Flux Core Cable

[stevelepage]

Hi,

I started mig welding a month or so ago as a hobby and am getting on well. Up until now I had been using the reel of flux core cable that came with my Sealey Mighty Mig no gas welder, but I ran out so had to buy some more.

I bought the following wire to use with the machine which says its the correct one to use with my welder:
Sealey TG100/1 Flux Cored MIG Wire 0.9kg 0.9mm A5.20 Class E71T-GS

The thing is that now when using this wire i no longer get the crusty slag coating on top of the weld - its just a clean metal weld without any slag what soever. Have i done something wrong when putting this wire into my welder or are there just some types of flux core wire that don't leave slag? I was expecting it to work exactly the same as the wire that came with the machine.

Thanks

 

[norlander]

can you post pictures of the welds with the new wire?.

 

[stevelepage]

Thanks for getting back to me. The welds with the new wire are as follows. These pictures were taken immediately after doing the welds - i have not touched them. Previously I always had to use a wire brush or mig hammer to remove a crust of slag from the top of the weld but they are now just shiny metal with no crust.

 

[Rig Pig]

That looks like a shiny layer of flux on top of the weld, hit it with a hammer and see if it falls off.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Thanks for getting back to me. The welds with the new wire are as follows. These pictures were taken immediately after doing the welds - i have not touched them. Previously I always had to use a wire brush or mig hammer to remove a crust of slag from the top of the weld but they are now just shiny metal with no crust.

View attachment 46774
View attachment 46775

Thanks for getting back to me. The welds with the new wire are as follows. These pictures were taken immediately after doing the welds - i have not touched them. Previously I always had to use a wire brush or mig hammer to remove a crust of slag from the top of the weld but they are now just shiny metal with no crust.

View attachment 46774
View attachment 46775

what's a mig hammer?

those welds look like they have slag on them, as they should do. Will clean up very easily with a brush

 

[norlander]

Aq the other lads have said looks like slag, with DIY gasless MIG the slag can be quite tough-I have a wire cup brush on my 115 cheepy angle grinder-I scrub welds up with that sometimes. Most flux core slag I have seen does not completely cover the weld like that so maybe your replacement wire has a different coverage. Scrub em up and see what you get.
Also, do a fillet weld and see how that goes.

 

[stevelepage]

I have had a chip away at it with my hammer and there is some material (but not very much) which has crumbled off so i guess that must be the slag for the weld. It just looks unusual to me as previously i used to get a yellowish crust that covered the whole weld like in the top picture on this webpage: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/gasless-mig.htm and came off easily with the wire brush but now the whole weld is just silver. I guess it must just be due to a different type of flux in the new wire.

Thanks for taking a look. If it looks fine to you guys then I will just continue using it, but thought i would check as its not what i had expected and am still learning. From how the welds look I was kind of wondering if i had been provided the wrong wire in the box i.e. not flux core wire.

 

[Jan]

If you're in any doubt you should do a couple of welds on some scrap and test them to destruction. This will show up if the slag has become incorporated into the weld seriously weakening it.