Welding Wire Quality

   / Welding Wire Quality #1  

CharlieTR

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This past weekend I learned a good lesson about welding wire quality.
My local hardware store only carries Forney brand welding materials. I had a bad time with their ginding disks and was concerned about buying the flux core wire, but bought anyway. Got home started welding and could not believe the spitting and sputtering coming from this wire. What really concerned me was the color of residue. Instead of tan colored, it looked the color of gray like cigarette ashes. I am not sure if that means anything or not. I am a novice welder. I ended up taking it back and going 50 miles round trip to welding supply store. I really hope this was just one bad unit, but I will not risk buy that brand again.
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #2  
The quality of different welding wire, solid and flux core, has been discussed to death on both the Hobart and Miller Motorsports welding forums by the professional welders. Some machines have no preferences while others of the same brand are finicky. It's a crap shoot, machine wise. However, wire wise, most professionals agree that certain brands are much better than others and the foreign made wire is inferior to USA made wire.

In my case, both my MM175 and MM251 have had a steady diet of several hunderd pounds of Harbor Freight made in Italy wire and they both have had absolutely no problems. I have made a few destructive tests using USA and HF wire and could see no difference in the weld or penetration. As long as the solid wire meets ER 70S-6 specs it should be ok for the average hobbyist.

Miller Motersports welding forum

Hobart welding forums
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #3  
I had always good experience with Lincoln wire - from home depot - but the wire from TSC, whatever brand it is - seemed to be worse. The difference was mainly noticeble while doing body work (I drive 1986 CJ7 and there are rust holes in the body every year to be mended)
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #4  
I don't know the brand wire I use .I get it from the welding supply store where I get my gas bottle changed out. I've never had any problems with this wire whatever brand it is.
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #5  
I am like kenmac, I use the wire from the welding supply store and I won't use that HF or wallyworld crap, welders cost too much to use crap, I am not an expert but when I weld something I like to have it stick together
Jim
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #6  
I have had very good luck with Lincoln
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #7  
MrJimi said:
I am like kenmac, I use the wire from the welding supply store and I won't use that HF or wallyworld crap, welders cost too much to use crap, I am not an expert but when I weld something I like to have it stick together
Define crap. If the wire meets the ER70S-6 standard, which almost all do then it should be ok for normal mild steel use. Crap could simply be that the human doing the welding is not all that experienced or that the welder itself in not up to par, or the ground is bad, the mill scale has not been removed, etc. I could go on and on. I also don't see how a poor quality wire equates to how much a welder costs since the wire just comes off a spool thru a roller and out to the gun. Again, define crap.

The two largest suppliers of welding wire here in the USA come from Italy and Turkey. You had better check the source of the wire you are using as it probably came from one of these two countries. Speciality wires and wires with slightly different alloys for special needs are usualy made in USA. There are some expensive mild steel wires make in USA.

The real bottom line is that it's usually the person doing the welding along with the machine settings that determines whether or not a weld will hold. Don't blame the wire.
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #8  
I've had good performance from Forney. I have an account at my local Air Gas store and I get Forney for the same price as the unknown stuff at the stores known for selling junk. My thoughts on Harbor Fright, in general, are not good. Even so, I think it's possible to get something you can use there, but it's a crap shoot. My sister and dad have been certified welders for decades (yeah, one of my sisters is a master welder) and their shops get their supplies from Air Gas. They go through hundreds of pounds of wire and rod a day. If there were any consistant problem with Forney, I think they would have seen it.
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #9  
Mad, I guess this is one where I see things differently from you.

Because something Meets spec, does not mean it is as good as everyone else's.

That HF MIG meets the spec of Being a 210 amp (or whatever) Mig Welder, but I believe you would agree with me that the control and quality of weld produced by your Miller would be better? Maybe not.

I personally like Lincoln wire, last I checked when I went to school there they were producing it in house. I can not back it up with facts, but if my memory serves me, they made an awful lot of welding consumables, I want to say a majority, but again, I would have to look for the numbers.

I can tell the difference between the Fourney and the lincoln wire. The amount of slag, popping etc is substantially more with the lower quality wire. Same machine, same day, same welder, same base stock. As fair of a test as I can think of.

So, yes, I occasionally run the Forney or other off brand wire, (usually when I run out in the middle of a job and Rural King is all that is open) but I much prefer to run higher quality wire that well exceeds the base requirements of the standard.
 
   / Welding Wire Quality #10  
Well, I have first hand experience with both a made in USA wire and the made in Italy HF generic wire. I normally use HF wire and have put over 200 lbs thru both my MM175 and MM251 with no problems whatsoever with respect to feeding. I have also done destructive tests on HF wire welds and have seen no discernable problems due to lack of penetration. I have also used the made in USA brand from my LWS. Paid around $36 for 10 lbs vs $20 for 10 lbs of HF wire. I ran the same destructive tests and saw no difference. The USA wire had no problems feeding either.

Based on my usage, I could see no difference in the wire characteristics, the quality of the weld and bead, or the mechanical feeding of the welders, between the two wires. The avearge hobbyist will probably see no differences either, except from his wallet.:(

Now if I was doing some critical welding that required a cetified weld then maybe I might look to trying different wires. BTW, the ER70S-6 spec really pertains to the alloy content in the wire. Different brands of wire may need a different setup on the welder too, simply because the protective coating on the wire may have different characteristics.

Again, the real bottom line regarding good welds is NOT the wire but it is the PERSON doing the welding and how he has the machine setup.
 
 
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