Wire Welding for Beginners
Wire welding has become the most common way to weld at home and with quality welders at affordable prices becoming more common it’s no wonder more DIY’ers are taking on welding with a wire welder. Flux core welding is the most basic way to weld with a wire fed welder and the basic steps are fairly straight forward.
A wire welder feeds wire from a spool through the welder torch tip and is “electrically charged”. When it touches an object that is connected to a ground clamp off of the welder an arc is initiated and the welding wire is melted. The higher the voltage or power settings on the welder hotter and quicker the wire will burn. You can then adjust the wire speed setting to account for the speed at which the wire is melting. The combination of these two settings are what gives you a good weld.
Steps for Welding With Fluxcore.
- Install Flux Core Welding Wire– Flux core welding wire has a flux in it that when burnt creates a shielding gas needed to keep impurities out of the weld. This means that flux core welding requires no welding gas and can be done remotely as long as you have a power source.
- Connect Ground Clamp to Work Piece- A good, clean ground is very important as it is what helps to close the circuit on a wire welding. Without a good clean ground on the work piece your welder won’t arc at all or will have a poor arc. We suggest cleaning an area near where you’re welding down to bare metal and attaching a ground clamp to that area.
- Adjust Welder Settings- Before you pull the trigger you want to set your welder to the appropriate settings for the material thickness you’re welding. Eastwood welders have a chart on the welder with base settings that will get you in the ballpark for welding. You may need to adjust the settings slightly for your job and welding style but it will assure you have a good ratio of voltage power and wire speed. You will want a nice consistent arc that sounds like bacon frying when welding.
- Begin Welding- Hold the welding wire about an 1/8″ off of the work surface and lay the welding torch back 5-10 degrees so you can see the weld area. You can then pull the trigger and begin to travel forward on the work piece. For most common welds you will want to travel left to right if left handed or right to left if right handed. Watch the puddle closely and allow it to penetrate into the weld seam as you push the puddle forward. When you’re done welding simply let off the trigger and admire your first welds!
Obviously there are a lot of variables that can affect your weld quality but one of the biggest things is technique and practice. We always suggest setting up your welder on a scrap piece of metal and practicing before welding on something structural or delicate. With a little practice you can be creating, repairing, and fabricating like a pro.
For an inexpensive Flux Core Welder that can do most common repairs and light duty welding check out the Eastwood Flux-Core 90 welder. It will get the job done and won’t break the bank!