I am not a welder - not no how!

I have a Century brand wire welder. It operates on 110V and uses .030 flux core wire. No gas. I have tried, and tried, and tried to get a decent looking bead out of it with no luck whatsoever. It's supposed to work on 18 gauge metal through 3/16 inch stock. I bought some sheet metal and some bar stock at Home Depot to practice on. I have some friends who are successful at welding so I took my practice runs to them on a number of occasions to get advice.

In spite of their best advice, I still stink. My "beads" look like a chicken has been walking on the metal. The stuff that I try to weld is holding together well, but just looks awful.

Without telling me get a better welder, do you have any advice? I'd sure appreciate it if you'd come to Spring Hill Tennessee and show me what I'm doing wrong.

Tom in TN

Your a dauber....


found out after trying for years...

don't look at your arc.. look just a spec behind the arc,, and as the weld flows back to that area, then you can move the arc forward.

Practice , practice , practice. Post some pics . Go on Youtube and watch. My advice is buy a grinder so you can grind off and start again if need be. If you are laying blobs of bubble gum you have not learned a steady bead yet so answer is still more practice.

Is your machine set up for gas also? Your polarity could be wrong then . If not I can tell you most 110 volt migs that aren't lincoln, Miller , hobArt etcetera are usually not that great to use . I've been doing sheet metal and steel fab for 25 years and occasionally one will show up in the shop to try . Couple years ago owner brought one in asked me to use it . At break he asked how it worked and I said like a $250 welder . It broke several times and they actually give you a new one that will break . Price usually dictates quality . Oh and it wouldn't hurt to see what amp breaker you're on and try not to use a long cord .

Getting things set up just right is hard to do on a wire feed welder and the ones with out gas it is even harder. Been welding since I was 16 so well over 40 years and did it for a living form time to time. Find a book on welding and read it. If you have a Vo-tec school in your area take a welding course most have them and are a good place to start learning how to weld. I own both a mig flux core welder and a Lincoln 225 buzz box so I do a lot of welding

I borrowed a 140 Miller from work, and a it s highest settings it just did have enough power to weld the sheet metal on the Jeep I was repairing. If you have an extension cord, get rid of it,try again. BTW, push the weld, do not pull it like a stick welder.

If you are trying to weld on galvanized sheet metal, you're opening up a can of worms. Just don't do it. Get some scrap cutoffs about 3/16-1/4 thick and some 10 gauge sheet black metal. Practice welding the two sizes together. As you run the bead concentrate more on the thicker metal and less heat ie (arc time) on the thinner. You might want to try .035 wire, it has more flux inside. Small Flux core welders don't weld thin materials well at all. Flux core is best only when outdoors and wind blows your gas away. I'm about an hour N of you up 65 if I can help anymore. Nathan

I got a call from a neighbor a few nights ago who was trying to weld a couple of pieces on his trailer, and was getting the same results you are. In his case he was trying to use .023 flux cored wire and it was simply too small for what he was trying to weld, What was happening was the material was drawing the heat out of the wire and making it bead, instead of the wore melting the metal and fusing it. Thankfully he had a partial spool of .030 wire that had come with the welder when he bought it, so I put it on. This allowed me to turn up the heat enough to weld the two pieces on for him.

Unless your welding really thin sheet metal, like the skin on a car, there is absolutely no reason to go below .035 wire. I've got a 220V Hobart machine that I'm running .035 in, and I can, and have, welded anything from sheet metal to 3/4 plate with it, with absolutely no problems. In fact if you ever saw the pics of the bale buster I built a few years ago, everything on it was welded with this machine, and it has been undergoing a near daily pounding since put into service with no problems.

That being said, try stepping up to the .035 wire if your machine will handle it, and if you can use gas, that's even better. If you can't run the larger wire, then my suggestion would be to sell that machine and find another 220 volt that will. Like I said the 110v machines running the .030, and smaller, wire aren't really good for anything but thin sheet metal, regardless of whether they claim to handle 3/16 or not, and aren't really much use for anyone doing the average repair to a piece of equipment. Basically they can't get hot enough to fuse/weld the metal, and wind up leaving 'chicken droppings' on the surface, just like your currently seeing.

You can only push the weld when using gas. When using flux core and no gas you create slag. There is an old saying in the welding world "if it creates slag you drag".

