Got myself a Flux core welder trying to teach myself how to weld. And I thought I was a idiot who could never learn how. All disgusted Until I saw your video. Thank you for raising my WELDING I.Q. WITH KNOWLEDGE WORTH KNOWING. I HAVE A BIG SMILE ON MY FACE BECAUSE IM MOT A IDIOT WHEN IT COMES TO WELDING. IM STILL A IDIOT BUT I CAN NOW WELD! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KNOWLEDGE.
Great video. Simple, easy to follow advice. I bought a MIG unit from a local, supposedly reputable specialist welding supplier about 10 years ago. It was a ‘special deal’, allegedly for our state agricultural show. Turned out, they were dumping the units as they were having major issues getting all the products from the manufacturer to operate correctly. After a few months of horrible welding, blaming myself, a mate (much more experienced than me) tried to use it, and had the same issues ( dirty, splattery, horrible weld lines, that took ages to grind, and major pitting necessitating rewelding / over-welding (?), incomplete or weak welds, machine would run for about 10 minutes then need 1/2 hour to cool down etc). I took the unit back for a ‘service’, and they sent it back with the wrong setting on the ‘drive-wheel’ for the wire that was on it. Eventually, I disassembled the machine. I found the cooling fan (generic ‘computer’ type) was rubbing on another component, so i rescrewed it onto the steel case. I then reset the incorrect settings that they had done. It now works flawlessly, and will easily weld for longer than I can. Took it back to the company, showed them what I did, and made the professionals a bit embarrassed. They gave me a bunch of new swag, including fancy switching- magnetic clamps. Sometimes it takes a new ‘inexperienced’ eye on a problem to pick out the issues.
@@ganjalfcreamcorn8438 no. They had installed the wrong drive wheel for the supplied wire type, as well as incorrectly assembling the whole shebang causing the cooling fan to be pushed against the case, so as to not be able to turn. The polarity was the ONLY thing they had correct.
I just started college this last week for a welding certificate knowing basically nothing about welding, but when you talked about straight and reverse polarity, I knew exactly what you were talking about because we're currently learning the basics. Straight polarity= Direct Current Electrode negative (current flows from electrode to work, transferring 70% of the heat on the work), Reverse polarity= Direct Current Electrode Positive (current flows from grounded work to electrode, transferring 70% of the heat produced to the electrode) and Alternating Current spreads the heat 50/50 towards electrode and work.
I've been welding off and on over 40 years. I never knew about this. I normally run gas, but I do have a couple of rolls of Flux core if I have to welding outside and there is too much wind. Now I'll know to make that change, and my welds will actually look good. Thanks for this very useful tip.
This is probably one of the best videos for anyone to watch that buys a box store welder to use around their garage. Without this simple tip, at the beginning of learning, it saves an immense amount of frustration, and disappointment. So glad I found this video. We have the exact welder at work for doing minor repairs etc, and it acts that way. Have to put feed higher, and keep turning the welder down to not burn the wire to the tip, and jumps back and forth, hard to keep straight. Sounds like it’s the exact problem. Awesome man!
This makes sense since DC current always flows from negative to positive. The instructions for my welder tells you to reverse the cables when welding with flux core wire.
Now I know why the Small Lincoln single-phase 110 volt welders we had at our old shop were horrible to work with. Thanks brother! Appreciate your video! Great information! I mig weld now with a Snap-On mig with gas and non flux wire. Wow! What a difference! 👍
I have an older version of the same Lincoln you are using. I can smear some wire on two pieces of metal and make them stick together but I would never call myself a "welder". A lot of our stick welders where I work have a polarity switch right on the front so I knew that there was a purpose for reversing polarity but never new why. The funny thing is.....I have asked about it and none of the career "welders" at work could tell me why you would ever use it 😂 This will go a long way toward improving my results. Thank you!
Jake, thank you. This is the best demonstration I have seen, of the difference made by changing polarity. I have been viewing (for the past year) many videos, on modding a flux core machine to DC.This shows the potential, of staying AC. 😁🖖✌
OMG!! I have been running flux core on my Lincoln with wrong polarity all this time. No wonder I have been getting the results I get! (It ain’t pretty!!). Thanks SO much. I can’t wait to try out proper polarity. Thank you!!!
Stumbled on this video and was excited. Not a “welder” but did a year, at night, at local tech school and have TIG, stick and gas MIG in my shop. Needed remote operation at my farm and bought a HF 110v flux core machine. It was ugly but it worked. Recently helping weld on a bush hog and using the 120 machine and yea…messy. Saw this video and at 1115pm went out to my shop to see. HF 100v flux core welder is not switchable. It is all hard wired in and I’m not a sparky. Damn! Still great video and I plan to share this with my buddy who was my welding instructor.
Great suggestion!....Just switched the polarity on my wire feed that i run on 220, it is like night and day, so much less spatter, and it cleans up super easy, Thanks for the tip
Thank you for the lesson! My wife bought me a new Lincoln 90i it can run both MiG and Flux Core and I have been fighting it trying to clean up my welds and make it look presentable! Now I know to try this and will be practicing it tomorrow in the shop! Appreciate you!
I consider myself a weekend warrior and a self taught welder. I purchased a Lincoln 140C welder similar to yours, but instead of my amp settings being fixed to only five or six settings, I can actually fine tune the amperage with the dial. Picked it up in an estate sale for $350 and never used. A smoking deal considering the cost of this model new. At any rate, I, like everyone else made the assumption that the units were sent from the factory for the proper setting for flux core. And now you are proving that wrong. Good on you for bringing this to our attention. I thought that my welds weren't getting any better as shown in your example. I will reverse my leads the next time I have a small job and see if my work is any better. Great video! Cheers from Ontario.
I've been trying to learn with an HF flux core welder and my results are exactly like your first test. I'm going to go check the leads and reverse them if needed, and maybe, just maybe I will finally get a weld that will hold. Thanks!
@@JTwelder. Turns out, in my case, it was user error. I increased the feed rate, slowed down, and I'm starting to get decent welds. Thanks for your support!
that was the best advice i ever had for welding. i had to take the entire cover off because my power was not in the same place but it was worth it for a better weld. thank you so much
Thanks for doing this video. I bought a used Lincoln mig a couple years ago. I recently ran out of gas and installed flux core. I switched the polarity, but got the crap welds you showed. I just went & checked, and the polarity was wrong. Guess I've been running mig wrong, too.
