Hi! I am a new welder, and just got a HH 187 for Xmas. I decided to play around with the flux core before investing (and possibly wasting) in a gas set up until I get some experience and feel comfortable with the equipment. Anyway, here are some issues I have. Any help is appreciated.
I started witht he .035 provided with the welder. I set the wire feed tension to 3, the voltage to 1 and the wire feed speed to 30. It went well...for about 10 seconds. Then the wire stopped feeding. So I went back to the welder and adjusted the tension again, went back to my piece, pulled the trigger, and same thing. Next time I went back, the wire had broken. So I rethreaded it, lowered to tightness of the spool, lightened up on the wire tension, and tried numerous times again. Next time, the wire would seem to get stuck after I welded for a few seconds, and I turned to look at the welder, and the wire had forced the other end of the hose out of it's seat and loops of wire were coming out of the wire feed area! I then changed to the .030 wire, and same thing happened.
So, my questions are...what am I doing wrong?! Should I just nix the flux core altogether? Is gas easier? And should I switch to a smaller wire? I am going to be using it mostly on auto sheet metal. What do I treat the nozzle with to prevent the wire from clogging it?
Thanks for any help!
I started witht he .035 provided with the welder. I set the wire feed tension to 3, the voltage to 1 and the wire feed speed to 30. It went well...for about 10 seconds. Then the wire stopped feeding. So I went back to the welder and adjusted the tension again, went back to my piece, pulled the trigger, and same thing. Next time I went back, the wire had broken. So I rethreaded it, lowered to tightness of the spool, lightened up on the wire tension, and tried numerous times again. Next time, the wire would seem to get stuck after I welded for a few seconds, and I turned to look at the welder, and the wire had forced the other end of the hose out of it's seat and loops of wire were coming out of the wire feed area! I then changed to the .030 wire, and same thing happened.
So, my questions are...what am I doing wrong?! Should I just nix the flux core altogether? Is gas easier? And should I switch to a smaller wire? I am going to be using it mostly on auto sheet metal. What do I treat the nozzle with to prevent the wire from clogging it?
Thanks for any help!
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