the horror of gasless wire!

[Dogbreath23]

Am I the only one who thinks gasless wire is a nightmare? a mate gave me a roll to use and I have been tinkering about with it. I like to think that I can use a MIG welder properly and produce a good consistant run but with this stuff it all turns to pigeon s**t! It doesnt seem to wnt to behave, the arc sputters all over the place,then it'll burn through, then it'll blob up in horrible dollops and then the arc will start spluttering all over again! Why me? What have I done to deserve this?

 

[Bsmith]

Are you using it with a gas mig? If so, I don't know whether it will work or not because the polarity is the opposite for gasless.

 

[Dogbreath23]

Ive been running it torch negative, apperantly this is the right set up for gasless.Is is just horrible stuff to use or what?

 

[shenion]

Cheap gasless wire is useless. Same for any that has sat a while and oxidized.

I had a roll of Lincoln wire. It was not bad to use.

 

[Bsmith]

Nope you got a prob somewhere, dunno what, but gasless wire is not that bad to use, prefer gas though.

 

[Dogbreath23]

is there any tricks that you could recomend mr Smith? I dunno what gives. the wire is made by Clarke, their stuffs usually allright it has no rust or dirt on it. Like I say the arc seems to splutter all over the place.

 

[madkayaker]

have you changed the tip as gasless is 0.9mm

 

[Bigjoe]

Have you looked in the tutorials at the top of the page,im sure there is a short gasless one in there somewhere,i know it burns hotter than gas wire (to melt the flux) so you may need to play with setting and how fast you move the torch by experimentation.

And of course a good quality gasless wire helps a great deal.

 

[Dogbreath23]

have you changed the tip as gasless is 0.9mm

the tips fine, its the right size for the wire n that.Tbh I think I just set this thread so I could come on here and slag off gasless wire! ugh! its horrible stuff and it makes no sense!

 

[darrylp]

welding with it, just requires a new skill to weld effectively and cleanly with it.

sure it will weld different to a normal shielded gas wire, but practice. you'll get it in the end if you do. it has its uses, so add the ability to weld with it to your skill set.

 

[chunkolini]

dogbreath
if you wat to make the switch to gas I have a spare reg, slightly damaged but it works, you can have it for free, anything to keep you away from making babies.
When are you up this way?

Chunko'.

 

[Dragonetti]

Welding with gasless wire is more akin to MMA stick welding than MIG. Think of the wire as a rod with the flux on the inside.
Make sure that your workpiece is ground back to good bare metal and is thoroughly degrease. If you are still having problems with it sputtering, try anti-spatter spray
Rgdz,

Ron

 

[twowheels]

I started mig welding gaasless and still do. I have found the .90 wire more harsh to use than the .80 I use. I use the weldability brand as I have had good results from it. You just have to develop a method and understand how it works to get the best effect. It will never be as neat as gas welding but I have laid some strong weld which has surprised me.
I tend to hold near the end of the nozzle to keep the tip at the right distance and constant and do short bursts especially on 1.2mm metal.

 

[Fazed]

It's not pretty but you should be able to get an acceptable weld with it. Remove the gas shroud from your torch so you can see the arc better. Gasless wire throws out more crap and spatter than with gas, but you don't have any gas to focus on the weld pool so you don't need the shroud.

 

[easypic]

i know it burns hotter than gas wire (to melt the flux) so you may need to play with setting and how fast you move the torch by experimentation.

Hi Guys,

could this be the problem im having with welding thin sheet metal it keeps blowing through, copper behind it works a bit but not great even on lowest setting.

Would changing to a Gas setup resolve me issue???

Apart from that anything 2mm and over works great although the wire that came with my welder was crap

 

[Fazed]

Hi Guys,

could this be the problem im having with welding thin sheet metal it keeps blowing through, copper behind it works a bit but not great even on lowest setting.

Would changing to a Gas setup resolve me issue???

Apart from that anything 2mm and over works great although the wire that came with my welder was crap

Yes. For thin stuff use 0.6mm wire. Flux cored is something like 0.9mm and gives a hotter weld than solid wire + gas set-up.

 

[easypic]

Thanks Fazed

Just gotta weigh up if it's worth buying a reg and renting the gas bottle for the amount of time i use my mig

 

[Chomas]

I find that you really have to have a feeling for it's temperature. That's probably partly down to my welder only having "high" and "low" power settings and no wire feed speed. I've done loads of gasless welding over the years and find you generally have to pulse it on and be patient.

As has already been stated, get the metal as clean as possible. No paint, rust, grease or anything. Nice sparkly clean and fresh.