Haven't tried it yet...but this really makes me curious to try both ways to better understand it myself. I have seen SO MANY videos on UA-cam researching where flux core is spraying a mess everywhere and only a couple that look clean at all.
@@matthewmiller6068 try both ways is a great idea to get an understanding of the difference and see in real time how much better the wire reacts when using the right polarity.
Thank you for a great example of setting up and explaining setup for flux core. I am fairly new to welding and I heard about + ground for flux core, but hard to find a good explanation of it as you have given. I do make good welds with flux core. I like flux core over gas, over the cost of gas. Have no problem brushing the flux off the weld. I just upgraded to a Vevor 250 mig which allows easy switch to (+) ground.
DUDE, for the last few months i was learning to weld and bro my welds were good but there was so much spatter and super inconsistent. Nlt kidding after one hour of swapping pos and neg i got some pro welds and im finally ready to weld my whole flatbed and not be ashamed of my welds! 🙏🙏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
I’ve recently been learning to weld and despite all the videos I’ve watched (and it’s a LOT!) I was frustrated by the spatter issue and porosity of flux core. I’m going to try changing polarity as you showed, and nobody else I’ve watched has mentioned. Thanks for this video, I’m really looking forward to trying this out!🤞🏼
This only works on more expensive flux core migs w/ a DC power supply, like his. That welder's over $600 The cheaper ones are AC and it won't make a difference. And that's why the cheap ones suck. Flux core itself is fine.
@@frankbenner8499 Yes. If I were to stick with flux core, I'd get the titanium from harbor freight. it has a dc power supply. much less spatter. use good wire also, the lincoln electric flux core is the best one. hardens quickly, a good thing if you are doing thin stuff like body panels
@@frankbenner8499if you are comfortable tinkering, you could buy a ~ 400 amp bridge rectifier module (haa s built in aluminum heatsink). They are pretty cheap online. run the 2 welder AC output lines into it , and feed its DC output lines in the polarity of your choice. .
A few years ago I purchased a Lincoln welder 240 . In the instructions it said “ if using flux core, reverse the polarity for optimal performance “. I just did and my welder has always worked amazing. Thought you still do get a bit of spatter , however common with flux core.
Cant wait to try this on my chicago electric cheapo. Been welding with stick for many years, but couldn't get a decent looking weld for nothing. Thanks!
I have an Italian DECA welder (Decastar 150E) I bought from Princess Auto almost 30 years ago. This unit is second to none for flux core. I have a Lincoln mig-pak 180 for Gas welding.
Recently picked up a cheap 110v flux core welder, that is not able to be set up to run with gas. I bet it is also wired up like the gas version welders. I'll check the polarity next time I go to use it. Thanks for the tip!
Here in Australia I have a 240V 100A flux core welder which I run on a 10A circuit. It must be set up correctly, because my welds look your second weld, not the first mess. I can get a few different brands of wire, but I think I prefer the Renegade wire over the Bosweld wire, although the Bosweld wire is still good.
Great info, I will say, I just picked up a new Titan 125 from Harber Freight (cheap as hell I know), and took it apart to check... From what I can tell they actually have the clamp wire hooked up to the positive side. Granted, it's "self inverted" or whatever, so it's not the same set up and connections as a proper Lincoln, but the clamp wire is connected to the transformer, and there is a seperate smaller red wire that runs to the board, and is labelled V+ . So that's good. Still splatters some, but not as bad as other machines I've used (that probably weren't set up correctly). Suppose I just need to dial in my wire speed.
The Titanium 125 comes set correctly for flux core(I set mine up to weld stainless also by adding quick connects on my cables and changing wire) My first Forney did not and I had to change it. It welded much better afterwards.
I did my first weld today with a Titanium 200 and .30 flux wire, clean up the metal before I started, set the polarity correctly for flux core, used the suggested settings for the material I'm welding, and I had 10x more beads and even burn through. Once you get them, I learned you can't go over it because you can't get between the beads to clean the slag, so you just make it worse.
Im really impressed here. Thank you big time for explaining what others tend not to do. I am thinking of getting into welding just as a DIY'er and I was really wondering about the power source for a 120v welder. Im wondering if you turn up the power on one of those 120v welders could you (or have you ever) blown the 20 amp breaker? You did a really good job explaining everything else and you have a great speaking voice. Kudos to you!! If I do decide to get into it I will burn what you said into my old brain :)
Yep I have blown the 20 amp breaker before. If your just welding sheet metal or bodywork a 120v welder will work but if your doing a lot of welding on 1/4” material and thicker that a 220v machine is definitely the way to go.
I've got a HITBOX multi-purpose welder, just switched the contacts around, and sure enough, much less splatter and way easier to get nice looking welds. Cheers!
I bought the cheap Lidle "Parkside" welder, and I thought it welded really well, with little splatter. i've just checked it, and it was +;ve earth out of the box! Happy days!
I have a miller mig setup with c25 at work and can run great looking beads with it. I purchased a machine to have at home which does flux core and MiG. I am having a hell of a time getting a bead to look good on flux core lol! Keep trying I guess! My machine is already set to positive polarity as well!
@@chewy6942 Are you using good quality wire? I wouldn’t recommend any online knock off wires or Lincoln flux core either because they suck! Try Hobart, esab, blue demon or other brands. Also heat is your friend, if the bead isn’t looking good turn up your heat and if your maxed out and it still looks bad lower your wire speed.
@ I am using yeswelder .35 wire that had good ratings from Amazon. I am somewhat new to the game and am lucky enough to have a miller 175 MiG at work to mess around with. I get great welds with gas and wanted to have something at home to do hobby welding so I bought a Bestarc 145 9gen. I Know isn’t top quality but it’s a start. It is capable of gas and flux core as I don’t have the funds for gas yet. So I got rid of the best arc wire it came with in .40 and bought this yeswelder flux core .35 and it seems like such small beads I am getting still. I am also plugged into 220. I think if I can find thicker metal around 1/4” and turn the heat up which also runs a faster wire speed on this welder, it might help! It’s all a big learning curve. Thanks for the response!
