Anybody experienced with P3 .035 wire?

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Bob D.
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Re: Anybody experienced with P3 .035 wire?

Post by Bob D. »

Yeah, your flow rate is whacked. Way too much. If your MIG welding outside with gas and there are windy conditions you are going to also struggle. Flux core and gas works better in the wind. Just flux core seems better in the wind. It pretty much stinks dealing with much wind.
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Glenn Brooks
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Re: Anybody experienced with P3 .035 wire?

Post by Glenn Brooks »

BDD, Iam traveling at the moment, won’t be able to double check until next week. But Iam sure that’s what the Airgas guy told me to do when I picked up the machine. I did see a welding forum comment that said smaller welders with 1/2” nozzle diameter used 15 cfm, and larger ones with 3/4” required up to 52 cfm.

Definitely worth reviewing to learn the best practices.

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Re: Anybody experienced with P3 .035 wire?

Post by Steggy »

Glenn Brooks wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:39 pm BDD, Iam traveling at the moment, won’t be able to double check until next week. But Iam sure that’s what the Airgas guy told me to do when I picked up the machine. I did see a welding forum comment that said smaller welders with 1/2” nozzle diameter used 15 cfm, and larger ones with 3/4” required up to 52 cfm.

Definitely worth reviewing to learn the best practices.

Glenn
Back in my railroad days, I welded with some pretty big machines with the large guns. At no time do I ever recall the gas being over 30 SFCH, and that was overhead work on full-sized rail cars. 52 CFM would empty a cylinder in a few minutes. Shielding gasses are regulated for SCFH flow rates, not CFM or PSI.
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Re: Anybody experienced with P3 .035 wire?

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

Glenn,

If your getting burnback your wire feed rate is too slow, or you may certainly be having a problem with the spool of wire hanging up. Your wire should be coming out of the nozzle with knurl marks on it...if the rollers aren't set tight enough the wire could be slipping which will drop the speed and you will get burn back. Once in a while it is a good idea to remove the gun from the machine and blow compressed air through the liner....the knurled rollers do cause the flux coating to chip and create a powder in the liner which will gum it up.
As for your flow rate, I run .045 wire flux core and I have to keep it around 45 -50 CFH , so what you were told by your dealer is correct. If you are running solid wire, 15-20 CFH is correct. Here is something they don't tell, some of the flux core wires are designed to run without gas, others need it to work properly, but in the case of flux core wire one of the main functions of the gas is to cool the nozzle. Overheating the tip can cause things to jamb up and also cause your burnback issue. Don't use the gels on the nozzle that prevent spatter....they wind up working there way back into the tip and liner and gum up everything, especially if you are doing overhead or vertical welds. If the machine is set correctly you should see little splatter. What type of gas gage did you get with the machine? Is it a dual gage setup or a flow meter? If it isn't a flow meter, do yourself a favor and buy one....you will use less gas and get better results.
Now as for wire, Kobelco make a great flux wire which produces little smoke and fumes, DW50. I recently tried Lincoln electric Ultracore wire which runs quite nicely. Another good option is Tri-Mark Triple 7 wire. Now if you need to weld outside when you have windy conditions, Tri-Mark TM-121 wire work quite well, a little smokey because of the flux , but hey your outside.
With any of the wires, flat and overhead will use the same settings, but if you are going to do a vertical weld, which should be uphill for proper penetration, you will need to increase the wire speed about 20% or so. Also push your weld with flux wire, not pull and no weaving.

Nyle
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