Guest brad Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 I bought a cheapo welder to do some exhaust work on one of my Z's. It's a gasless MIG welder made by Chicago Electric, cost about $100 from Harbor Freight. I'm not much of a welder to start with, and this thing is driving me nuts. I can't manage to run a continuous bead. Regardless of how much tension I put on the wire drive, the wire "hangs up" as I weld. The whole spool of wire is rusty, looks like it's been sitting in a warehouse since before I was born. Would this cause it to hang up? If I go buy another spool am I going to be better off, or just poorer and more frustrated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Get new wire. Don't over tighten the tension. Make sure that the cable is straight. Also set your wire speed just fast enough to feed the weld and no faster. I also have a CE welder and it works great!! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest brad Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 When you say make sure the cable is straight, do you mean the cable between the gun and the box? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted April 19, 2003 Share Posted April 19, 2003 Especially without the aid of gas, you need a really clean spool of wire to work with. Go buy a new spool, they are ~$10 depending what gauge/length you buy, I'd probably go for something under 30 as you dont need a thick gauge with exaust stuff anywho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 With flux core wire, .035 is the norm. You need clean wire and you need a clean work piece. If this is new exhaust tubing, spray it with brake cleaner before you start welding. I tried to do some repairs on a buddies exhaust with a borrowed Lincoln 100v welder and had same problems. Acts like it just doesn' have enough power! I think if you clean the heck out of it you should have good luck, however. I finally got his done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody 82 ZXT Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 I have that same welder and the spools are 8 bucks at Lowes for .35 flux cored wire. It works great for the projects I've done so far. How did I ever live without it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas28O Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 I have 2 welders Lincoln 100 and Hobart 175 My lincoln 100 does not like to weld with .35 but with .24 it welds very good and that is all you need for small welds. The Hobart 175 welds good with any wire size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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