@@chewy6942 ok so it sounds like you just have to play with your settings more because when it’s plugged into 220 theres more than enough voltage to burn in some good fluxcore beads.
I watched this video this morning and it prompted me to check my recently purchased Harbor Freight Titanium 110vac solid wire machine. I had to remove a side panel to check. The Titanium came already set up as positive ground. Posting so that others will know.
I watched a video of a welder rating 5 or 6 different brands of FC wire and as I recall Lincoln scored on the low end and Hyanede scored on the high end, I don't remember all the brands he tested.
my welder is just a purpose built $100 flux core with one dail that does speed and voltage oh and we run 220v in Ireland would this make a difference in setting it up?
Great video your a good teacher. If my Lincoln 100 welder is setup correctly for Flux core and it still spatters is my current too high. I'm using new Lincoln 035 wirr and the settings inside the cover B/1.5?
I will try this tomorrow I just bought a flux gasless yesterdayand I was practicing last night and I was so disappointed and I thought it was me I had spatter everywhere and no penetration, I really hope I see changes tomorrow thanks!
I switched the pos and neg and I have no power to my gun, rollers arent turning. Am I supposed to do something else? Im running on a 30 amp fuse. Also running a short 10 ft.12 gauge extension cord thats a little thicker than the cord on the welder. Anyone have any suggestions. I got working on this damn thing because the guy that had it before me took the spring, tensioner and lock bolt of the spool holder and replaced it with a cotter pin. So I figured thats why it runs like shit. Im going to get them parts but I came across this video so I figured id try thid while im working on it.
Switching the polarity should have no affect on the trigger since the trigger and rollers operate on a completely different circuit than the actual welding output. I would check the trigger wires that run from the gun into the machine. Also if the previous owner played with the spool holder then that also could mess with the performance.
@@JTwelder. Thank you for the reply. I went ahead and wired it back the way it was. I used a spring off of an old weed eater and he had the .030 wire running in the ,035 groove so I took that out and cleaned it up and flipped it to run the ,030 groove and bought some .30 tips for it. Just doing that made it run 10 times better and I really dont have much spatter. At least I got it running good enough to finish what I needed to, now Ill see if I can figure out which wires I need to switch to reverse the polarity, because it wasnt them two I switched before. I cant find a wiring schematic anywhere on the dam thing. Its a WF2000 campbell Hausfeld fluxcore 80 built in 2001 Im pretty sure.
Harbor Freight's Titanium Easy-Flux 125 Amp Welder is a DC-based inverter welder that uses direct current electrode negative (DCEN) polarity for flux-cored welding:
@@robertcromwell9736 Yep, any time you’re welding with shelf-shielded flux core you need to be DCEN that rule applies to any machine. Apparently those titanium one are good little units.
Been welding 25 years. But just recently picked up hobo fraight 120v flux core welder and if this works I be vary happy cause it makes the ugliest welds. Thanks. I was probibly not listening that day 25 years ago in welding class. Lol
What a bad luck! Anyway I'm going to buy the machine, as I only want it to do my little projects at home, I'm new to this I think that this machine is good to start with!
I'm a self taught stick welder who's got hold of a MIG welder and how much easier is this, it had flux core wire and was set up wrong and since i found your video I'm now welding like a pro, just joking but my welds are 200% better. Thanks mate.
I have a sca mig welder unfortunately after opening it up to transfer the wire I noticed they have hard wired so it’s not like yours where you can just undo a lock nut. Can I cut the wires then either solder together but they might get hot or buy 2 joiners that I could use, any advice is appreciated, I live on a disability pension so I can’t afford a better welder , I also live in Australia so it’s 240 v. Cheers Andy.
I’m thinking of doing a little automotive welding on my off-roader. Skid plates and sliders and such. Is it worth investing in a mig welder or will a harbor freight flux core get the job done? Harbor freight also sells a combo mig and flux for 379. Thinking of getting that, but they also sell a flux core only for way cheaper… not sure where to start. By the way I have taken mig and TIG welding classes and was even certified at one point though only shortly worked professionally as a welder. It didn’t work out at the company I worked at and I got another job in a different trade.
For skid plates and off road stuff you’re going to be using 1/8-3/8” thick steel and doing a lot of welds. I would recommend going up to a 220v mig machine. A 120v/ standard house plug machine probably isn’t going to cut it. I would recommend the arc captain mig200. They just sent me one and I’m going to be doing a few videos with it. It’s a dual 120/220 voltage machine so you can run it of both size circuits and you can run gasless flux core on it as well and get really good results! Stay tuned to my channel and you’ll see it in action.
@@JTwelder.ty for the info. That machine is around the same price too. I live in an apt but my dads house nearby has a 220 installed for his air compressor in the garage. So i will probably be able to use that machine. I will sub cause I’m curious to see the machine in action.
@@jvogler_art4708 thanks for the sub! I’m going to be doing a whole 120v vs 220v welding machine video and it will most likely have all the information you will need.
For the modern flux core-only welders (like those cute little Harbor Freight ones), does this still apply? I would assume that the polarity in these is hard to swap, unlike the Lincoln 140s where it's all accessible. But wouldn't a flux-only tool get t right from the factory?
The harbour freight ones are set up correctly. I’ve only seen old no name Ali express/ Amazon flux welders be set up wrong from the factory but nothing that’s actually sold in a store.
While it leads to an additional machine, I set a cheaper machine ( that is a 110 machine ) for flux. It’s my grab and go machine if I need to weld away from the garage
Yep every instruction manual will tell you this and even the settings chart inside the door on machines will tell you this. The problem is 95% of people won’t read the manual and some brands do a horrible job of explaining it to the point where a non welder would not understand.
My MIG PAK 140 machine from Canadian tire did not come setup and it did come with clear intructions for setup on DCEP - Direct Current Electrode Positive (MIG) and DCEN - Direct Current Electrode Negative (Flux core) so I think most people need to spend time and read the instructions. There's a lot of videos about setting up this type of machine from new and they all speak about setting it up correctly for Flux.
