SWP welding wire

[clem dog]

Hi folks,


I ran out of wire this morning and have been phoning around looking for a new roll of wire for my mig but the only wire I can get, within reasonable driving distance, is SWP s uper six.

I have used their rods before and have to say that I did not think that they were top notch.

Anybody used this wire before or know anything about it as if it is not good ill delve a little further and see if I can get better.

I find it hard to beleive that this is all the "top" stockists have at the moment and i have phoned quite a few today.

The only answer I get is "Its all to do with price" we sell it by the pallet load etc etc

Maybe im being sceptical but thought id ask for a few opinions.

TIA Clem

 

[chunkolini]

Try having a look at it, is it wound loose on the spool? are there coils overlapping each other? Dont bother.
Is it laid in a tidy parrallel pattern?
Cheap (nasty?) wire can work fine or can drive you bonkers. I have chucked a whole roll of wire in a skip that looked fine and just would not work.
I have also been given a roll of rusty wire, unspooled the rusty layers, about 200ft of it all over the place and used the rest of it happily.

There is definitely 'Welding Wire' and ' just wire'.
I started a massive fight on another forum over this one a couple of years back. Dont buy SIP or Sealey wire.

Have a look online, and dont pay too much. My local 'tool' shop (inverted commas because they are a Silverline dealer) quoted my £70+for a 15kg of dodgy Mig wire.

You could of course go to weldequip, see top of page for some of this,
http://www.weldequip.com/5kg-mig-wire.htm costs a bit more, but not much more than cheapo narrrrsty junk.
Lincoln Electric UltraMig wire, the bees knees. I was sent a sample of this (cheers technic al) when I was having problems with my wire, it started the cat fight I mentioned above. Buy decent consumables it does make a difference. There are others just as good, but knowing that is a good product removes another layer of doubt.

Chunko'.

 

[Iain Westland]

check the yello pages for welding supplies, cash counter sales will be cheap (ish) just remember to ask for 15K of point 8

 

[clem dog]

Thanks Chunko, ill have a look tomorrow morning when im in the shop.The places ive called today seem to be putting a lot of this into their local fab shops so I suppose a little look in their doors would not go a miss either.

One of the places I called today said that they were selling oerlikon wire into a large coachworks but it got too expensive (retailing to Joe public at £32/15kg) and they were asked to do something about the price, so this was their answer. He said they have been using it for about 4 months with not a word said.
I suppose it cant be that bad then!

One of my nearest suppliers quoted me £16.80 + the chancellors cut for a 15kg roll. The only place that had any other type of wire (hyundi) was over 35 miles away and was 30 pence cheaper Dont really think its worth the drive.

PS. any of them could order me anything I wanted, at a price.

Thanks Clem

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I bought ten x 5 kg reels of un-named wire off the internet some years ago, worked out about £7 a reel (local high steet cost was about £15 a reel then) and it's worked really well. Last week I ran out of wire so I grabbed a box off the top of the pile and noted that this was labelled 'Clarke' wire, and had a heck of a job getting it to burn properly.

It took an hour of experimenting to get it to work...basically upping the wire feed from 5 to 7 cured it.

It's difficult to know just what you're buying, I guess and a 'name' sometimes doesn't really mean anything.

Regards
Peter

 

[malcolm]

Not sure I'd consider Clarke a "name" when it comes to welding wire. I had a 15kg reel off them in 1992 and it took me years to get through it. Kept rusting up if I left it for more than a few weeks. I prefer 5kg reels these days.

Different people probably like different wire. My preference at the moment is Lincoln. It's no more expensive and I've had zero trouble over 5 years using it.

 

[Iain Westland]

I never know what make I am using. I just go into the welding suppliers in Bolton and as for a reel. My theory is that they shift this stuff to larger users, so if there is a problem with it somebody will scream blue murder.

Its always a good idea to try and find your nearest specialist, the price is always good.

iain

 

[Country Joe]

I started a massive fight on another forum over this one a couple of years back........

Lincoln Electric UltraMig wire, the bees knees. I was sent a sample of this (cheers technic al) when I was having problems with my wire, it started the cat fight I mentioned above.......

Don't suppose it involved a character called "Nanjing", by any chance?

All the Best,
CJ

 

[clem dog]

I had those sentiments also auto. The stockists over here say they are selling this by the pallet load to some of the major fab shops, so if it was too bad surely they would have kicked before now.

Malcolm I had thought on buying a few small rolls but then went for the enconomies of scale and bought the 15 kg roll worked out a lot cheaper I reckon, as I ended up getting a roll for just over £15.

Have ran about 2kg off the roll making a footbath for cows and it seems to be as good as the INE wire that I got with the welder. Then maybe this is due to the fact that I am still in the learning process for mig.

Thanks for the replies

Clem