Using Flux Core Wire

[Alabama Chevy]

Hi Guys,

I am fervently reading the manual that came with my HH187 and have an unanswered question. When doing my research prior to buying my welder I remember Lincoln stating that you must use a knurled feed roller for flux core wire. I see no mention of that in my HH187 manual. Can I just go ahead and use the.030/.035 groove on the feed roller that came with the welder?

Thanks,

Jon

[dynasim]

I did, and it worked/works fine.

Chris

[Roger]

V groove, U groove, knurled groove they all will work.

Flux core is has very thin tube wall easily deformed in V groove with excess drive roll pressure.
But V groove is more forgiving of small wire size variations.

U groove tends to deform wire less than V groove.

Knurled groove gives better grip on wire. Knurled groove will tend to file wire when it slips because low pressure drive roll pressure causing more filings in liner. Can emboss notches into wire with high drive roll pressure that increase contact tip wear rate.

[Alabama Chevy]

Chris/Roger,

Thanks for the feedback. In a few minutes I will be off to lay my first bead!

I will let you guys know how things turned out.

Jon

[hogan]

Alabama Chevy,
As others have mentioned, it will probably work just fine. Although, it is not the right tool for the job. Smooth rollers are designed for GMAW hard/solid wire. The knurled rollers are designed for use with FCAW and metal core wires. When using smooth rollers for FCAW and metal core there is the potential for variations in feed rates resulting in voltage fluctuations. I would say use the smooth rollers unless you run into variations in voltage then consider changing them out.

[MAC702]

My bigger feeders for the engine drives have knurled drive rolls, but I've never put knurled rolls in any of my 210A or smaller MIG machines, and they'll all run FCAW without issues.

[Broccoli1]

with or without?

[Zrexxer]

If it was such a huge problem, Hobart would not supply the machines set up for fluxcore, with a sample roll of fluxcore in the box, and smooth drive rolls. It works fine for the intended application.

[unit5alive]

My HH210 works fine with the standard roller and flux core.