@@JTwelder. You think you could do a video on a bunch of different weld types on the 140 on different thicknesses of metal and speak about the settings you use? I know the inside flap gives a baseline for voltage and wire speed but I find I need to tweak them slightly if doing an open corner weld vs a butt or lap weld since welding the edge of a piece gets hotter. Only thing I don't like about the MIG PAK 140 is that the voltage settings are 4 position only, it would be nice if you could vary it between the A B C D setting. Currently just running flux for now as the bottle of gas is a bit pricey and I'm just doing some basic hobby type welding at the moment
Thanks for the post. My welds look like your first past and I thought it was me just being out of practice. I used to be fairly decent for a part time welder. Just small projects, nothing elaborate or critical.
@@JTwelder. My primary machine is 220v Tweco/ThermalArc 181i w gas, so not alot to compare to. But for 110v portability I did have the HF Vulcan Easy flux 125 and thought it was decent accept for its short ass leads and pathetic ground clamp. Once it died I got the yeswelder 135 for $40 less, better leads, more power, duty cycle, cleaner arc. Yeah, it smokes the HF unit and has welded 2x or 3x the wire so far. Also has display and carry handle. No brainer.
i bought the cheapest titanium flux core welder from harbor freight and mine was set up properly. maybe the Chicago electric is set up with negative ground but mine is positive ground
Ok. My ground is hooked up to one end of a cylindrical element that has the continuation of the ground coming off the other end and its secured into a heat sink that is attached to a circuit board. The gun comes up through the top, feeds down to all the motor area and is bolted straight to the circuit board. There is nothing indicating which is positive and which is negative. I’ve got the Lincoln weld-pak 90i FC. Any suggestions? Edit. It appears two wires that make up my gun are connected to areas marked out- and my ground is connected also in both places marked out + Does this seem right?
You didn't say what diameter wire you are running. Since you were sayin it works on sheet metal, I'll assume it's .030 or smaller. I love the .035 that came with my multi function, multi voltage Warcking. I love flux core. It's easier than stick and cheaper than dual shield or straight mig. Good video though.
I have a Chicago electric brand, I know is crab but I'm try to learn is a 90 Amp flux core, opened up but don't have the same set up as the Lincoln. It has this coil, half for the neg and the other half for the POS and don't see the connection. What do I do?
hi.do you know on the settings is wire speed first knob on left and is it amps knob on right.im using 1.0 wire flux core on some bulkhead sheet metal .it was burning thru metal so turned both knobs down to minimum .i did have 0.8mm wire in machine at first but thought 1.0mm better for my van vw t4 camper.ive not welded on van yet just practising on bits metal 😊
In the UK we have mainly Super 6 both rods and flux core mig wire, not a great deal of choice really, but I find that I can weld pretty good with either, it's the 'make the best of what you've got' approach over here.
So do we! There are hundreds of welding shops in the UK that sell decent quality consumables, DIY shops usually only stock cheap no name stuff, look for a welding supply or shop online.
Noob here, and this might be the most useful video on welding I've run into. Thanks!
Thanks man!
Got myself a Flux core welder trying to teach myself how to weld. And I thought I was a idiot who could never learn how. All disgusted Until I saw your video. Thank you for raising my WELDING I.Q. WITH KNOWLEDGE WORTH KNOWING. I HAVE A BIG SMILE ON MY FACE BECAUSE IM MOT A IDIOT WHEN IT COMES TO WELDING. IM STILL A IDIOT BUT I CAN NOW WELD! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KNOWLEDGE.
Outstanding video.....my whole time i've been welding i've had spatter everywhere....I was about to give up till I saw this. Thank you!
No problem glad I could help!
@@JTwelder.FYI:The splatter you are referring to are called-"BOOGERS"!
@@JTwelder."If you use slag, then DRAG".
Dual shield
Great video. Simple, easy to follow advice.
I bought a MIG unit from a local, supposedly reputable specialist welding supplier about 10 years ago. It was a ‘special deal’, allegedly for our state agricultural show. Turned out, they were dumping the units as they were having major issues getting all the products from the manufacturer to operate correctly.
After a few months of horrible welding, blaming myself, a mate (much more experienced than me) tried to use it, and had the same issues ( dirty, splattery, horrible weld lines, that took ages to grind, and major pitting necessitating rewelding / over-welding (?), incomplete or weak welds, machine would run for about 10 minutes then need 1/2 hour to cool down etc).
I took the unit back for a ‘service’, and they sent it back with the wrong setting on the ‘drive-wheel’ for the wire that was on it.
Eventually, I disassembled the machine. I found the cooling fan (generic ‘computer’ type) was rubbing on another component, so i rescrewed it onto the steel case. I then reset the incorrect settings that they had done.
It now works flawlessly, and will easily weld for longer than I can. Took it back to the company, showed them what I did, and made the professionals a bit embarrassed. They gave me a bunch of new swag, including fancy switching- magnetic clamps. Sometimes it takes a new ‘inexperienced’ eye on a problem to pick out the issues.
Agreed!!
you probably had the polarity reversed.
@@ganjalfcreamcorn8438 no. They had installed the wrong drive wheel for the supplied wire type, as well as incorrectly assembling the whole shebang causing the cooling fan to be pushed against the case, so as to not be able to turn.
The polarity was the ONLY thing they had correct.
Well that's cool you got it up and running again. Or for the first time I guess haha. What brand is it?
@@ganjalfcreamcorn8438 it is a WeldMaster, and it’s still working 10 years or so later.
I just started college this last week for a welding certificate knowing basically nothing about welding, but when you talked about straight and reverse polarity, I knew exactly what you were talking about because we're currently learning the basics. Straight polarity= Direct Current Electrode negative (current flows from electrode to work, transferring 70% of the heat on the work), Reverse polarity= Direct Current Electrode Positive (current flows from grounded work to electrode, transferring 70% of the heat produced to the electrode) and Alternating Current spreads the heat 50/50 towards electrode and work.
Great job now I knw
bougt just mma cried nicely.
I have to write this down.
I've been welding off and on over 40 years. I never knew about this. I normally run gas, but I do have a couple of rolls of Flux core if I have to welding outside and there is too much wind. Now I'll know to make that change, and my welds will actually look good. Thanks for this very useful tip.
