flux core, any good

[leadpig]

how good is modern flux core on a half decent machine, the last time i seen it was 10 years ago on a cheap mig and the results were terrible, at least as much splatter as weld and the weld looked ropey as hell.
i wont be doing mass amounts of mig yet and inside work i intend to tig, but i bought a new mig on impulse and want to try it, but cant really justify/afford another bottle as i already have oxy acetylene and argon .
if flux core welds are bad i wont bother, i know its smokey but it will be for outside work anyway mainly ie farm gates etc, but if they are ok then it saves another bottle charge for the minute.

tia dave

 

[Mee]

Newer flux cored wire is much better than 10 years ago and like many things it needs a machine which likes flux core as some machines run better with it than others. You could get a mini spool and try it, if your machine wont accept mini spools then save a drum and wind it onto the drum which fits your machine and try it, with a mini spool you wont be paying/losing a lot of money if you don't like it.

 

[GKQ]

I've just done a lot of welding with gassless wire nearly 9kg in 6 weeks. I would recommend BOC smoothcore GS worked well for me once I had the right set up on my machine. ESAB mig caddy 200ci.
Mainly used for 2.5. - 5 mm steel and galvanised and it works well. Most important follow the instructions. I tried all the advice I was given and I can say the manufacturer was right all along.
It is messy and smokey but runs hot and burns in really well, similar to stick welding.
BOC only recommend it up to 5mm and one pass only, although with cleaning multi pass works OK.
I think the best advice is buy a good quality branded product and follow the instructions.
Welded the digger thumb up, 10mm, and even with some abuse it has not moved or damaged any of the welds.
Graham

 

[arther dailey]

Interesting thread, I got a roll ,sorry no brand/label on it, gave it a go today, as said above in some sense s its seems similar to stick, smoky as heck, but for farm gates and similar yes should be fine ,certainly easier than carting bottles around, horses for courses farm gate doesnt warrant Nascar/formula 1 quality weld does it, strong is very important but pretty it doesnt have to be unless the animals in your neck of the woods are welding standard officers(lol)

 

[arther dailey]

I only use it and nothing else for car and van body work as its not worth the hassle with gasses and straight wire. for me i use the super 6 stuff but have asked here about lincon wire and now the poster above has mentioned BOC wire, but i want 0.8mm or 0.9mm I have no idea about the weldequip wire as it has no write up so i dont know if its good or bad wire.

we also use it alot on building sites in larger sizes are gas is to unrealiable in open areas as the wind gets hold of it

for me i shall get hold of a couple of smaller 1kg rolls so i can decant wire from a larger 15kilo roll, or just use 5klio rolls and wrap them up inbetween use

really interesting you use it on car/van work,everyone else on here reckons its a no no, I can understand if you can get decent welds though.mine look rather "scruffy"and thats being very polite!

 

[bricol]

That sounds much like me. 20 yrs basically using flux core through a modified SIP hobby welder as pretty much all my welding, car bodywork, suspension, chassis etc was done outside. I had used industrial MIG welders at where I used to work to do small jobs, govvy jobs etc, and found them so much easier and cleaner. Last year I took the plunge and rented a bottle and used 0.6 wire to repair my Lancia - and those years of getting good welds with flux core meant pretty much straight away I had good, clean, strong welds using the shielding gas.

 

[Questions]

I've just done a lot of welding with gassless wire nearly 9kg in 6 weeks. I would recommend BOC smoothcore GS worked well for me once I had the right set up on my machine. ESAB mig caddy 200ci.
Mainly used for 2.5. - 5 mm steel and galvanised and it works well. Most important follow the instructions. I tried all the advice I was given and I can say the manufacturer was right all along.
It is messy and smokey but runs hot and burns in really well, similar to stick welding.
BOC only recommend it up to 5mm and one pass only, although with cleaning multi pass works OK.
I think the best advice is buy a good quality branded product and follow the instructions.
Welded the digger thumb up, 10mm, and even with some abuse it has not moved or damaged any of the welds.
Graham

Stick welding the job in the picture would be just as fast, and the flux would fall off probably easier.
On a bigger scale I would definitely go for the flux core wire though.
In general flux core is better run fast and hot. It has fluxes to cope with positional
welding and the differing material types too. Some even go for the ultimate in that
they use Dual Shield, which has a flux core and a shielding gas.
Nice to have choices.
One thing though, are you using Electrode Negative or Positive for the flux core from BOC.

Regards, paul

 

[Farside]

As mentioned above, if you find a good flux-core wire from a reputable source, stick with it.
I was going mental trying to find one locally, as all that was available was the dreadful SuperSix, but I found one local stockist of Air Liquide Weld-Team f/c wire, which made everything peachy again.
I wouldn't use SuperSix to glue cat turds together.

 

[leadpig]

Any idea what the sif wire is like

 

[Burdekin]

Do you already have a tig, if so is it also a stick welder? Working outside welding gates etc you won't beat stick.

 

[leadpig]

dont like mma

 

[arther dailey]

Prompted me to get cebora 130 out savo,grabbed half hour and tried some gasless on a piece of 1.5mm scrap,messy but fun,yes I changed earth over to suit, then I got some 10mm bar, turned it flat out on settings and about 3/4 on speed, to my suprise few runs turned out reasonable, dont know breed of wire it was gifted when bought machine, so reckon I will get some decent brand wire and give it a go this summer, more "tools" you have in your box better position you are in.Arther