Most of my welding lately has been repair welding - buckets, blades, excavator booms etc. Usually I use wire, some stick. So, I've been using dual shield wire with CO2 with excellent results. Lately a customer asked me to build a 1000 gallon water tank. I built it out of 1\8 mild steel plate and switched my process to solid wire (.035) and Argon\CO2 mix (75\20 I think) Well, sure it worked fine and the tank is built but I must say I could have welded it up much more beautifully with the dual shield wire or 3\32 stick. I couldn`t get the dual shield wire in .035. It was nice to not need to chip any slag, though. Any comments....
Hello Wrench Tech, there are quite a few different brands of dual shield wire that are available in .035 diameter, they are QUITE spendy compared to the .045 diameter wire. Generally on 1/8" material, the solid wire can be used very effectively for all welding positions other than vertical uphill and provide quality welds. Due to the ability to use vertical down, production times can be shortened considerably because of less of a need to position the work and also allowing some fairly high travel speeds. You do have to know whether you are experiencing any cold-lap or lack of fusion when welding vertical down and this might also require some experimentation and testing on your part. I would venture to say that your opinion of solid wire might be different if you had run a considerable amount of it. Just a little bit to think about. Best regards, aevald
I'd say it's all in what you're used to.
Every process has its own peculiar tendencies that when you become familiar with, become second nature to accommodate for.
I would imagine that had the situation been reversed and you were used to running hard wire and tried out dual shield, you would have asked the same questions.
I would have selected the same process you did. Fitting thin plate for corner welds and running downhill GMAW is a breeze, once you get used to it. You really need a smooth running wire feeder and power source combined with a comfortable position in order to run a uniform bead at a fast travel speed. Sometimes figuring out the exact right combination is frustrating, but worth it in the end.
Tim
I'd just quickly add that if your running 75 25, or 80 20, you would not be able to run spray transfer on your solid core wire. In generall I run 85-15 and switch to spray transfer. That alone makes a big difference in travel speed and bead appearance. I don't have too much experience between dual shield and solid wire, other to say that if it's clean metal and indoors work I would pick solid wire for the cost and lesser smoke.
By Cumminsguy71 
Date 07-17-2008 16:14
Edited 07-17-2008 16:16
I run the solid wire with a 75/25 but have considered switching to flux cored with the CO2 because I have heard the CO2 is cheaper. The wire though is almost triple the cost of solid wire. I like the solid wire myself, don't have any trouble running it in any position but in this area I do have lots of experience(just not a stick) I think the welds look good, nice beads and as you said, "it was nice not to chip slag". That's what I like about it, run a fillet weld, go back to the beginning and start over. A quicker process especially if your welding on a bucket shank for a large excavator, like a 60 inch bucket or something. It was easier for me to just run the 75/25 solid wire and do the multiple, multiple pass fillet without the chipping hammer.