Glad I could help!
This is one of the things that really impressed me with the HF Vulkin Omnipro220. The manual is VERY in-depth and actually covers this and WHY it is.
Learnt more in the last 12 minutes than I’ve ever been taught about welding🙂 thanks cobba
This is probably one of the best videos for anyone to watch that buys a box store welder to use around their garage. Without this simple tip, at the beginning of learning, it saves an immense amount of frustration, and disappointment. So glad I found this video. We have the exact welder at work for doing minor repairs etc, and it acts that way. Have to put feed higher, and keep turning the welder down to not burn the wire to the tip, and jumps back and forth, hard to keep straight. Sounds like it’s the exact problem. Awesome man!
your straightforwardness is extremely refreshing
Glad it helped!
This makes sense since DC current always flows from negative to positive. The instructions for my welder tells you to reverse the cables when welding with flux core wire.
Now I know why the Small Lincoln single-phase 110 volt welders we had at our old shop were horrible to work with. Thanks brother! Appreciate your video! Great information! I mig weld now with a Snap-On mig with gas and non flux wire. Wow! What a difference! 👍
I have an older version of the same Lincoln you are using. I can smear some wire on two pieces of metal and make them stick together but I would never call myself a "welder". A lot of our stick welders where I work have a polarity switch right on the front so I knew that there was a purpose for reversing polarity but never new why. The funny thing is.....I have asked about it and none of the career "welders" at work could tell me why you would ever use it 😂 This will go a long way toward improving my results. Thank you!
Jake, thank you. This is the best demonstration I have seen, of the difference made by changing polarity.
I have been viewing (for the past year) many videos, on modding a flux core machine to DC.This shows
the potential, of staying AC. 😁🖖✌
OMG!! I have been running flux core on my Lincoln with wrong polarity all this time. No wonder I have been getting the results I get! (It ain’t pretty!!). Thanks SO much. I can’t wait to try out proper polarity. Thank you!!!
Stumbled on this video and was excited. Not a “welder” but did a year, at night, at local tech school and have TIG, stick and gas MIG in my shop. Needed remote operation at my farm and bought a HF 110v flux core machine. It was ugly but it worked. Recently helping weld on a bush hog and using the 120 machine and yea…messy. Saw this video and at 1115pm went out to my shop to see. HF 100v flux core welder is not switchable. It is all hard wired in and I’m not a sparky. Damn! Still great video and I plan to share this with my buddy who was my welding instructor.
Great suggestion!....Just switched the polarity on my wire feed that i run on 220, it is like night and day, so much less spatter, and it cleans up super easy, Thanks for the tip
Right on!
Thank you for the lesson! My wife bought me a new Lincoln 90i it can run both MiG and Flux Core and I have been fighting it trying to clean up my welds and make it look presentable! Now I know to try this and will be practicing it tomorrow in the shop! Appreciate you!
Nice! Glad I could help!
I consider myself a weekend warrior and a self taught welder. I purchased a Lincoln 140C welder similar to yours, but instead of my amp settings being fixed to only five or six settings, I can actually fine tune the amperage with the dial. Picked it up in an estate sale for $350 and never used. A smoking deal considering the cost of this model new.
At any rate, I, like everyone else made the assumption that the units were sent from the factory for the proper setting for flux core. And now you are proving that wrong. Good on you for bringing this to our attention. I thought that my welds weren't getting any better as shown in your example. I will reverse my leads the next time I have a small job and see if my work is any better. Great video! Cheers from Ontario.
I've been trying to learn with an HF flux core welder and my results are exactly like your first test. I'm going to go check the leads and reverse them if needed, and maybe, just maybe I will finally get a weld that will hold. Thanks!
Yeah hopefully it that's your problem! It's a night and day difference you'll know if it worked.
@@JTwelder. if only the guts of the HF were marked + and -!
@@brysonalden5414 yeah on cheaper models they probably don't bother with labeling that. Also Hobart makes probably the best flux core wire.
@@JTwelder. Turns out, in my case, it was user error. I increased the feed rate, slowed down, and I'm starting to get decent welds. Thanks for your support!
@@brysonalden5414Label once you figure it out.
that was the best advice i ever had for welding. i had to take the entire cover off because my power was not in the same place but it was worth it for a better weld. thank you so much
Thanks for doing this video. I bought a used Lincoln mig a couple years ago. I recently ran out of gas and installed flux core. I switched the polarity, but got the crap welds you showed. I just went & checked, and the polarity was wrong. Guess I've been running mig wrong, too.
Haven't tried it yet...but this really makes me curious to try both ways to better understand it myself. I have seen SO MANY videos on UA-cam researching where flux core is spraying a mess everywhere and only a couple that look clean at all.
@@matthewmiller6068 try both ways is a great idea to get an understanding of the difference and see in real time how much better the wire reacts when using the right polarity.
That was one of the best explanations of polarity iv come across. Thank you
Most important welding video I have ever watched. Home Hobbyist and with a 12 year old Mig that has caused me nothing but heartache.
I’ve been struggling with wire core for years, I will try reversing the leads in the morning. Thanks for the suggestion.
WHY is nobody else talking about this? This is a life changing video. Thanks !!!!!
Thank you for a great example of setting up and explaining setup for flux core. I am fairly new to welding and I heard about + ground for flux core, but hard to find a good explanation of it as you have given. I do make good welds with flux core. I like flux core over gas, over the cost of gas. Have no problem brushing the flux off the weld. I just upgraded to a Vevor 250 mig which allows easy switch to (+) ground.
DUDE, for the last few months i was learning to weld and bro my welds were good but there was so much spatter and super inconsistent. Nlt kidding after one hour of swapping pos and neg i got some pro welds and im finally ready to weld my whole flatbed and not be ashamed of my welds! 🙏🙏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
after fighting flux for years,this is the answer for all flux problems,i am welding 22ga with very little problems. hubba hubba.
What wire size you like?
We're cooking with flux now!
Thank you, I was getting depressed. Im a novice but I knew I wasnt that bad
I’ve recently been learning to weld and despite all the videos I’ve watched (and it’s a LOT!) I was frustrated by the spatter issue and porosity of flux core. I’m going to try changing polarity as you showed, and nobody else I’ve watched has mentioned.
