Mig wire

[Rik178m]

Is 1mm diameter going to be ok? Think the mig unit is 160amps cebora. Borrowing off a mate.

[Tatey]

Chris recommends 0.8mm in the book, I know a couple of members are using 0.6mm wire. I can't see any issue with 1mm wire.

As i understand it the larger the diameter then the larger the current, meaning the hotter the metal will get, meaning you will need to put the welder on a lower setting to prevent yourself from blowing through.

Have a go on some off cuts and see how it goes.

[Rik178m]

thanks mate

[AshG]

if your new to welding use 0.8mm wire. 0.6mm wire has a tendancy to crumple up if it gets stuck where as 1.8 wont.

[Bonzo]

Just have a double check of the feed rollers before you buy the wire

My own 180 amp Cebora has only got a .6 - .8 one fitted

Personally I use .6 wire but I do know that many folk disagree with this practice !!??

I expect you are asking because the welder is currently using 1mm wire.
You may find the welds a little bulky using that ;)

[georgenewman1]

As i understand it the larger the diameter then the larger the current, meaning the hotter the metal will get, meaning you will need to put the welder on a lower setting to prevent yourself from blowing through.

tateys rite, the thicker the wire the hotter it gets, its too easyto blow through with 0.6 and 0.8 so 1 will e a challenge, but its dooable

[Rik178m]

Yeh the bloke I'm borrowing it off has got 1.0mm wire. Will try and get him to sort some 0.8

[AshG]

As i understand it the larger the diameter then the larger the current, meaning the hotter the metal will get, meaning you will need to put the welder on a lower setting to prevent yourself from blowing through.

tateys rite, the thicker the wire the hotter it gets, its too easyto blow through with 0.6 and 0.8 so 1 will e a challenge, but its dooable


the weld is as hot as the person welding wants to make it. the only difference that you will notice is that you will have to turn the wire speed up more on 0.6 than you do on 0.8.

thickness of the wire has nothing to do with the power of the welder you wont make a 100amp welder 150amp by putting 1mm wire in it.

what thicker wire allows you to do is add more filler to the weld pool more quickly. a bigger weld pool draws more amps as you are increasing the arc which increases the amp pull on the welder. typically the thicker the material you are welding the more filler you are going to need unless you are doing verious kinds of high friction welding etc.

you dont need to even think about 1mm wire until you hit the 170/180 amp mark which is where you step over to spray transfer which is a whole different ball game where everything gets a lot hotter :D

[twinturbo]

I have spent 6 years swearing at my Clarke welder that the insurance replaced a stolen SIP with... The wire feed was always dodgy..

Clarke had supplied it with .6mm wire, .8mm roller set up and .8mm tips I only found out when i replaced the spool... I run .8

it's still not as good as the old SIP.

TT

[AshG]

i have got a little sip 150amp and my backup welder. its a nice little machine. its only ever jamed up once where the jam was so bad i had to replace the liner. duty cycle on it seems pretty good too considering its size

[baz-r]

just a little pointer to all this wire discussion

in the mig welding prosess the arc is formed between the work piece and the wire melting both the wire and piece, wire feed and the welders "inductence" create an open and closing circuit
the ballance of thease two create the fizz sound of a good weld (hig freq of open and closing of circuit)
a quality welder actualy ajusts the wire feed to the welding voltage and cheaper ones use the welding voltage to feed the wire through basic circuitry
wire should realy be ballanced to the work required and rarely ever thicker than what your welding

0.6 should only be used for very light work (car body panels) and 0.8 for med/light work (thin section box,tube and angle) 1.0 is good for around 3mm plate and so on

try reading this
http://www.migatronic.com/media/magwelding.pdf
its about the best basic info i used to give clients when tring to sort out thair welding setups well wort keeping for future ref (from migatronic)
(mag just means active gas, inert gas only realy applys to unmixed gasses eg.argon)

i hope everyone finds it intersting and helpful :)