I have a century powermate 70 and was using 30 shielded wire as soon as I went to 35 i started to melt all my bodypanels a friend of mine told me that it should be the oppisite way around- the smaller the wire should be hotter buy I do not know please help me before I kick the welder to the curb

if you are talking about wire size, then .030 and .035 are both too big. You should be using .023 wire, but than again I don't use shielded wire so maybe you are using the correct wire just seems way too big too me.

Shielded wire is messy and should only be used for minor welding such as welding on brackets and fabrication work like that. A good 110v welder will allow you to weld with gas for a cleaner weld. A CO2 mix for steel and argon for aluminum however it's difficult to push aluminum wire through the hose and a spool gun should be used instead.

I agree that you should be using .023" wire. The majority of the 110v welders can't produce enough amperage to use .035" and are usually at the limits with .030" wire. Welding sheet metal, you want .023" so you can use less heat and still get penetration.

ive been doing a lot of welding recently and .023 wire with co2/argon gas works very well on the thin metals of the car.

sooooo the 35 wire was causing me to melt the sheetmetal?

would that 35 be good for welding the subframe of the car to the floorpan

No, you can only weld based on the thinnest material you have. Grab a roll of .023" and some shielding gas.

I'm a welder and flux-cored or shielded wire melts way hotter then soild wire. Also .030 and .035 are way too big for sheet metal you want to go as small as you can and as low on the votage and amps as you can. Running your bead the other way will also help ex. running down instead of up will be faster and cooler. hope this helps

WELCOME to the boards

so the bigger the wire the hotter the weld

thanks for the info

Correct,the bigger the wire the more amps it carrys,thus making for a hotter weld.you can do it with what you got,just change your technique.first turn down your amps, tack then let cool tack then let cool. takes a little patients but you wont burn through.

Ugh. Those answers are both inaccurate. Wire size has to do with the amount of material you're laying down. Voltage is where you get your heat from.

For example, if your MIGing 3/16 material.

You can run a bead at 20 volts, with the wire feed set at 240 (just throwing out numbers) and run the puddle down and get a nice weld, but you have to move fast.

OR

You can set the machine to 22-24 volts, and set the wire speed down to 170 or so and run the puddle up, and move a lot slower. You won't get the frying bacon sound, but if stick to the sides of the groove where you're welding the two materials together.

Wire is your filler material. The heat comes from the electrical reaction put out by the machine.

It's a ratio. Smaller machines can't handle the bigger wire because they can't burn it up quick enough. It gives you an erratic puddle.

Another variable is the flux cored wire he's using. Flux cored wire burns hotter than regular standard steel wire. That's part of why you can run a 5/16" on a machine with flux core, but only be able to do 1/4 with standard wire.

The bottom line is, he should be using 0.23 or 0.25 somewhere in that range, and a shielding gas. That flux cored wire was only made for using outdoors where the wind is blowing away your shielding gas. It's not ideal for body work at all.

If you're going to run something like 0.30 wire, you need to be tacking only, not trying to run a bead.

Mathius

.35 worked great on my exaust

If you're going to run something like 0.30 wire, you need to be tacking only, not trying to run a bead.

Mathius[/quote]
Thx for saying Im wrong then reqouting my answer in your words..