Thanks for this video, I’m really looking forward to trying this out!🤞🏼
This only works on more expensive flux core migs w/ a DC power supply, like his. That welder's over $600 The cheaper ones are AC and it won't make a difference. And that's why the cheap ones suck. Flux core itself is fine.
Thanx for that info, my wire welder is AC only, and cheap lol. Maybe I should upgrade?
@@frankbenner8499 Yes. If I were to stick with flux core, I'd get the titanium from harbor freight. it has a dc power supply. much less spatter. use good wire also, the lincoln electric flux core is the best one. hardens quickly, a good thing if you are doing thin stuff like body panels
the next step up is a mig w/ dc inverter. w/ the cheap ac transformer ones, the power fluctuates a lot and doesnt give you a smooth weld pool
@@frankbenner8499if you are comfortable tinkering, you could buy a ~ 400 amp bridge rectifier module (haa s built in aluminum heatsink). They are pretty cheap online. run the 2 welder AC output lines into it , and feed its DC output lines in the polarity of your choice. .
A few years ago I purchased a Lincoln welder 240 . In the instructions it said “ if using flux core, reverse the polarity for optimal performance “.
I just did and my welder has always worked amazing. Thought you still do get a bit of spatter , however common with flux core.
Don’t ever buy Chinese wire or rod to weld
Good job on this video, Kid.Proud of you
Thanks.
My mig was set up wrong on my 1st exhaust job. It was splattered and ugly. Flipped polarity and my 2nd exhaust job is nice.
5:05 Great tip! Mine however is set correctly which means there's no quick fix for my crappy welding skills....😢
Try using a higher quality wire like Hobart or ESAB.
Cant wait to try this on my chicago electric cheapo. Been welding with stick for many years, but couldn't get a decent looking weld for nothing. Thanks!
I have an Italian DECA welder (Decastar 150E) I bought from Princess Auto almost 30 years ago. This unit is second to none for flux core. I have a Lincoln mig-pak 180 for Gas welding.
Thanks for the tip. I’ve been running Blue Demon flux core wire positive ground with great results.
Recently picked up a cheap 110v flux core welder, that is not able to be set up to run with gas. I bet it is also wired up like the gas version welders. I'll check the polarity next time I go to use it. Thanks for the tip!
Here in Australia I have a 240V 100A flux core welder which I run on a 10A circuit. It must be set up correctly, because my welds look your second weld, not the first mess. I can get a few different brands of wire, but I think I prefer the Renegade wire over the Bosweld wire, although the Bosweld wire is still good.
same here mate. i use bossweld 100a gasless mig. pretty sure you cant change polarity if you wanted to
Brother!!! Brotherrrrr!! THANK YOUUU! I was going crazy over here trying to figure out what was wrong. You saved me a lot of money!
Great video, I’m a complete novice at this stuff and your explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks
Great info, I will say, I just picked up a new Titan 125 from Harber Freight (cheap as hell I know), and took it apart to check... From what I can tell they actually have the clamp wire hooked up to the positive side.
Granted, it's "self inverted" or whatever, so it's not the same set up and connections as a proper Lincoln, but the clamp wire is connected to the transformer, and there is a seperate smaller red wire that runs to the board, and is labelled V+ .
So that's good. Still splatters some, but not as bad as other machines I've used (that probably weren't set up correctly). Suppose I just need to dial in my wire speed.
The Titanium 125 comes set correctly for flux core(I set mine up to weld stainless also by adding quick connects on my cables and changing wire) My first Forney did not and I had to change it. It welded much better afterwards.
I did my first weld today with a Titanium 200 and .30 flux wire, clean up the metal before I started, set the polarity correctly for flux core, used the suggested settings for the material I'm welding, and I had 10x more beads and even burn through. Once you get them, I learned you can't go over it because you can't get between the beads to clean the slag, so you just make it worse.
Im really impressed here. Thank you big time for explaining what others tend not to do. I am thinking of getting into welding just as a DIY'er and I was really wondering about the power source for a 120v welder. Im wondering if you turn up the power on one of those 120v welders could you (or have you ever) blown the 20 amp breaker? You did a really good job explaining everything else and you have a great speaking voice. Kudos to you!! If I do decide to get into it I will burn what you said into my old brain :)
Yep I have blown the 20 amp breaker before. If your just welding sheet metal or bodywork a 120v welder will work but if your doing a lot of welding on 1/4” material and thicker that a 220v machine is definitely the way to go.
Great info! Thank you for wearing correct PPE and demonstrating proper set up!
Thanks. I’ll give this a try. I’ve had a hell of a time with my Eastwood MIG welder using flux core.
Paul
I've got a HITBOX multi-purpose welder, just switched the contacts around, and sure enough, much less splatter and way easier to get nice looking welds. Cheers!
Good demonstration. Fluxcore is the wire version of stick welding and extremely strong.
I was just having this exact problem so I went straight to UA-cam. You saved the day Sir 💪
Im going out to check my welder now after this video. I bet I've been welding with it the wrong way this whole time.thanks for the information
I bought the cheap Lidle "Parkside" welder, and I thought it welded really well, with little splatter. i've just checked it, and it was +;ve earth out of the box! Happy days!
I had to double check my Harbor Freight Titanium Fluxcore 110, from the factory they have it set up properly. At least mine was.
I have a miller mig setup with c25 at work and can run great looking beads with it. I purchased a machine to have at home which does flux core and MiG. I am having a hell of a time getting a bead to look good on flux core lol! Keep trying I guess! My machine is already set to positive polarity as well!
@@chewy6942 Are you using good quality wire? I wouldn’t recommend any online knock off wires or Lincoln flux core either because they suck! Try Hobart, esab, blue demon or other brands. Also heat is your friend, if the bead isn’t looking good turn up your heat and if your maxed out and it still looks bad lower your wire speed.
