No matter what I do in terms of wire speed and amperage (my only options are high/low) with my little Harbor Freight flux welder the welds come out looking like this:



When I grind the welds down they appear to have penetrated, but there's always a hole where two weld beads come together:



Any advice is appreciated.

 

To get rid of the pin holes try over lapping your two welds a little more

 

Flux will always be a Little ugly till ya clean it up. On the inside of your welder you should have Recommended Volt and Amps settings for the thickness of metal you are welding. If you are set properly with a good ground, 45 Degree torch angle and between 1/16 and 1/8 on your Electrode stick out. You should be in the ball park.

The holes look like trapped Slag from the flux. Before starting a new weld you should always make sure your bead is clean of flux(Wire Brush and chipping hammer will take care of that).

 

Invest in a better welder. Look into a Lincoln, Miller or Hobart welders. The cheaper ones tend not too give any options for welding.

 

I guess I'll have to grind harder on my previous weld before I go over it. When I hit the old weld it basically just quits welding and starts making boogers full time.

So you guys are saying that first pic is basically what I can expect from a cheap flux core welder?

I figured that I'd try this one to see if I like it and while I do enjoy the welding process the grinding (which I do 5x as much) is already getting old.

Does anybody have a pic of a flux weld from a good welder?

 

^^Yup. Using flux core, you've got to do a REALLY good job of prepping, and it doesn't help that your welder is a lower end one. Solid core is what every pro uses. Just make sure you prep very well and do a good clean up on each weld. Keep them short (2 inches at a time), and if you need to, overlap the end beads.

 

X2, flux core is basically only for lower end welders without gas hookup, or works well in high wind areas outside, i only go solid core, just my 2cents.

 

This is like good news/bad news at the same time. Apparently I'm doing it right (which is kind of a relief) but I need a new welder.

 

hey i said it in your other thread, but make sure you get some descent flux wire, the harbor freight wire can be really inconsistent. and the strange thing is you can get Lincoln flux wire for about 5 bucks cheape per spool than the harbor freight wire.

 

thy and bare back the edges of your material about half an inch from the edges, so as that you have removed the mill scale, on the first shot and secont it looks like your fighting that, what thickness is the material your working with and have you checked to see if your welder is set up on straight polarity that means + to - or negative polarity - to + in relation to your torch and ground where as the first aforementioned would be + torch and ground being -. this can have a profound difference in your weld quality, it should be straight polarity for flux and reverse for solid core GMAW. it also appears that your beads are a bit small try to on 3/16 for instance start your bead and move in small concentric circles pulling your weld (feeding wire into your weld pool) making the cricles equal in width to roughly the same size as the thickness of the material you are welding on either side of the pool. and keep the slag hammer and wire brish handy to keep your beads clean. one other suggestion is to clip your wire after you stop each bead so as that you have a fresh un contaminated electrode to easier start your next bead

 

one more if your using a cheapy welder just set it on the highest setting that the two toggle switches offer you especially if the wire you are using is anywhere near .030 in diameter and your welding on 3/16

 

It's not that hard to lay a good weld with a cheap machine, Just make sure you prep the metal well, push the puddle instead of pulling and use good quality wire (some of the lower grade stuff slips on the drive wheel and doesn't feed at a constant rate).

 

I can get fine welds with my $90 HF fluxcore welder. Even better with the Lincoln wire from Lowes. Best advice I can give is slooooooow down. Just make sure you get enough wire speed to supply the pool\puddle.

 

X1000 Lincoln compared to HF wire will make you think you have a whole new machine.

 

I have the same HF welder. I changed the tips to Lincoln .35 (10 pck at HD for $10.00) and got some Lincoln .35 wire from Home Depot ($10.99). It made all the differance. Make sure your welding area is clean. I have my wire speed set between 7 and 8 for 3/16 welds. Another thing is try not to use an extention cord. It will lower the amperage to much and you wont get the good bacon frying sound.