As others have stated: Do make sure the polarity is correct for flux core. If you have the polarity set for gas then it will not weld worth a hoot.

Any 115 mig is somewhat limited. The ones from Lincoln, Hobart, and Miller though do work well within their capabilities though. That said there is absolutely no reason that machine should not run some Hobart E71T-11 0.030 flux core quite well.

Using flux core limits the thin ranges some but does helps on the thicker end. Should weld in the 16 gauge to 1/8" thick range real easily with flux core and some occasional 3/16" thick will be about all that little less than stellar machine can handle and it will likely struggle with the 3/16". Switch to gas and then you may be able to do like 24 gauge but will top at 1/8 thick metal with that century machine.

Wrong polarity will cause results as you describe. Should be a label or in the manual so you can check. Just my 2 cents.

There are some very good tutorials for welding and similar processes here, http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/ . I consider myself a good welder, and still consult the link before trying something different, metal is expensive. Here is one specific to MIG, http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/tech_tips/MIG_tips/

Without being there to watch you, I would say you are maybe trying to move too fast and not giving the metal time to heat and melt. Watch the base metal and just as it melts move to the other side and do the same. The wire has to melt into what you are trying to weld. Takes lots of practice.

I have never seen any .023 or .024 flux core welding wire. All diameters of that size I have ever seen are solid mig wires that require gas.

0.030 is the smallest flux core wire that I have ever found. Typically 0.035 is the most prevalent size in flux core.

Regardless on a little marginal machine like that century the 0.030 flux core is the way to go if you dead set on using flux core wire and you want E71T-11 (as it is suitable for multi-pass) instead of the E71T-GS which is seismic code certified but is NOT suitable for multi-pass. Few people likely to be doing code work though with a little 115 volt wire feeder.

Having multi-pass capability is critical on an underpowered little 115 volt wire feeder IMOP. Hobart brand will be the best that you can easily find at TSC, Rural King, etc.

If you using some Harbor Freight crap crap then throw that in the trash immediately before it plugs your liner - BTDT.

As others have said check your polarity first. Inside the cabinet where the roll of wire goes there should be two post. One marked (-) and the other marked (+). For flux core wire the gun should be connected to the (-) post, the ground clamp lead should be attached to the (+) post. 0.30 wire should run fine if the heat and wire speed settings balance out. It the wire is burning off before it gets to the pool either turn the heat down or the wire speed up. If you can feel the wire hitting the metal either turn the heat up or wire speed down. With a 110 volt machine your travel speed will be slow.

Here are the things that will affect the quality and appearance of your bead. Most of these have already been mentioned:

1. Make sure your polarity is correct. Flux core generally runs electrode negative (gun connected to the negative terminal inside the welder).

2. Wire stickout (the distance from the contact tip to the work) should be no greater than ½”

3. Drag the wire, don’t push.

4. Heat setting and the wire feed speed must be in balance. When they are properly adjusted, the welding sound will be like frying bacon. (This is not true above 21 volts, but a 110 volt welder like yours won’t even get close to that.)

5. Don’t move so fast. If you move too slowly, the weld will flow out too far, but it won’t be ugly the way you describe. Moving too fast makes the weld intermittent and irregular.

6. Your welder will work best on a 20 amp circuit, without an extension cord. If you have to use an extension cord, it should be 12 gauge (or larger).

7. Your work pieces should be cleaned to bright metal for ½” back from the edges to be welded. Cleaning both sides (top and bottom) might be overkill, but it wouldn’t hurt.

8. Clean to bright metal where you attach the work clamp (ground clamp). With a stick welder you can tell if your ground is good by feeling the ground clamp after you have been welding for a few minutes---the warmer the ground clamp, the worse your ground connection. I’m not sure this is the case with a 110 volt wire welder, but you could try it.

9. Use good quality flux core wire. There’s a high cost associated with saving money with bad wire from Harbor Freight or brand X from the internet.


Stan

Just to add, I have noticed you have to re-learn welding with a new spool of wire if it is a different heat range number. Not a lot of difference in them but a little. I make battery covers for Molines. I use 18ga steel and use a wire feed, gasless.

