I use the weld-aid red and black pads and lube on my machines, keeps the liner clean.
Me too. But dry, to clean the wire as it comes off the spool.
My favorite FCAW wire is .030 Forney. Forney flux core wire seems to run hot and fast.
I found Forney FC ok. It does seem hot.
And PNG's E71-T11 is the cheapest (Amazon, Ebay) FC wire I've found that works well. It's level-wound on the spool so it feeds flawlessly - in contrast to several varieties of generic cheap FC wire that came with the welder I bought used. It welds great.
Any T-11 wire is going to be similar to Lincoln's FC, a standard in the industry, since T-11 is an explicit standard.
Since -GS means 'whatever the manufacturer wanted to spec' I steer away from -GS except for INE's made in Italy INETUB BA71TGS, in my opinion the best FC wire I've found. Less spatter and smoke, feeds perfectly, it simply makes me a better welder.
Yesterday I put back in the remaining half of a roll of Blue Demon FC wire I had yanked out of the welder in frustration during a project, a while back. It had not fed smoothly enough starting from new, to make a consistent bead. After discarding many feet of wire I got down to mostly feeding ok, but not flawless like INE or PNG wire. I had bought that Blue Demon for my first MIG welder (HF MIG-180 bought used) and I remember now the bad feeding was a PIA that made learning that welder harder than it should have been. Not much smoke but a lot more spatter than anything else I've used. Not recommended.
Has anyone tried a direct A/B comparison of INE's FC wire vs HF's Vulcan FC? I see good reviews on HF and I've read that some think HF's is really INE. If HF's Vulcan is the same thing, good for HF!
