What's the best brand everyone's found? Pretty sure I started with non-flux core. That sucked. Really all it did was splatter, didn't even bind the two metals better than I could've done with a hot glue gun.

Now I just finished my roll of .030 Chicago Electric wire from Harbor Freight. What a huge difference! Less splatter, more penetration, easier to run a nice bead, etc etc.



New, it costs $20-20%=$16:

0.030" E71T-GS Flux Core Welding Wire, 2 Lbs.

Lincoln's is $25 shipped from amazon:


And Hobart is $34 shipped from Northern Tool:

Hobart Flux Welding Wire — .030 | Welding Sticks Wire| Northern Tool + Equipment

Then there's Campbell-Hausfeld for $36 + shipping:

Campbell-Hausfeld .030” Flux Core Wire | Buy Misc. Online

Anyone have experience with any of these wires? Benefits of the more expensive stuff? Or just stick with the name brand?

 

I have a flux core machine I got on sale at Northern. I noticed much better results when I switched from the stuff that came with it to the 0.030" Lincoln Electric wire. Both Lowes and Home Depot carry it. I haven't tried any others.

 

Another Lincoln user here. In my case, it was just a matter of convenience -- off-the-shelf at the local Home Depot. It seems to do a nice job.

 

yup, you started with mig wire. without gas, itll do that. ive gone through a roll of lincoln and 2 rolls of HF so far and i dont notice any difference. then again, im not a welder by trade or anything.

if you plan to do a lot of welding its more economical to get a 10lb roll... like i should have done.

 

It says flux core on the spool, but certainly doesn't act like it. It came with the reconditioned welder when I bought it from HF.

 

Do you have the polarity correct for flux core wire? I don't remember which is for what, but when I had the polarity the wrong way for the wire I was using the results were exactly as you described in the first post. Lincoln flux-core was the best I found until I switched to L-56 with C-25 shielding gas - no more spatter and MUCH better welds with gas. GL

 

Welder unfortunately has no option for gas, otherwise I'd buy/rent some tanks.

I made no changes other than the wire itself, and I've had amazing results in comparison to the original spool. It was just crap wire.

 

Same here - Didn't notice a difference between HF and Lincoln (with gas). I can't imagine there is much difference in quality between the two but your settings and prep are far more important.

 

I have always used home depot wire because home depot.

I think you will find that FC splatters a lot too. gas shielded is much better, but if you use the wrong wire without the gas, what does it matter what happens?

 

The amount of splatter also depends on the welder, feed, and the tips. My old harbor freight welder splattered like no other. Switching the tips out with some Lincoln ones helped a bit. Part of the issue was the plastic feed wheel never gave a consistent wire speed. This added to the problem a lot. You can make the fee a little more consistant by keeping the cables running from the gun as straight as possible.

In my current welder, a Miller 211, I still use the home depot flux core since my only tank is for aluminum. Notice how much the splatter goes down with a better welder.

 

Wal mart sells Lincoln wire. I get 10% off so that's where I get it