So very over shielded core mig wire.

What is with that stuff? Seriously I must be using it wrong. I'm not certified (I really want to be) but I do a fair amount of welding on construction equipment. Thicker, more forgiving materials. I've never had a problem in 10 years of doing this. I have a few machines, one of those big 300A stick machines, a little combo machine, gas, and a wire feed mig. I use the mig for thinner stuff, like 1/8" or less. I'm too ham - fisted to use the bigger machines for that.

So I'm making a guard this week for a factory machine that a girl lost her finger on, and OSHA came in and started handing out citations to my customer. Rightfully so, the machine had no guard at all. I'm making it out of 1/8 angle and 1/4 plexiglas blah blah. I'm working on it last night, and ran out of gas (of course), and I wanted it done because I have about a 3 other better paying jobs to do. I stopped by Lowes and got a spool of that flux core stuff. I was thinking I'd just finish er up and go home.

What a pain in the a$$ is was! Of course, as soon as I unwrapped it, it unravelled and knitted me a wire sweater right there. Already I'm pretty irritated with this stuff. I get it in the machine, feeds right and strike a few beads on some scrap to get the feel for it. Kinda touchy on cleanliness, but ok, I can deal with that. Clean the steel really good, and it seems to lay a decent bead. I go to make my frame of my guard, and I'm laying down some fairly nice looking beads, all proud of myself. Until that frame I'm making falls off the table, and on the floor, and literally comes completely apart. I had ZERO penetration. NONE. It's like I was trying to lay up stainless with a soldering iron. WTH...

I scrap canned the wire, went home, and finished up this am after a trip to the store to get more gas. It's fine now.

Do you guys have similar experiences with this stuff? It's crazy how the bead can actually look ok but be completely worthless. OK, I'm done complaining. I thought you guys might get a kick out of this.

Friend of mine is a professional welder, teaching his son to weld by making a go kart with the stuff as we speak. Hope it does not fall apart for him.

I have done a fair amount of field welding with .030 and the most awful junk store wire feed 120v suitcase and it has been working for me for exhaust tubing. I make miter changes of direction, and such.

Self shield wire runs opposite polarity of hard wire or dual shield. Run it electrode negative (DC-). NR211 is kind of fussy about voltage too. It's a low voltage wire. I think Lincoln says max 19V for .035. Plus it needs more distance between the tip and the work to let the flux pre-heat (1/2" stickout or so). You have to keep the arc in the puddle at all times and not lead out of it or you'll get the puddle flowing over the slag and no penetration. Same thing if you try and push the arc and puddle.

The best flux core for sheet metal in my opinion if Hobart Fabshield 23B. It has a soft arc that won't blow through thin stuff.

Yes, reverse your polarity

AH! I didn't think of polarity. Primarily because that particular machine can't reverse. Not without taking it apart anyway. Good tip! Thanks I think it's time for a new machine anyway

Mine I had to do a fair amount of bolting and unbolting in the wire feeder area, not something you would want to do on a daily basis.

If I'm using flux core wire I prefer dual shield anyway. Better penetration, less slag, and welds faster than just using straight flux core wire.

I've run a lot of dual shield but so far have not had the pleasure of inner shield. My brother used to run it on his 110 machine but when he saw my set up and how easy it was to run and how little amount of smoke, he went that way and offered the roll of inner shield to me. I told him it could sit in his shop just as well as in mine.

i have never had alot of success running flux core, seems to be ok on thin material.
My machine was a pain to change polarity so I brought a cable to power to the wire feed out through the grill at the front of the machine and have one of those quick connects on the end so i can plug it in pos or neg at front.
Bit ugly but i don't care as my machine is getting pretty old now.