Hello TheScilentRip, I believe that you will find that texredneck is correct when he suggested that you use straight polarity to run this self-shielded wire. The LN25 feeder that you are using is capable of running from either a CV or CC power source, when you open the cover that provides access to the wire spool inside of the feeder you will find a toggle switch that allows you to select from either CC or CV mode, set this to match the output of the particular power source you are using. When you hook the LN25 up to your power source, hook the negative lead to the LN25 and the positive lead to your grounding clamp, this will have you connected on straight polarity, one other thing that you need to do has to do with making sure that the toggle switch that is on the front panel of the LN25 that has a - on one side of it and a + on the other side of it, is set to the - setting, above the wire speed adjustment knob there is another toggle switch, this one is to change the drive motor range from low to high, with the size of wire that you are using you will probably want to set this to the low setting, this will provide the most drive motor torque and also the best control over speed. Your question concerning wire polarity and it's effect on the weld is a definite yes, it has a substantial effect on both how the wire runs and the quality of the deposited weld metal, the excessive spatter you are seeing may be directly related to the polarity question. You mentioned that you are using a 1" stick-out, I believe that that is in the range required, I would try to maintain the length between 3/4" to 1". The voltage that you say you are running on seems a bit high to me, however, that may be because you are running on reverse polarity, once you have corrected the machine connections try a voltage setting in the 22 to 24 volt range and try setting the wire speed so that you aren't stubbing out during the welding but you're also not starving the puddle for wire, when this is correctly set you should have a complete and even slag coverage with a minimal amount of work required to remove the slag, you will still have a fair amount of spatter, but it shouldn't be too hard to scrape it off. You will also want to pay attention to the gun angle, I generally try to keep the gun angle 90 degrees to the joint or slightly above to provide a drag angle, I know that this is different than possibly what you would do when you are using E7018 or possibly dualshield wire however I have had the best success with verticals when using a self-shielded wire, by using a drag angle travelling uphill. On part of your post you stated that you thought that it was taking a long time to get any weld laid down, I don't know how much experience you've had with this process but it isn't known for speed, especially when welding verticals, also, if you're trying to compare it to a GMAW or dualshield welding process it will definitely not win any speed prizes. Hope this helps. Regards, aevald
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