@ I am using yeswelder .35 wire that had good ratings from Amazon. I am somewhat new to the game and am lucky enough to have a miller 175 MiG at work to mess around with. I get great welds with gas and wanted to have something at home to do hobby welding so I bought a Bestarc 145 9gen. I Know isn’t top quality but it’s a start. It is capable of gas and flux core as I don’t have the funds for gas yet. So I got rid of the best arc wire it came with in .40 and bought this yeswelder flux core .35 and it seems like such small beads I am getting still. I am also plugged into 220. I think if I can find thicker metal around 1/4” and turn the heat up which also runs a faster wire speed on this welder, it might help! It’s all a big learning curve. Thanks for the response!
@@chewy6942 ok so it sounds like you just have to play with your settings more because when it’s plugged into 220 theres more than enough voltage to burn in some good fluxcore beads.
I watched this video this morning and it prompted me to check my recently purchased Harbor Freight Titanium 110vac solid wire machine. I had to remove a side panel to check. The Titanium came already set up as positive ground. Posting so that others will know.
Thanks man. Doing body work on my c10. I will be changing the leads this weekend. Still in the learning curve.
Awesome man!
My harbor freight titanium, 125 came set up correctly with the clamp positive!! Suprised me forsure!!!
Nice! I’ve been hearing that the titanium welders are very decent for the price.
Awesome! Thank you, although my wire still splatters, it’s is significantly less. Thank you!
A bit of splatter is normal for self shielded flux core.
I watched a video of a welder rating 5 or 6 different brands of FC wire and as I recall Lincoln scored on the low end and Hyanede scored on the high end, I don't remember all the brands he tested.
my welder is just a purpose built $100 flux core with one dail that does speed and voltage oh and we run 220v in Ireland would this make a difference in setting it up?
Great video your a good teacher. If my Lincoln 100 welder is setup correctly for Flux core and it still spatters is my current too high. I'm using new Lincoln 035 wirr and the settings inside the cover B/1.5?
I will try this tomorrow I just bought a flux gasless yesterdayand I was practicing last night and I was so disappointed and I thought it was me I had spatter everywhere and no penetration, I really hope I see changes tomorrow thanks!
When welding with flux core try running your ground clamp on positive and your torch negative (straight polarity). Should reduce a lot of the spatter.
I switched the pos and neg and I have no power to my gun, rollers arent turning. Am I supposed to do something else? Im running on a 30 amp fuse. Also running a short 10 ft.12 gauge extension cord thats a little thicker than the cord on the welder. Anyone have any suggestions. I got working on this damn thing because the guy that had it before me took the spring, tensioner and lock bolt of the spool holder and replaced it with a cotter pin. So I figured thats why it runs like shit. Im going to get them parts but I came across this video so I figured id try thid while im working on it.
Switching the polarity should have no affect on the trigger since the trigger and rollers operate on a completely different circuit than the actual welding output. I would check the trigger wires that run from the gun into the machine.
Also if the previous owner played with the spool holder then that also could mess with the performance.
@@JTwelder. Thank you for the reply. I went ahead and wired it back the way it was. I used a spring off of an old weed eater and he had the .030 wire running in the ,035 groove so I took that out and cleaned it up and flipped it to run the ,030 groove and bought some .30 tips for it. Just doing that made it run 10 times better and I really dont have much spatter. At least I got it running good enough to finish what I needed to, now Ill see if I can figure out which wires I need to switch to reverse the polarity, because it wasnt them two I switched before. I cant find a wiring schematic anywhere on the dam thing. Its a WF2000 campbell Hausfeld fluxcore 80 built in 2001 Im pretty sure.
Harbor Freight's Titanium Easy-Flux 125 Amp Welder is a DC-based inverter welder that uses direct current electrode negative (DCEN) polarity for flux-cored welding:
@@robertcromwell9736 Yep, any time you’re welding with shelf-shielded flux core you need to be DCEN that rule applies to any machine. Apparently those titanium one are good little units.
I want to get a basic welder - mostly for extracting rusted bolts in engine blocks, frames etc... Which the most economical and effective setup?
Been welding 25 years. But just recently picked up hobo fraight 120v flux core welder and if this works I be vary happy cause it makes the ugliest welds. Thanks. I was probibly not listening that day 25 years ago in welding class. Lol
Did it work for you? I'm about to buy the same welder!
My welder is not easily changed with my luck Ill burn it down. The ends don't bolt on like in the video.
What a bad luck! Anyway I'm going to buy the machine, as I only want it to do my little projects at home, I'm new to this I think that this machine is good to start with!
Find Hobart wire you'll be fine don't buy the valcan it is junk.
If you buy a Hobart handler 140 its set up properly,from the factory, for flux core.
I am just beginning my welding journey and I have a flux core and I’m trying to get it figured
I have more in depth questions if you’re interested
My Hobart mig welder says this in the instructions and under the hood. It's pretty hard to miss
Cool! In retribution to your lesson I subscribed to you channel.
I'm a self taught stick welder who's got hold of a MIG welder and how much easier is this, it had flux core wire and was set up wrong and since i found your video I'm now welding like a pro, just joking but my welds are 200% better. Thanks mate.
You can reduce some of the splatter by turning the heat or amperes up and the wire feed down!
I have a sca mig welder unfortunately after opening it up to transfer the wire I noticed they have hard wired so it’s not like yours where you can just undo a lock nut. Can I cut the wires then either solder together but they might get hot or buy 2 joiners that I could use, any advice is appreciated, I live on a disability pension so I can’t afford a better welder , I also live in Australia so it’s 240 v. Cheers Andy.
I’m thinking of doing a little automotive welding on my off-roader. Skid plates and sliders and such. Is it worth investing in a mig welder or will a harbor freight flux core get the job done? Harbor freight also sells a combo mig and flux for 379. Thinking of getting that, but they also sell a flux core only for way cheaper… not sure where to start. By the way I have taken mig and TIG welding classes and was even certified at one point though only shortly worked professionally as a welder. It didn’t work out at the company I worked at and I got another job in a different trade.
For skid plates and off road stuff you’re going to be using 1/8-3/8” thick steel and doing a lot of welds. I would recommend going up to a 220v mig machine. A 120v/ standard house plug machine probably isn’t going to cut it.
I would recommend the arc captain mig200. They just sent me one and I’m going to be doing a few videos with it. It’s a dual 120/220 voltage machine so you can run it of both size circuits and you can run gasless flux core on it as well and get really good results! Stay tuned to my channel and you’ll see it in action.
