get a little better co-ordination between your hand speed and your wire speed. I know this made a big difference when a friend of mine came over and walked me through this. Everybody's hand speed is different. Generally you want to keep it slow enough to get good penetration while keeping your wire speed fast enough to get decent fill without big humps or gobs piling up. So it really helps to establish a set hand speed and then have someone varying the wire speed until you hear and see that bead coming out nice.

One of the things I also did was start a big notebook where I keep track of every weld I do. This may sound like a lot of silly-work, but I found it very helpful. I note what size material I am welding, what type of weld - such as butt, overlap etc., my voltage setting, my wire speed, and whether I am vertical, horizontal or otherwise. If I make a nice pass, I note that with the settings. If the weld comes out crappy, I also note that along with any adjustments I made in my settings. I found that the more precise I am in my settings for each welding situation, the better my welds come out. And now I am building up a pretty good reference guide in my notebook to I can set my welder up before each pass and get pretty good results.

I'm sure others will have some much more specific diagnosis but I found the above helpful in my own quest for improved welds. And I certainly would not laugh at those welds. A few adjustments here and there, a little more practice, and you'll be laying down nice beads in no time.

Dewey

 

Flux core wire is the splattering king and nothing you do is going to fix that so just use the chip hammer and grinder when done. The biggest mistakes I made at first was trying to go to fast and not cleaning the area well enough.

 

thanks cboy, I'll get my friend to play with the wire speed as I'm welding. I'll also note what thickness what speed and heat worked well together.

Anyone else have any tips?



Mike

 

1st off, don't be embarassed of what you're doing. You're already smarter than most by asking questions.

When welding with a squirt gun of ANY kind, clean clean CLEAN the area to be welded. I've never seen any wire welder "burn through" any kind of contaminate. To get steady use 2 hands. Set one hand up as a guide like you were gonna pinstripe or something similar. The gun will flex up and down in yer hand as it loses contact on dirty areas. Work the gun before you pull the trigger. "Bridge" the fingers on one hand to steady the other. The weld should fill and loop. The pattern should be more of a triangle than a circle. Look ONLY at your weld while welding. The most common mistake is not looking at only the puddle or the actual weld itself. Your speed depends on the thickness of what you're welding. Thin=faster than thick. Material type has some to do with it as well. Good cold rolled steel welds way prettier than hot roll. When welding hot roll steel like agle iron and such, grind the slag off the surface before you weld. It's amazing how many NEVER do this and even more amazing how that slag limits penetration.

All of the above posters have given good advice as well. The most important being practice. When you have it right and clean, the flux from the wire will actually fall off on its own when the weld cools. There will always be a little left in the tighter spots. The flux should be "floating out" as you weld vs being part of the bead. Good luck and keep welding.