Tom you need to do as others have said about checking for the right polarity for flux core wire. Now that that is said hear is what I want you to do. Go out to your welder and run some wire out of the tip of the gun, Now run enough wire out to make a circle by it's self (easy to do on the work bench) and cut it off so the wire goes past the other end by 2 inches and cut the wire off. Pick it up in the center of the wire lenth and hold it up in the air. This will tell you the cast and the helix of the wire. The cast is how big the circle is across (The bigger the better) and now for the Helix, The Helix is the distance between the 2 ends of the wire while holding it up ( You want it to touch or as close side to side as possible). Now if the wire comes out of the tip of the gun and it looks like a tight cork screw big or small I don't care how good of a welder you are you WILL NOT GET A GOOD WELD!!!!! Bad cast and helix will cause the wire to bind in the cable (burn out in the tip and plug it) and will cause the weld to jump around and act like it's gone crazy.

You may ask how I know all about this, Simple My job was to make Flux Core wire and I ran millions of pounds of it. .030 .035 .045 .052 .063 and .078 Flux Core mig wire in standard Flux Core .030 and .035 and Flux Core E71-T1 and E70-C6 witch both need shield gas ether Argon mix or strait Co2 in .035 .045 .052 .063 and .078. To tell you the truth I would stick with one of the big 3 welder names for there brand of flux core wire and not use any of the others (I know ware they come from)as its not as good. Good wire, clean cable, right size tip with the right speed and temp for the wire is a must to start with. Form there it just takes practice to get good looking welds and playing with the heat and speed ( the numbers given are a good starting point but you have to play with it). Oh before I forget on the inside of the cover for the wire on the welder there is a diagram on how to wire the welder for solid mig wire and flux core wire. I had a Century welder like you have. Bandit

As others have said, check the polarity. Also make sure the tip is sized right for your wire. If the hole in the tip is for larger wire it will contact intermittently and cause no end of grief.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have printed this string and plan to take it with me to the barn tomorrow and try some more welding.

I believe you have made it possible for me to succeed.

Tom in TN

A few guys mentioned throw away the drop cord if you are using one. A welder will still weld at reduced input voltage but it won't weld well. I wasn't completely happy with my Miller 252 when I first had it. It just didn't seem to work as smooth as I thought it should. Then the power company took out the old 100 amp service to my farm and replaced it with 200 amp along with moving the transformer closer to the buildings. I immediately noticed a difference in the welder. You might just have too much voltage drop coming from a weakness somewhere in your wiring.

Many community colleges offer a series of welding classes ranging from night classes for beginners to a degree and certification testing. Also check local Adult Education classes.

I have a craftsman welder that sounds similar. With it I have to weld real slow. I've quit trying to weld actual steel members with it and use if for sheetmetal only.

504;

You drag FCAW, like stick. You don't push because that can cause slag entrapment. With GMAW the direction of travel is mostly a matter of choice, although there are slight differences in the characteristics of the direction of travel which an experienced user can use to his or her advantage. For those who are less than expert, getting a decent weld is the major concern, and moving whichever direction works best for them makes the most sense.

This is not to say that an expert could not push FCAW and get away with it. With enough experience and intelligence a person can knowingly do all sorts of things which are technically wrong and manage avoid the associated problems, but that in no way implies that a beginner, or even an average user, shouldn't follow the rules carefully.

Stan

I have a Century that is either gas or gasless. I have found the only way to make it weld good is to run it on a 30 amp breaker. I found this out a bunch of years ago. My ex brother in law said same thing from where he worked. They had problems, then switched to bigger breaker and worked good. Also, no extension cord. If you use a 20 amp breaker make sure the welder is ALL that are drawing on the circuit. Wire speed is important too. BTW, if you wire a 30 amp breaker, make sure you use 10ga wire.

good luck

Your welder has a current control. Unfortunately, it's labeled "wire speed". Don't be afraid to crank up the speed to get enough heat.

Mark;

That's true, but he has to be aware that the output voltage and the current/wire speed have to remain balanced. If he was getting good results (smooth arc, frying bacon sound, etc.) with the wire feed speed at 50%, he can't just turn up the speed for more heat and leave the voltage setting where it was. The wire will start stubbing out, which will make the feed rough, at the very least. On a welder with a more powerful feed system than that one probably has, running wire out faster than the arc can burn it off is a good way to tie up the machine with a bird's nest. An intermittent arc caused by an oversized hole in the contact tip (as another poster pointed out) is another way to achieve the same thing.

