gasless mig wire

[kenny24]

Im new to this welding lark, so i have a couple of questions

First, can you use gasless mig wire in any mig welder?

and also, my welder constantly feeds gas to the gun without pressing the trigger. it never used to but it does now. its a pain having to turn the gas on and off between welds. what can i do to fix it?

thanks ken

 

[GrahamGKD]

Hi Ken,
You generally swap the polarity between normal MIG wire and the gasless stuff - if I recall correctly it is torch negative for normal MIG with gas and positive for the gasless wire. My old SIP machine used to have a couple of plugs and sockets inside the cover where the wire goes where this could be done. My current machine doesn't have this facility - I use gas all of the time.

Sounds like the gas valve/solenoid is stuck on your machine - if you tell us what kind of machine it is I expect someone with knowledge of that type will be along later.
Cheers,
Graham.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Wrong way round Graham, gasless runs electrode negative, solid wire electrode positive.
Ken, you'd know if your machine is a dual-purpose one as like Graham says, there will be an obvious method of reversing the polarity.
There's no reason you can't use gasless wire in a normal machine but it won't give the best results.
And yes, it does sound like a stuck gas valve. If it's built into the torch as in most small machines try smacking the torch handle firmly against something and see if it stops, if not then you'll have to take the torch apart and free the valve.

 

[kenny24]

what will happen if i dont reverse the polarity?

 

[GeorgeB]

what will happen if i dont reverse the polarity?

Try it and see. You're highly unlikely to damage anything, even if the end result (the welding) is not as good as if it's properly set up with the reverse polarity.

 

[matt1978]

what will happen if i dont reverse the polarity?

As George, so very correctly mentioned,

Give it a whirl,

You wont cause any damge to the machine, just the weld might be abit rubbish, probably lots of spatter and slag inclusions.

 

[GeorgeB]

Give it a whirl,
You wont cause any damge to the machine, just the weld might be abit rubbish, probably lots of spatter and slag inclusions

Plagiarism? Your post is so much like a copy of mine with just a hint of 'added value'. Perhaps it was by chance. Thank you for your subsequent amendment, especially if it wasn't plagiarism after all.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Calm down George! Matt may have had this page open for some time before replying so he wouldn't have seen your post made just a few minutes earlier! It happens all the time!