wlhequipment
Senior Member
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$$ is was! Of course, as soon as I unwrapped it, it unravelled and knitted me a wire sweater right there. Already I'm pretty irritated with this stuff. I get it in the machine, feeds right and strike a few beads on some scrap to get the feel for it. Kinda touchy on cleanliness, but ok, I can deal with that. Clean the steel really good, and it seems to lay a decent bead. I go to make my frame of my guard, and I'm laying down some fairly nice looking beads, all proud of myself. Until that frame I'm making falls off the table, and on the floor, and literally comes completely apart. I had ZERO penetration. NONE. It's like I was trying to lay up stainless with a soldering iron. WTH...
I scrap canned the wire, went home, and finished up this am after a trip to the store to get more gas. It's fine now.
Do you guys have similar experiences with this stuff? It's crazy how the bead can actually look ok but be completely worthless. OK, I'm done complaining. I thought you guys might get a kick out of this.
So I'm making a guard this week for a factory machine that a girl lost her finger on, and OSHA came in and started handing out citations to my customer. Rightfully so, the machine had no guard at all. I'm making it out of 1/8 angle and 1/4 plexiglas blah blah. I'm working on it last night, and ran out of gas (of course), and I wanted it done because I have about a 3 other better paying jobs to do. I stopped by Lowes and got a spool of that flux core stuff. I was thinking I'd just finish er up and go home.
What a pain in the a$$ 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.