00:00Hey, welcome to the shop.
00:01Today we're going to do some flux core welding, and I'm going to show you six common mistakes.
00:05So if your welds aren't coming out as good as you'd like, it's probably one of these
00:08things we'll talk about in this video.
00:10Now the first mistake is really a bad setup, and this includes a few different things.
00:15So I'm going to load the flux cord wire here into my MIG welder.
00:19You can use any MIG welder to run flux core wire without a shielding gas, but before I
00:24load the wire in, there's a couple things I need to change on here.
00:27Now the first thing I need to change is my polarity.
00:30See when I'm running solid wire, I'll have my actual wire feeder connect to the positive
00:35lug and the work clamp connect to negative.
00:39But I need to switch those around for most brands of self-shielded flux core wire, and
00:45that is going to be pretty important for it to run well, and it's easy to forget this
00:49one.
00:50The other thing I need to change out is my drive roll.
00:52See this is for solid wire.
00:53It has these V-shaped grooves, and these would clamp down a little bit too hard on the tubular
00:58wire, so I use these knurled rollers right here with those knurls in the grooves.
01:03Then you can lock down the idler tension, and almost every machine that I come across, this
01:09is cranked down way further than it needs to be.
01:11You can keep it pretty light with flux core wire, and those knurled rollers will grip it
01:16pretty well, and that's going to work a little better for your feeding.
01:19The second mistake that I've seen just about everybody do, especially as they're starting
01:23out, and I did it myself too, is turning knobs.
01:26What I mean by that is constantly adjusting the settings without actually understanding
01:31what they do.
01:32Let me show you what they actually do.
01:33Now I'm not going to use any kind of synergic program, I'll just set this to manual, and
01:38I can change my wire feed speed and my voltage.
01:41Those are the two variables that I have to control on a wire feed process.
01:47The amperage, or the main thing that changes your heat, actually automatically changes along
01:52with your wire feed speed, and there's some physics behind that we won't get into here,
01:57but if you need more heat, change your wire feed speed.
02:00The voltage changes your arc length.
02:02Let me show you.
02:03So these are some settings that I just got off of the door chart, and when I'm running them,
02:07if you look right here, this is running nice and smooth.
02:10My weld puddle's falling behind with 18.5 volts.
02:14Now if I drop that voltage way down to 13.5, I dropped it by 5 volts, you can see it's
02:20kind of sputtering and running into itself because that arc length is too short.
02:25Now if I crank the voltage way up 5 volts high at 23.5, that arc is so long, it's giving
02:31all kinds of spatter, and it's just out of control.
02:33Just for fun, let's take a look at the actual profiles.
02:36Obviously with a good voltage setting, it's nice and tied in on both sides and a good
02:42even profile.
02:43Right here, it's sticking up a little bit more, and here it was flattening out because
02:48that longer arc length actually spreads it out wider too.
02:53So that's the issue you get when it gets too long, too short, and just right, kind of the
02:59Goldilocks effect.
03:00If you're just beginning, start off by just using the settings on the door chart and then
03:06after you get a little bit of experience and practice, then you can come back and apply
03:11these to really fine tune it.
03:13But self shielded flux core is extremely forgiving on settings, and if you're not getting a good
03:17result and you're using the settings recommended by your machine manufacturer, it's probably
03:23not the settings.
03:24The next mistake I've seen a lot is your stick out will grow like Pinocchio's nose as you
03:29go along your weld.
03:30You'll end up with your wire sticking out right here, and you can tell this happened if you
03:35look at your gun after you weld and you have this wire sticking out long.
03:41Because what that'll do is, you know, you don't need shielding gas to cover it in this case,
03:47but this whole thing is a big resistor, and so that will heat all this wire up from electrical
03:53resistance.
03:54Remember, it's a tube, so it's a smaller cross section of wire, and it'll heat up quite
03:58a bit.
03:59So you need to keep that consistent.
04:02Now with larger diameter flux core wires, you actually need a little bit longer stick
04:06out because you want to preheat that wire in flux.
04:09But with this smaller 0.35, you can keep it pretty short, right around a half inch.
04:14So this is the motion that I usually see.
04:16It's something like this.
04:17Now I'm exaggerating it, but as you move along, if you're rolling your wrist or something like
04:21that, it's easy for that arc length to grow, or the stick out rather.
04:26Now watch here as I'm welding, it's going really well, but as I increase that length,
04:31look how it gets worse and worse and worse.
04:33No matter how good of a machine you have, that tube, remember it's like a drinking straw
04:37made out of metal here that's really small, just can't carry enough current there without
04:43losing voltage.
04:44So it's not going to work.
04:46If you look right there with the stick out around half an inch, it ran really well.
04:52But here, it looks a lot like that last example where the voltage was low, because we're losing
04:57voltage throughout all of that long wire right there.
05:01And everybody does this when they start out, it seems like.
05:04It's a really common mistake and something to look for.
05:07So check your wire when you finish and make sure you still have that short stick out.
05:12So that brings us to mistake number four, and that is using a push angle.
05:16See when you're MIG welding, often you can use a push angle and sometimes you even have
05:20to, but with flux core, whenever you can, it's best to use a drag angle because that'll
05:25help to push that slag back behind your weld pool.
05:28Let me show you what happens when you do push and sometimes it's unavoidable and it can work
05:33okay, but it's less than ideal.
05:35See, you're pushing that slag forward and so there's really not a good boundary between
05:40the slag and the weld pool, where if I use a drag angle, that's pushing the slag backwards.
