Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey everyone! This place is awesome, hopefully I can learn a lot here and pass on any of my questionable knowledge...

I am welding a stainless steel project on the side, some stuff that broke at work needed help. Work bought me some Blue Demon Stainless Steel Flux Core .035 Wire for my little Hobart 100.

I am having a crazy amount of issues with the wire feeding. I am using .035 copper tips, and I tried using tip gel. I took the spring off the spool retainer nut, so the spool is basically floating free now. And somehow not 'backlashing' yet. I have adjusted the wire feed tension so many times it's not funny.

I don't know what else to do, feels like I have everything as loose as I can get it, and it still won't feed consistently. I have to shake the gun and sleeve to get more to keep coming out. The welder isn't very old. Is it just a crappy drive system?

This may be ridiculous to read. I ended up drilling out a .035 copper tip hole with a 1/16 drill bit, and that actually did help some. But that can't be a real solution. Anyone else have an issue with this wire product? Or is that welder just crap for .035 wire? I hate the drive system in it to begin with, plastic roller on top. It all seems like junk in there.

Thanks for any advice. I realize that wire may not be the best solution, but for the tiny project I am doing, it is good enough and I should be done by now, if the wire fed properly for me.

Your liner may not be the correct size for 035 wire, or it has a kink in it from twisting/turning too much, or is simply clogged up with particles. You see when you use knurled rollers for flux core, you always end up with tiny bits of steel that end up flaking off and staying stuck within the liner. You can try removing the liner to clean it by using a thin-nozzle and blasting it with compressed air from your air compressor. Perhaps even pouring just a smidge of alcohol into the liner to help clean things up right before you blast it with compressed air. There should be no need to use an oversized tip with steel wire, whether solid or flux-cored, IMO. If cleaning doesn't help you may need a new liner. Question: does your machine come with, and are you using the knurled drive roller that is stamped specifically 0.035" or 0.9mm??

Also, I realize a lot of what I said may seem pretty silly to some of you.. ha. But oh well. Just messing around on stuff that doesn't really matter, tinkering and killing time, seeing if I can get it working as well as .030 general steel wire does for me. I have done some darn nice welding on 1/8 inch tubing using this welder.

The drive roller only has one groove. I can look up specs again, but it is supposed to be able to run .030 and .035 using the one slot. I've been making sure not to squeeze the drive adjustment too hard. But I have also tried tightening it and it made no difference anyway.

I'll give the liner a cleaning. I have been keeping it as straight as possible, even raised welder up to keep it more level so the roller wouldn't have to push as hard, didn't help.

And it will function great for a while. Then just decides to stop feeding for a while. I wire brush tip, make sure its clean, check spool to see if its loose enough, shake gun and it runs for 2 seconds, then stops, then ok for 5 seconds, then stops, then good for like 5 minutes. Hard to get into a groove and just start welding my project when I keep having to stop

If everything checks out, seems like you need to step up to a high quality machine. Or you may be exceeding the duty cycle.

What WFS are you running?
When you say "it stops", is the drive roller still turning? If so they it may be slipping which is not good for flux core wire.
You never did say: is your drive roller knurled?

The slot is knurled. Not smooth. I have been running various speeds. The project is about a 2 foot rectangle stainless steel round frame, with a woven cross hatch pattern wire welded to the frame all the way around.

So I have to lay on the frame, then puddle over to the cross wires quickly. Much heat on the wires at all blows them right out. Many of the wires, or whatever you would call them, are not factory welded anymore. So to weld those back together I have to drop everything down to avoid blowing them out. So I've been all over the place trying to get dialed in with this stainless steel wire. The product can't have corrosion on it, or I wouldn't worry about using that wire.

Long explanation to tell you. I've done all kinds of adjustments and still have the wire getting stuck. For a bit I thought my tip angle was causing a problem, but I feel pretty good saying that's not the issue.

I feel like it may be the quality issue. It's a cheap $250 welder. I've done a lot of stuff on it and had little fuss, so it is a pain to have this struggle suddenly.

The more I read and look at the specs, I wonder if my welder is just the wrong tool for this job. We aren't paying anyone to fix all of these worn our baskets, we'd be better to buy new ones. So I may just give the liner a cleaning and get through them, I've fought through like 10 or so and they look good, only 3 to go.

FishSpike wrote:The more I read and look at the specs, I wonder if my welder is just the wrong tool for this job. We aren't paying anyone to fix all of these worn our baskets, we'd be better to buy new ones. So I may just give the liner a cleaning and get through them, I've fought through like 10 or so and they look good, only 3 to go.

Yea it seems you're more interested in seeking vindication that you need to get a better machine. We're all for it!