Stan

If right handed, draw from left to right, try minimum angle on arc and make small circles instead of straight drag that likely will have skips and beads. triple circle or 6 circles with just a little drag movement will get bead established and reinforced, deeper penetration. Low voltage, fine wire means multiple pass/circle at the welding spot to get the penetration at the heated site from first circle, fill in and initial skip. Makes a wider, fuller bead than a straight slow drag at higher voltage, thicker wire- but with a 110 welder that is what is needed sometimes. RN

I took that adult education class 30 years ago and they only had big comercial welders, nothing a home owner or a local repair shop could have. Learning on that type of machine is totally usless on a repair shop sized welder let alone a home size. Waste of time and money.

Stan, you're absolutely right. But I find it helps if you "drive" with the wire speed, and adjust the voltage to match the speed. A novice mistake is to set the voltage to the recommended setting for the material, then try to slow down the wire speed for fear of welding too fast.

Leroy;

I've taught the introductory welding and metal working class maybe twelve or fifteen times over the past five or six years as part of the Continuing Education program at the local community college, and prior to that I assisted with it dozens of times. It hasn't been my experience that many people come away feeling the way you did about it. By starting with oxy/acetylene welding and then moving on to GMAW (MIG), and offering stick welding to those who are interested, people learn the fundamentals of welding which they will need to know regardless of what welders they use afterwards. Students in the for-credit welding program at the same community college spend more than 150 hours per quarter learning to weld (paying more than ten times what the CE class costs). Compared to that, it's unrealistic to expect to learn anything in depth from a class which meets for three hours once a week for ten weeks, and attempts to introduce a wide variety of processes (oxy/acetylene, GMAW, SMAW, oxy/fuel cutting, plasma cutting, forging/blacksmithing, metal punching, shearing, bending, grinding, polishing, etc.) Even though students learn on equipment which is significantly more expensive than most of them would ever buy for personal use, they almost always finish the class far better qualified to operate whatever equipment they do choose to buy than if they had not taken the class. I stay in touch with many of those who are the most interested, so I know this to be the case.

Stan

I agree with all of this -

I'd add/stress a few points.

Clean metal makes a HUGE difference. Trying to blow through rust/paint/oil/even just a slightly oxidized surface is only going to cause major frustration. Even if you're just practicing - hit it with an angle grinder/sanding pad. If you don't own one, buy one - you simply cannot weld with a small welder without one.

There's a strong tendency to want to turn the wire speed down - the beginner logic is usually "slower is safer and easier". Do some bird )#(*$ welds at your normal setting - then try speeding the feed up, you may be surprised that you get a much stronger arc, and find the metal pooling a lot better.

Try slowing down (not talking wire feed here - but the speed YOU move at). Try going ridiculously slow, the results may surprise you. Practice on thicker metal so you don't also have to worry about blowing through.

Forget circles and letter e's etc. Those pro "stack of nickels" welds you see aren't "drawn" that way with little circles, you may be surprised to see your welds look like that from simply moving in a steady straight line. So just work on moving in a straight line. You want to move in a slow CONSISTENT pace. Consistency is huge in the looks of your weld.
It can be agonizing and painful with your hand cramping as you try to maintain a perfectly straight line at a steady slow speed. Just keep doing it and it'll get easier.

You didn't mention your welding helmet - I strongly advise an adjustable shade - if you can't see your weld, you're never going to get good looking welds. Sure a pro can do a good weld with his eyes closed, but you can't. You have to see not just the puddle, but also where you're going. You can't if it's too bright or too dark.

Also - if you happen to be near sighted like I am - and typically remove your glasses for close up work - don't forget to remove them when welding! Again - that can make a huge difference. I made that mistake for a LONG time myself. My welds improved significantly when I finally did it without my glasses.

As others have suggested - the current is fairly easy to figure out - and for practice welding, you really should be able to get a non-bird-)#*$ looking weld from any setting on your welder. So, set it in the middle, and only play with feed rate.

Once you find that you can consistently lay a regular, non blobbed bead on a flat piece of steel, things WILL progress for you. Your welds may not be beautiful works of art (to anybody but you) but those simple straight line welds will become a solid foundation for you. THEN you can start getting fancy with the little loops, etc.

It will happen with a little experimenting - we've all been through it. Don't give up.

before somebody calls me on it - I said "current" when I meant "voltage"!