Hello 52lincoln, all of the folks that have responded to your post have been spot on with the many suggestions and information that they have provided you with. Your machine and the suitcase wire feeder that you have will run any type of wire with one major difference from "regular" wire machines, the lack of CV output. The reason that your suitcase feeder unit has a selector switch for CV/CC is it's ability to be used with basically any type of welding power source. In your case the SA200 that you have is only capable of CC output, as was explained by one of the other fellows, that means that as the wire stick-out varies the feeder has to be able to sense the minute voltage changes and vary the wire speed to keep from stubbing out the wire or burning the wire back up to the contact tip and fusing it there. This means that if you use your combination you need to keep the selector switch on the suitcase feeder set to the CC position. The wire that you stated that you are using is indeed a gasless fluxcored wire that requires it to be run on straight polarity according to the manufacturer specifications, it also suggests to operate the wire between 110 and 130 amps @ between 16 to 18 volts. It does not say whether this wire is suited for multi-pass welds or give application weld size limitations, but does say that it is made for welding thin gauge steel and galvanized steel. You can certainly do a rough setting for the amperage range that is suggested for this wire by using the range and fine adjust dials on the welder, the voltage ranges on the other hand would have to be set by basically varying the wirefeed speed on the suitcase feeder unit.
It was also mentioned by one of the other posters that if you are using CC output that you can't use this combination to weld on structural applications, that is partially true. Without doing a WPQR you can't use this combination, but if you qualify the procedure by testing you can in fact use this combination providing that it meets the necessary criteria. Although in today's environment siesmic requirements would likely not allow you to use this grade of wire anyway for that purpose. I believe NR232, NR233, ESAB8, and likely others that I'm not familiar with but that have the seismic requirements will meet these requirements.
If you have non-critical types of welds that you would like to do with this wire, one of the other posters had the best suggestion, play around with the settings until you get the best results aesthetically and performance wise. When a wire such as this is operating close to it's optimum, the finished bead will be shiny and bright after the slag removal and the slag will likely also provide full coverage over the weld bead and will be removed without excessive beating. Good luck and don't give up without a fight. Best regards, aevald
Vern, Go ahead and run that thing on CC. For most of the welding you do you probably don't have to worry about codes or all that other stuff. Just weld with it man! A couple of pointers though... If you're running an LN 25 lincoln suitcase, open it up and look around until you find the CC/CV switch. Ensure that it's set to CC. I'm wondering if your gun has a gas hood on it. If it does and you're welding with self shielding flux core wire then pull the hood off. Remember to switch your leads opposite to what they'd be for stick welding if you're using self shielding flux core wire. Try different heat settings, stick out and wire speed. You'll get it. I used an outfit like that for quite a while and did just fine.