FishSpike wrote: Work bought me some Blue Demon Stainless Steel Flux Core .035 Wire for my little Hobart 100.

just looking at the specs here

Typical Welding Parameters
Diameter Process Volt Amps Stick Out
in (mm)
.035 (.9) GMAW 22-25 130-150 ¾”-1” DCEP

can your welder be swapped to DCEP ?
its a tad unusual for a gasless flux core to be DCEP but thats what the manufacture calls for.
also the hobart 100 is 20% duty cycle @ 80 amps. i see a comment that it really only goes to 18v.
so it sounds like the machine is way under powered for that wire.

time to ditch the fluxcore welder and get a mig.
or, if the runs are not long, look at a stick welder. they are really handy for doing odd welds.

Oscar wrote:Yea it seems you're more interested in seeking vindication that you need to get a better machine. We're all for it!

You aren't wrong, haha.

tweake wrote: Typical Welding Parameters
Diameter Process Volt Amps Stick Out
in (mm)
.035 (.9) GMAW 22-25 130-150 ¾”-1” DCEP

can your welder be swapped to DCEP ?
its a tad unusual for a flux core to be DCEP but thats what the manufacture calls for.
also the hobart 100 is 20% duty cycle @ 80 amps. i see a comment that it really only goes to 18v.
so it sounds like the machine is way under powered for that wire.

time to ditch the fluxcore welder and get a mig.
or, if the runs are not long, look at a stick welder. they are really handy for doing odd welds.

I read the same thing, this machine can not swap polarity, I checked it all out, no way to do that from what I can tell. It does weld a bit "poppy" but not horrible.

My dad picked up a stick welder he said I can have. I'm gonna grab it this weekend from him, it will be a nice tool to have on hand.

After thinking this all thru more, and looking back on all the stuff I've welded, a new welder is in my near future... If you can't tell, I have only been a random, need to fix this or make that welder, I'm no trained welder at all, haha. I have made some cool trapping stuff using this welder, and fixed up some stuff for friends, and so on. So I just need a good reliable welder, this thing doesn't feel like its right for me anymore. Kind of amazing how I've gone from wanting to fix my issue to a new welder as the day went... wish more than anything I had a welder/generator combo, jeez that would be handy.

FishSpike wrote:
I read the same thing, this machine can not swap polarity, I checked it all out, no way to do that from what I can tell. It does weld a bit "poppy" but not horrible.

My dad picked up a stick welder he said I can have. I'm gonna grab it this weekend from him, it will be a nice tool to have on hand.

After thinking this all thru more, and looking back on all the stuff I've welded, a new welder is in my near future... If you can't tell, I have only been a random, need to fix this or make that welder, I'm no trained welder at all, haha. I have made some cool trapping stuff using this welder, and fixed up some stuff for friends, and so on. So I just need a good reliable welder, this thing doesn't feel like its right for me anymore. Kind of amazing how I've gone from wanting to fix my issue to a new welder as the day went... wish more than anything I had a welder/generator combo, jeez that would be handy.

one reason i don't like fluxcore machines, you always end up upgrading anyway.

a decent mig and a portable stick welder is very good setup for anyone.

a lot of us do much the same, fix stuff when required. small projects here and there.
the hardest thing i find is it takes a bit to get back into it. need a bit of practise to get back into the groove.

To follow up.

I used up the first 1lb roll of Blue Demon stainless steel flux core. It was a struggle. But my boss liked how things looked so he bought me another roll to do the rest of the baskets.

I finally figured out the roll or wire, something related to the wire, is what my issue was. Something about it just isn't compatible with my welders drive feed system. I cleaned everything, same issue. Would get hung up easily.

What I finally did was remove the spring on the spool tensioner, and turning the screw so loose, that all it did was keep the spool from falling off. I hand spun the spool so the wire was all free and pretty much a mess. Fixed everything. Last 4 baskets were a breeze. Welds went so smooth and look amazing. Makes me want to get the other like 10 baskets I struggled thru and redo them to get better welds.

So the Blue Demon stainless steel flux core wire is fantastic as far as results. $30 for 1lb, able to use my own welder, and the results are exactly what my employer and I hoped for. We saved a ton of money even after he pays me. But for some reason, my welder sure does not like pulling it off the spool like all the other wire I've used, so that's a bummer.

Also, I bought a sticker welder the other day... ha. Used it a bit on some scrap, gonna take some getting used to.

First time trying a pic, hope it works.

Results are just great. Maybe if I had a better setup then flux core it could be nicer. But those welds aren't going anywhere now. And compared to the weld shop we had fix them last time, this looks like the Ferrari of welds for us, lol. Flap disc down the welds to bevel them and a wire wheel to remove unsafe edges.