@@JTwelder.ty for the info. That machine is around the same price too. I live in an apt but my dads house nearby has a 220 installed for his air compressor in the garage. So i will probably be able to use that machine. I will sub cause I’m curious to see the machine in action.
@@jvogler_art4708 thanks for the sub! I’m going to be doing a whole 120v vs 220v welding machine video and it will most likely have all the information you will need.
I've got that same welder run 20 amp breaker and low gauge extension
For the modern flux core-only welders (like those cute little Harbor Freight ones), does this still apply? I would assume that the polarity in these is hard to swap, unlike the Lincoln 140s where it's all accessible. But wouldn't a flux-only tool get t right from the factory?
The harbour freight ones are set up correctly. I’ve only seen old no name Ali express/ Amazon flux welders be set up wrong from the factory but nothing that’s actually sold in a store.
Finally a video I can understand.
While it leads to an additional machine, I set a cheaper machine ( that is a 110 machine ) for flux. It’s my grab and go machine if I need to weld away from the garage
How about BENCHMARK Flux Core Welder - 90 Amp DC
Model MIG3090 ?? Need switch polarity too ?? Thank You !!!!!!!
Thank you so much bro i just got this same exact welder helped alot to make surr what im doing
Glad I could help!
I remember setting up my Weldpack 175 and it outlined this in the manual.
Yep every instruction manual will tell you this and even the settings chart inside the door on machines will tell you this. The problem is 95% of people won’t read the manual and some brands do a horrible job of explaining it to the point where a non welder would not understand.
My MIG PAK 140 machine from Canadian tire did not come setup and it did come with clear intructions for setup on DCEP - Direct Current Electrode Positive (MIG) and DCEN - Direct Current Electrode Negative (Flux core) so I think most people need to spend time and read the instructions. There's a lot of videos about setting up this type of machine from new and they all speak about setting it up correctly for Flux.
Yeah exactly! I just filmed a new video actually talking about how the Lincoln 140 does not have good instructions how to switch the polarity
@@JTwelder. You think you could do a video on a bunch of different weld types on the 140 on different thicknesses of metal and speak about the settings you use? I know the inside flap gives a baseline for voltage and wire speed but I find I need to tweak them slightly if doing an open corner weld vs a butt or lap weld since welding the edge of a piece gets hotter. Only thing I don't like about the MIG PAK 140 is that the voltage settings are 4 position only, it would be nice if you could vary it between the A B C D setting.
Currently just running flux for now as the bottle of gas is a bit pricey and I'm just doing some basic hobby type welding at the moment
That was amazing! Thanks my man lol. Building a custom shifter and this will now save me...
Thanks for the post. My welds look like your first past and I thought it was me just being out of practice. I used to be fairly decent for a part time welder. Just small projects, nothing elaborate or critical.
Glad to help
Yep this makes a huge difference. BTW, fluxcore Yeswelders come set up as Positive ground.
How do you like the yes welder flux core machine? I have one of their older AC tig 250p machines and I absolutely hate it.
@@JTwelder. My primary machine is 220v Tweco/ThermalArc 181i w gas, so not alot to compare to. But for 110v portability I did have the HF Vulcan Easy flux 125 and thought it was decent accept for its short ass leads and pathetic ground clamp. Once it died I got the yeswelder 135 for $40 less, better leads, more power, duty cycle, cleaner arc. Yeah, it smokes the HF unit and has welded 2x or 3x the wire so far. Also has display and carry handle. No brainer.
Any recommendations of generator size I would want to buy for this? I really don't want to use household lines for it.
i bought the cheapest titanium flux core welder from harbor freight and mine was set up properly. maybe the Chicago electric is set up with negative ground but mine is positive ground
Yeah I sold one years ago because I had no idea about the polarity
Another noob here and this was quite an eye-opener. Thanks for sharing. What are your thoughts on using anti-spatter sprays?
They’re good! Walter makes some really good ones if you want the best.
Great video was wondering y my cheap harbor freight welder wouldn't weld right thanks keep up the videos
Ok. My ground is hooked up to one end of a cylindrical element that has the continuation of the ground coming off the other end and its secured into a heat sink that is attached to a circuit board. The gun comes up through the top, feeds down to all the motor area and is bolted straight to the circuit board. There is nothing indicating which is positive and which is negative. I’ve got the Lincoln weld-pak 90i FC. Any suggestions?
Edit. It appears two wires that make up my gun are connected to areas marked out- and my ground is connected also in both places marked out +
Does this seem right?
JT, I thank you for this information, my welding instructor’s never told me this. Which .030 wire do you prefer, I currently use Hobart’s .030.
You didn't say what diameter wire you are running. Since you were sayin it works on sheet metal, I'll assume it's .030 or smaller. I love the .035 that came with my multi function, multi voltage Warcking. I love flux core. It's easier than stick and cheaper than dual shield or straight mig. Good video though.
I have a Chicago electric brand, I know is crab but I'm try to learn is a 90 Amp flux core, opened up but don't have the same set up as the Lincoln. It has this coil, half for the neg and the other half for the POS and don't see the connection. What do I do?
hi.do you know on the settings is wire speed first knob on left and is it amps knob on right.im using 1.0 wire flux core on some bulkhead sheet metal .it was burning thru metal so turned both knobs down to minimum .i did have 0.8mm wire in machine at first but thought 1.0mm better for my van vw t4 camper.ive not welded on van yet just practising on bits metal 😊
Thanks for the tip. In my gasless fluxcore post, I can’t tell the polarity of the connexions, it doesn’t say + or -.
How can I tell? Do you know?
I just bought an entry level welder (arccaptain 130) it uses both wire and stick. How will changing the polarity affect the stock welding?
In the UK we have mainly Super 6 both rods and flux core mig wire, not a great deal of choice really, but I find that I can weld pretty good with either, it's the 'make the best of what you've got' approach over here.
Wow. Over here in Canada we have rod and wire from all over the world readily available.
So do we! There are hundreds of welding shops in the UK that sell decent quality consumables, DIY shops usually only stock cheap no name stuff, look for a welding supply or shop online.