Good Day One and All

[Zeugitai]

I'm Mark and I'm 52 years old. I took some shop classes in junior high and high school, but then became an English teacher for twenty years. I Live out in rural northwest Iowa. I bought the Clarke WE6523 gas/no gas mig 130EN because it was on sale. I haven't used it yet, nor have I ever welded anything in my life. I have a garage, however, that resembles a miniature, enclosed junkyard (--actually, it doesn't yet resemble a junkyard enough to suit me. I still can't lay hands on the part, nut, screw, bolt, I need when I need it--) and I anticipate needing to weld. Primarily, the garage is littered with the parts of old motorcycles, none of which are up and running. I am "working" on a '66 BSA A65, but am constantly defeated by the lack of proper hardware and tools.

Right now, I don't have the gas equipment, so I'll be using the machine to do no-gas welding first off. Yesterday I wanted to weld a nut onto a piece of angle steel to make a pinion puller and realized that I had failed to buy wire with the unit. (actually, I didn't know that I'd be needing it and not rods.) I have to go back and get some today. The manual has me set to look for flux-cored wire of perhaps a diameter of 035. Am I in the right ballpark with that notion?

I have not yet had tome to read the tutorial section(s), but intend to, ASAP.

I'm thankful to have found this forum. Hello to all, and thanks in advance for the assistance I anticipate receiving here.

 

[malcolm]

Welcome. I think 035 is the thinnest wire you can get for gasless welding. It's probably the best size of gasless wire to buy for the 130EN.

The tutorials are well worth a look. The only difference gasless wire should make is you'll need to clean the slag off before welding over again. For the thin metal page the time between welding should be half a second or less with gasless so it doesn't cool down.

Give it a shot using the tutorials for reference. It will be a lot easier with shielding gas, but the gasless wire should get you going. I've not used gasless much so come back with your questions and it'll help me.