Dual Shield.

[Shield Arc]

Keep the roll of wire in a sealed plastic bag, and in a warm area!

 

[TMGT]

I thought about moisture in the flux but it was a new spool with intact packaging and a recent mfg date at the time, the guy that turned me onto dual shielded wire ran some in my machine without a problem. I'm wondering if my power source is varying a bit since it's on a sub panel.
Hopefully when I get the shop built I'll have clean 3ph and can upgrade.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Keep the roll of wire in a sealed plastic bag, and in a warm area!

Warm? Crap. Do you see where I live? Lol. Thanks.

 

[Shield Arc]

I live in the Seattle area. It never gets too hot, or too cold here. Now it does rain every once in a while! I keep my wire in a locker in the shop.

 

[Arc weld]

Weave width doesn't matter except that you can get a very slightly coarser grain structure in the weld. I had a discussion a few years ago about weave width so wanted to get the definitive answer. I e-mailed Walter Sperco who is one of the head guys behind the ASME codes. He said the 2 1/2 or 3 times rod diameter is a wives tale and a carry over from days gone by when some inspectors thought it made a difference.(it does on stainless) He said on mild steel he would challenge any procedure limited weave width and as long as the weld was sound with no slag inclusions the difference in grain structure/strength would be negligible. Hotter is better. I didn't watch the video in question but as long as the slag was burned out the weld should be OK. If the weld and the metal is hot, often the slag won't be a problem. Multi-pass 7018 fillet welds in the horizontal position can be done super smooth by leaving the slag on but the piece has to be hot and you have to do the next pass right away before it cools too much. Flux-core is likely similar similar but I never tried to experiment with it. Also remember that Lanse isn't a licensed welder so it just experimenting a lot of the time himself without having a ton of experience with the different processes and filler metals. I really hoped he would have got into an apprenticeship. He has a willingness to want to learn and I think missed an opportunity but if he makes a decent living doing his video's that's OK too.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I've run the 71m, like it but started getting a lot of worm tracks, never did figure out the problem. Good clean material prep. Structurally good but didn't like it for cosmetics.
This was .045 on a MM 251.

Will say one thing, you better have a good gun or else it'll meltdown pretty quick!

Pardon my ignorance but why will this get hotter than regular solid mig wire?

 

[BukitCase]

Luke, here's your clue - "This was .045 on a MM 251" -

The gun Miller ships with their 250 series is an M25, which gets warm even with .035 wire/20cfh gas welding 1/4" material - running near max for the welder with .045 (ANY .045) is more than the stock gun will take for very long... Steve

 

[TMGT]

I wasn't referring to the ability of the m25 handling the heat.
The dual shielded wire works in spray transfer at a higher voltage, it gets hot, higher uv output.
Make sure you're covered up good and have a good set of gloves.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Thank you both for the response.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Here's another stupid question: should I expect the dual shield to sound different than solid?

 

[TMGT]

Yes, sounds close to solid wire in spray, so more of a consistent hiss.

 

[BukitCase]

Hadn't considered the different (spray) mode - does dual shield have the same spray limitations as solid wire, namely poor OOP performance?

 

[TMGT]

Actually does very good oop, like rods they have differnt types of wire, some are better at oop then others.

 

[bdog]

Dual shield is my new go to process. It welds awesome and in any position. Penetration is way better than short circuit mig. I welded on some 1" plate today with 0.45 Frontiarc 711. It burned in really well and I did some flat, overhead and vertical up welds. It is a hot process. My gun was so hot I could barely hold it and it is an aftermarket 250 amp HTP gun.

It welds like 7018 on a spool to me and the flux is super easy to get off. I know you are supposed to use knurled drive rolls for it but I didn't have any and tried the solid wire ones and was going to order the knurled but it has working just fine.

I have a stick welder, a MM252 loaded with .045 solid wire and my LN-25 setup with the dual shield. I haven't even used the other welders in some time because I like the dual shield so much.

 

[Arc weld]

The 252 should run dual shield. What are you running the LN-25 off of, CC or CV? If CC the 252 would burn it even nicer on CV.

 

[bdog]

The 252 should run dual shield. What are you running the LN-25 off of, CC or CV? If CC the 252 would burn it even nicer on CV.

CV - it is hooked up to an invertec V-350. I am pretty sure the 252 would run the dual shield but probably not at the higher amps and duty cycle of the V-350/LN-25. I have kicked around the idea of selling the 252 but I keep it around to have it loaded with hard wire for when I need that so I don't have to switch things which hasn't been much.