wrote in message
...
I have a stick welder. Just your basic AC welder that does a good job
on thicker metals and always burns holes in thin metal.

Anyhow, I have never had any other type of welder, and have done a lot
of experimentation with different rods. But, I had to do some welding
on some thinner metal (fix the rust holes on my old pickup truck). I
came to the conclusion that no matter how low I set the amps, and no
matter what type of rod I use, I will end up with welds that look like
swiss cheese.

A friend of mine works in a welding shop, and I asked him what it
would cost me to weld the patches for me, using a wire feed welder.
Well, I could not resist his offer, which was bring it over after the
shop closes for the day on Friday, and bring a few 12 packs of beer,
plus pay for the welding wire (or his boss will kill him). So, thats
what we did, and I got an excellent job and we both got pretty loaded
after the welding. So, besides the beer, it cost me $12 for the wire.

Anyhow, after I got home, I got to thinking about those wire welders.
The rods for a stick welder are coated with flux. The wire for a wire
welder dont have any flux on it, or none that is noticable. I was
always under the impression that flux was a MUST when welding (and
soldering or brazing). Without flux, how does a wire welder weld?

Does anyone know?

Thanks

Mark

MIG .... wirefeed ....... GMAW ........ FCW ....... are all names for types
of wirefeed welding. The electrode is a continuous wire fed into the molten
pool. There is either a shielding gas around the wire, or a flux core
inside the wire. It depends on the thickness of the base material as to
which one you want to use.

As with AC, different processes in wirefeeding are used for different
thicknesses of metal. The right one works best. Gas shielded wirefeed
works best on thin things, and the eletrode is negative. For flux core, the
electrode is positive, and works better on thicker things.

That is not to say that you can't weld thin things with flux core, and thick
things with shielded gas, but the processes were designed for different
uses, and work best on the materials they were designed for.

Next time you see some flux core wire, take some pliers and cut it and
examine it closely, and you will see the flux inside the hollow tube of
metal.

Steve