by michael
(lake city, fl )
I'm in welding school and having a horrible time getting the weld puddle to go fill in and go up the weld before it burns through on my root pass I've tried adjusting my speed to 295 and my temp to 18.5 on the flux core 0.035,wire. I passed my 2g on my second try. I just can't seem to even get a descent root on vertical in 6 tries any help will be greatly appreciated. I have already passed all my fillet welds. And only have four weeks left to pass my bend test on flux core, pulse, and solid wire which is 8 welds in 16 days including bend test on vertical and overhead open grove.
------------------------------------------------
I would need the specs on the wire to be able to give any meaningful settings.
I will say this, You are not going to encounter .035" flux core very often in the workplace.
but i understand you need to pass your tests to move on and go to the next thing.
so here is some basic advice.
write down the specs from the roll of wire and make note of whether it is e70t or e71t or what.
paste this url in the browser address bar...
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/en_US/Products/ED030949/c110b.pdf
find the wire that is the same spec as the one you are using ...for example, E71T-1C-H8 is one of them.
look at the charts carefully to get the best starting point for your settings.
and the very first thing is to make sure the machine is on the right polarity.
many flux core wires are designed to be used with dcen electrode negative.
it happens all the time in welding schools where bare wire mig is used along with flux core....someone forgets to swap polarity and the wire is changed out to flux core...and it runs bad until someone figures the problem.
also, stickout is very important and so is gun angle.
stickout is longer than for bare wire mig
gun angle almost always works at 90 degrees.
this is a big pdf listing all kinds of flux core wires so you are going to need to really drill down.
also ctwd means contact tip to work distance and is listed in mm and inches...pay attention to that.
this is a really good reference and i suggest you either bookmark it, print it off , or save it as a pdf on your computer.