Camaroholic

iTrader: (1)

I've got a Campbell-Hausfeld Flux Core 105A welder. Thought I'd try to use it to weld my Wolfe rear drag bar to my 12 bolt.



I'm not a welder. Haven't done anything 'thick' with it before. Mostly just thin stuff, like a table, little brackets, etc. I tacked the bar in, but things didn't look right. Hmm...

I figured out that it just wasn't penetrating the metal. So I removed the 12-bolt today and ground down the welds (using my new Hitachi angle grinder... mmmmm, angle grinder...). There was NO penetration. None. Once the weld material was ground away, the metal was there and pristine. I ground to the point where the brackets simply slipped off again.

So... I went out and picked up a Lincoln 225A AC Arc Welder. It oughta do the trick. I messed around with it this afternoon on some thick stuff, and was able to lay down a decent bead with some practice. It was able to penetrate 3/16" steel like butter. Of course I had to wire my shop from the breaker for the right plug, etc... so I didn't get a chance to actually weld the bracket to the rear end. I did get the rear end all cleaned up and ready to weld though. Again.

I can't afford a TIG setup right now, or anything fancy... and these welds don't have to 'look' good, they just have to work. The Arc Welder looks like it'll do great on thicker stuff.

pwrtrip75

iTrader: (8)

I tried using my friends 110v welder to put some subframe connectors in.....same prob..no go.
they are good for sheet metal and thats about it.

Silverback

It all depends on the person who's using it. Here's a 5/16" flange welded to a cast elbow, probably about 1/2" thick with a friend's lincoln 110VAC welder and flux core.

cbrich

You laid down a good weld especially on cast iron which is a bitch to weld. I have only welded cast iron once and had to use a nickel rod and heat the piece up to 400F to get good penatration.

These type of welders are the best cracker box welders out there, this is the machine I learned on. What type of rod are you using to do your welding?

Here is a good site for selecting stick electrode.

When I get the time I will try the 7010 or 8010 rod see how they compare to 6010 and 6011. And yes I know they are 70,000 and 80,000 psi rods compared to 60,000 psi.

blackz93

iTrader: (2)

Damn, you guys have me wanting to go weld something!

72chevelleSS

You can get better penetration with a flux core MIG wire than with a shielding gas, so that probably helped with that cast iron flange weld. Having a spotlessly clean spot thats close to the weld area is also important when pushing the limits of your machine. Other than that, its the old wire speed down, voltage cranked. Looks like it turned out great though, impressive with a 110.

JRick212

iTrader: (6)

with the smaller machines you have to keep in mind the duty cycle of your machine. Dont expect to be running a bead like that in 1 pass. On that flange pic above you can see where he stopped a couple times.

Silverback

I’ve gone both ways. Yes, flux core penetrates better and will let you weld a thicker piece in one pass without a weave, but if you’re going to overlap anything for really thick stuff (say >1/4 or so with a 110V) then gas shielded works better since you don’t have to worry about inclusions from getting some of the flux slag caught in the weld. I’ve welded even heavy castings like that, as well as things like ½” to ¾” plate (with a proper bevel and weave pattern).

After some debate on the Hobart wedling forums I ended up taking piece of ½”, cutting it in half, beveling it and running a bead like this across it and did some destructive testing (sledge hammer and a vice, folded it over…) I’ve repeated it with a more controlled “destruction” with a shop press, and in both cases the weld was fine, after bending it a few times the steel broke next to the weld, for that matter, if you dress the sides and saw straight through it you can’t see where the weld or even the multiple passes or the weave overlaps.

Wire speed UP not down and voltage cranked. It takes power to melt the wire so when you crank the wire speed your current draw goes up. The voltage **** controls the voltage (how much wire you can melt basically) the wire speed controls current (how much heat you put in the weld).

I did stop a few times, but it wasn’t a duty cycle problem. Honestly I’ve never butted up against the duty cycle thing with that Lincoln welder that I did that with or my little Hobart handler 135. the reason that I stopped in a few places was to keep the flange perfectly perpendicular, keep the gap between it and the cast perfect and to keep from putting too much heat into the cast unevenly which would have resulted in cracking (and prevented the need for meticulous preheat).

In that case I probably tacked in 3 places to correctly position the flange relative to the manifold and to space it off some (you need a little bit of a gap to get good penetration on heavier stuff, even with a bevel). Then when I was sure that it was positioned correctly, knowing how I usually do things I probably put 3 more tacks in between the first three, and then I ran the beads, roughly from tack to tack but running over the tacks jumping around to keep the heat as even as possible. Probably overkill, it would have probably worked fine with 3 or 4 tacks and 3 or 4 beads total, but as long as I can put enough heat in to the starts to prevent cold starts then I’d rather be safe then sorry.

Moparnos (The SLP Guy)

iTrader: (55)

you did that with a wire feed?

b00sted

iTrader: (7)

That looks like TIG job there almost...Nice weld.

Silverback

Yep, my friend that owns that car said “do something cool with the weld…” (he usually grabs an extra welding helmet so he can watch what I do) so I said, “How’s this?” and did that.

It would look better if I took the time to grind down some of the surface finish on both sides before running the bead, but it’s good enough to get people’s attention like that

I like my little wire feeds… I don’t do too bad with an actual tig either if I have to…