new to mig welding, advice please

[evo8fq300]

Hi all, just bought my first welder to build a off road buggy. it is a giant mig 195. it is a gas and non gas welder and it has come with gas wire which i beleive is the wire i use if i am welding with gas.

i was wanting to weld without gas so i hope i am right in thinking that i now need to buy some flux wire...

my question is in the brochure that came with the welder it says "flux cored welding wire diam = 1.2.

having looked at e bay at flux wire which is a 1.2 they are very expensive ( £50) however 0.8 flux wire is a lot cheaper. Do i have to buy the 1.2 flux wire or can i use the 0.8 cheaper flux wire with my welder?

cheers

 

[cumbriasteve]

I am fairly sure you can use 0.8 but you need to check your wire feed rollers, usually they are double sided with the wire size they accomodate stamped on the side.

 

[mike 109444]

One thing to note Kg for Kg the smaller the wire the more the price seams to go up! That's why the 0.6mm wire per Kg is dearer that the more industral 1.0 and up sizes of wire.

 

[chunkolini]

One thing to note Kg for Kg the smaller the wire the more the price seams to go up! That's why the 0.6mm wire per Kg is dearer that the more industral 1.0 and up sizes of wire.

That did my head in for years, why are we paying more for thinner wire.
Then one day I realised, because we buy it by weight, we are of course buying more wire. For a brief moment I felt like an intellectual Titan. It was a brief moment.

 

[stuvy]

One thing to note Kg for Kg the smaller the wire the more the price seams to go up! That's why the 0.6mm wire per Kg is dearer that the more industral 1.0 and up sizes of wire.

That did my head in for years, why are we paying more for thinner wire.
Then one day I realised, because we buy it by weight, we are of course buying more wire. For a brief moment I felt like an intellectual Titan. It was a brief moment.

Someone just turned a lightbulb on in my head there alan! Iv seen the light and not the rip off as i once thought it was

 

[chunkolini]

Another intellectual Titan?

 

[Iain Westland]

Your buying the same amount of wire, but because its thinner its longer. 15kg is 15kg any day of the week

It also give lower amperage so welds nicer at low volts.

 

[Wozzaaah]

The cross sectional area of 0.8mm wire is almost twice that of 0.6mm wire so you're getting almost twice the amount of 0.6mm wire per roll.

 

[evo8fq300]

thanks guys understand that a lot more, however still a little confused about...

my welder user book says that my welder takes 1.2 wire, can i still buy 0.8 flux corded wire and use that in my machine as well?

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

Thats flux wire diameter and the specs say 0.8-0.6 for gas welding.

 

[Iain Westland]

Just check your not getting the two mixed up Evo, 1.2 would be gas less but the 0.8 would be gas only. Gas less wire is more expensive than bog standard, check weldequip (^up at the top of the page) as his prices tend to be smack on the head mate.

iain