Thread: Mig welding : which size wire?

The size wire is determined by the job (thicker wire = heavier weld), so thin material such as body panels need thin wire, or you will blow holes everywhere.

Trial and error with some scrap will teach you what works best. The other things to watch are wire feed speed, amps and gas. Although a cheapo most likely won't have all the adjustments.

The feed rollers should have a tension adjustment, so 1.0mm or 0.9mm should be okay.

Get yourself a good welding helmet and throw the cheapie away. Long gloves are a must and you'll get lots of sparks burning holes in your clothes so overalls are a good idea.

CLEAN the surface before you weld.

Good luck
Danny

Gasless wire is a bit harder to use than plain wire + gas. Welds are not as neat, but you can use outdoors in situations where the gas would be blown away.

Get an auto-darkening helmet. They are fantastic compared to flipping up and down all the time.

Making the weld look neat and professional is hard (I reckon). Some of mine look brilliant (1 in 4...) when you get the right amps/feed/etc but most look pretty average. People keep telling me that it's just practice, but I really wish I could weld nicely all the time.

.8 gasless is a much more versatile option on a 130 amp mig than .9 ...

i weld everything from .5mm to 10mm with .8

i run the .8 gasless wire 99% now, much better all round, bit dirtier but it burns hotter and is better on dirty metals and gal so the little extra cleanup is usually well worth it....

a little spray of pure and simple on the nozzle and the job keeps things much cleaner as well... smell sucks tho

I agree with Incisor, I have a 170 amp mig and I use 0.8 exclusively now. If I had to weld heavier I would go up in size but any thing that is under 6mm and over about 1mm .8 does a piece of cake.

Oh and also get the auto helmet the difference that makes for your welding is huge as can see exactly where you want the weld to go then pull the trigger too easy.

good luck with it, my father was a boiler maker he always said welding is 5% theory and 95% practice

cheers Blythe

Hello, I have a chart of wire size on PDF...

I will send it over for you to reference.

Tks
straydog

I was talking to an ex-welder at work today and he pretty much said what you all did.
He said just try it and see if it works, if it works it works, if not get some .08 wire then when the .9 is used up go for the .8

He mentioned spraying canola oil on the tip too.

He also gave me a good tip about filling holes with weld; put a brass plate/block behind the hole and the wire doesn't stick just fills the hole
Handy for when I start blowing holes in stuff

=========================================
I tried my welder out last night I'm quite happy with it, saying that my first attempt looks like I just spat a length of liquorice on the metal.
Yep practice is what's needed !
=========================================
I looked in supercheap at the auto-helmets and they are about $160 ebay here I come, (about $70).
Also supercheap migs are $499 for 80 amps !

You'll be amazed how rarely you do burn holes in things once you get the hang of it though.

As a boiler and a tech teacher . I suggest to you that the stick welder is set at the size of the stick and the mig is set at the size of the material.
It does not matter if you push or pull the handpiece but the speed at which you push or pull is most important . the best option is hard and hot to get penertration or move the hand piece fast enough not to blow a hole but to get most penertration. Set your amps to as high as you can without blowing a hole and your wire speed to the point that you cant feel the wire hitting the job which feels like the hand piece bucking in your hand and it is not burning up into your hand piece- sticking into the nossle every time you stop welding. If you are welding with a gas wire - keep the welding hand piece in place after you stop welding so the gas allows the weld to cool down- if you rip the hand piece away the weld will bubble.Gasless wire is the same when you are finished welding hold the handpiece still for a few seconds to achieve a good weld.