Welding Wire

[Neilios]

Not used my welder for a while, been stored in a dry gargae but the wire is showing signs of corrosion, I have taken off two layers and it looks better is there a point when the wire is too rusty to use? I have just bought a new liner and tips and gas bottle so hopefully everything else should be fine.

If I need to buy new wire is there a best or good company to buy off or are they all the same?

PS its a 15kg roll.

thanks in advance.

 

[Wozzaaah]

You should be fine once you've stripped off a few layers, it only tends to be the top two or three which rust.
You shouldn't run wire with any signs of even light rust on it really, the rust dust will clog the liner up and can cause feed issues.
Regarding wire brands, as long as it's precision layer wound (PLW) then most brands will work fine.
Ot all depends on where you get it from really, if from a shop then you'll be limited to whatever they sell, if online then there's loads of good brands to choose from.

 

[gordon stephenson]

If you do not usually weld so often maybe next time buy a 5Kg reel instead of the large 15Kg, My wire is left in my garage which does get some condensation in the winter and I find Lincoln wire (as sold by Steve in the Weldequip shop) to be very rust resistant.

 

[paddythegod]

I don't mean to sound to anal and go one better but, I only use my welder from time to time and although I have a dry garage I only use 5kg rolls and keep them indoors to stop the very problem your talking about. I also have part used rolls of different size wire and also a 1kg roll of stainless welding wire so there could be some time between each time they're used. I suggest somewhere that the wife doesn't know about like right on top of the kitchen cupboard units, where they can't see!

 

[pedrobedro]

If you are taking a reel of wire off the welder make sure you secure the end before you let go of it when it comes out of the liner. It's never happened to me but a friend of mine was swapping from .8 to .6 and let go of the wire before he had secured it. I couldn't stop laughing at the look of sheer horror on his face as it unwound itself.

 

[Llama]

If you are taking a reel of wire off the welder make sure you secure the end before you let go of it when it comes out of the liner. It's never happened to me but a friend of mine was swapping from .8 to .6 and let go of the wire before he had secured it. I couldn't stop laughing at the look of sheer horror on his face as it unwound itself.

Done that too

 

[penfold]

Done that too

My brother did that with a wee half kilo reel for a small MIG; sproing! He only did it once mind.

 

[Engineer1964]

If you intend to keep wire in the garage remove it from the welder and store it in a plastic bag with a ziplock, i find that by also adding those silica gel bags (get from Ebay) in with the wire and sealed up will practically eliminate rust. Failing that bring the wire indoors and store it somewhere warm and dry