05:48And so you can see a little bit of a gap at the back end of your weld puddle with the slag
05:54filling in over top and it gives you a better result.
05:57Just look at the difference in the weld bead profile, right?
05:59See with that push angle, it's a mess right here, much more consistent, much better weld
06:06profile.
06:07Now the next mistake we're going to look at is really the game changer.
06:10This is responsible for many ugly welds and the good news is it's pretty easy to fix.
06:17Now before we look at that, I'm going to tell you about my online courses.
06:21If you are just starting out with welding, learning to weld is hard, but I've put together
06:25some online courses that take you from the beginning with no knowledge, clear up through
06:30an ability to weld all of the common joints that you'll find on your projects.
06:34And I do it in very small lessons, about 30 lessons for each of the welding processes.
06:39I keep them as affordable as possible, a one-time payment of 39 bucks and they're yours forever
06:43with no subscription fees or anything like that.
06:46And if you find they're not for you, I'll give you your money back.
06:49Just shoot me an email, no questions asked.
06:51Now let's go ahead and get into mistake number five, which is the big one.
06:57This is travel speed and it comes down to traveling too fast most of the time.
07:02So you get the hood down and you start welding and it's really a time warp.
07:06Honestly, that's what I love about welding, but it can make it difficult if you haven't
07:10yet learned to recognize and understand the puddle.
07:13Let me show you what happens when you travel too fast with flux core.
07:16Now I'm going to tack up a T-joint because it'll be a lot easier to see in this case.
07:21So as I begin welding, I'm tracing right along the joint and this is what most beginners
07:27think you need to do is just follow right along the joint as though you're putting icing
07:32on a cake.
07:33But there's a lot more to it than that to really read and follow a weld puddle.
07:39So there you have it.
07:40See, not only is the bead too small because you're moving so quickly, but it's inconsistent.
07:45See, it's not even tied in in some areas and it's just kind of chunked along.
07:50And I've seen this on so many people's flux core welds in the beginning, really, really
07:55common.
07:56Now, if you're thinking the solution to this is just to slow down, you're wrong because
08:02this isn't the problem.
08:03This is a symptom of an extremely common problem.
08:08And that is that you haven't yet developed the ability to see and recognize the weld puddle.
08:14So when you're welding, you want to remain right on the front leading edge of the weld
08:18puddle.
08:19And I think of it like filling up a glass of water and keeping your finger right on the
08:23surface of the water as it fills.
08:25In order to do this, you need to be able to see the actual weld puddle and to learn how
08:30to see it, you've got to put in a lot of reps.
08:33And the best way to get some rapid fire practice and learn how to do this is by padding beads
08:38on plates.
08:39So you'll run a bead, clean off the slag, and then run another one that's overlapping
08:43it by halfway.
08:45And in the beginning, you might just see a bright light and do your best to try to follow along
08:50a line.
08:51You can scribe some lines on here if you want.
08:53But by the end, you'll be able to see and recognize that weld puddle.
08:57And then when you go back to the joint like this, you'll be able to follow along really well
09:03and stay up on the leading edge of that weld puddle.
09:06And you can control the size of the weld by the travel speed, right?
09:10If you go faster, you'll have a little bit smaller weld.
09:13And if you go slower, it'll be a little bit bigger, at least within reason.
09:17But you don't need to do any kind of manipulation or loop-de-loops or circles.
09:20You just need to be able to stay there with your weld puddle right up on the leading edge
09:25and let it fill in.
09:27And you'll end up with a bead that you're going to be really happy with and you'll have
09:31a lot of strength to it.
09:32You can see how you're getting that heat penetrating right into the material.
09:36Take a look at how much nicer that is.
09:38When you can see and recognize the weld puddle and you stay right up on the leading edge of
09:42it, you can get a nice weld that's tied in on both sides.
09:46Self-shielded flux core can make a great weld.
09:48It's used all the time in industry too, and it can run really well when you avoid the mistakes
09:52we're talking about in this video.
09:54Okay, so the mistakes we've gone over so far are the ones that are keeping most people
09:58from making a weld that they're proud of.
10:00But I want to mention one more bonus mistake, number six, and that is using the wrong wire
10:05for the job.
10:06See not all self-shielded flux core wire is created equal.
10:10Some are made for only a single pass weld on thinner material, and others can be used with
10:16multiple passes on top of each other to build up a larger weld, especially on thicker material.
10:22Now when you buy your wire at Harbor Freight or at the big box store or farm and ranch store,
10:28most of it's going to be E71T-GS, and that S stands for single pass, and that wire is engineered
10:35to mix together with your base metal.
10:38And if you stack beads of filler on top of itself, it'll accumulate some elements and you
10:45won't have the best properties.
10:46It works great on single pass, and some brands work better than others, but it typically works
10:51pretty good.
10:52However, if you are going to make a multi-pass weld, E71T-11 is going to be a better option,
10:59and that's easy to get at your welding supply or online, and that's pretty much all I buy
11:03for self-shielded flux core.
11:05But if you don't need to run multi-pass, just don't worry about it.
11:08Hey, thanks a ton for tuning in.
11:10Just a reminder, those online courses are linked in the description if that's something you're
11:14interested in.
11:15If you enjoyed this or learned something, let me know by leaving me a comment.
11:18I really appreciate all of the engagement that I get, or at least hit that thumbs up,
11:23and we'll see you next time.
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