Gasless Wire in Cosmo 170 (SIP)

[BChild]

Rather than put this in the SIP section I thought I'd ask in here

Tonight I ran out of normal wire 0.8mm right in the middle of a job that was all clamped up (had some gas less wire left that came with the machine and was quickly ditched after it kept birds nesting with the rubbish std feed) I wanted to finish a plate where it wouldn't get seen so swapped the polarity and spooled it up with gas less

Straight away I ended up turning the welder down to the absolute minimum and still it blew holes - it's like it's had the amps doubled!!!

This doesn't equate to me as surely flux cored wire has less metal so it should more equivilent to 0.6 mm wire and be lower amps!!!

Am I not thinking straight here

I swapped to pull rather than push - didn't make any difference

When it didn't blow holes you could get a lot of penetration and a good bead of weld but it didn't make up for the holes.

Anyway I've now used it up so I never have to consider it as an option again - big spool of wire time after all the damn Mini is gonna be using a lot!!

I'd like to know why it seemed so over powered tho!!!

 

[engybenjy]

did you swap the leads back over??

 

[BChild]

did you swap the leads back over??

Yep and I swapped em back now in preparation for going back to normal wire

 

[shenion]

I'd like to know why it seemed so over powered tho!!!

Gasless wire has flux. That covers the weld pool and keeps the heat in. So the weld pool does not radiate heat off quickly,

Also, swapping polarity puts more heat in the work.

 

[engybenjy]

Also, swapping polarity puts more heat in the work.

As opposed to the wire? with polarity swapped?
I always wondered what that was about!
Cheers

 

[BChild]

Well I doubt I'll ever try it again

1 x 7Kg spool of 0.6mm wire
1 x 7Kg Spool of 0.8mm wire

10 x 0.6mm tips
5 x 0.8mm tips

10 x 40 grit flap wheels
25 x 1.0mm slitting discs

And my wallet is a bit lighter!!!!

Lets see what the welder is like with 0.6mm wire and if I get comfortable with it I'll post some pics of my frankly shocking welding skilzors!!!