whats the difference between welding with 0.6mm and 0.8mm wire?

why would one be more preferable than the other?

does 0.6mm melt quicker?

is 0.8mm better for thicker metal?

yup 0.8 is for thicker metal.

Al.

excellent. been trying to weld 6mm steel, and the wire kept welding itself to the shroud, which wasn't nice.... when i took it all apart to inspect, i was using 0.6mm wire (still on the reel that came with the welder.

got some 0.8mm today, but didn't know if it would make a difference

it seemed with the welder on full power, the wire was melting too quick back up to the torch.

[Edited on 17/10/07 by blakep82]

I use 0.8 for everything from 20g up to 8mm without any problems. It doesn't ''melt'' any slower than 0.6, you turn the power up to suit the wire. It sounds like your wire speed was too low. Don't forget to change the contact tip as well

[Edited on 17/10/07 by Peteff]

Turn your wire speed up a little and try some Tip Dip?. I use 0.8 for just about everything..........saves changing about and it will weld all but ultra thin .

Alex

i turned the wire speed up a bit, but it made it worse in other ways. i forget how though...

i used 0.8 on my old gasless welder, so hopefully i'll find it more familiar if nothing else

I use 0.6mm for everything. Takes a bit less current than 0.8mm, and is less prone to poking holes through thin sheet stuff..

make sure the wire feed spool tensioner is swopped over to the 0.8mm groove too . (should be two grooves on it 0.6mm and 0.8mm
as has been stated 0.6mm thin stuff 0.8mm for the thicker stuff

yeah, just put the new wire in, and swapped the roller round.

give it a go welding tomorrow

I use 1.2mm for everything!!! I guess it's just wht you get used to

I started using .8 wire which came with my MIG welder and it was fine and quite easy to use - changed to .6 because I thought it would be better for welding thin plate.

Found the .6 gave worse welds - even for thin materials and was more difficult to get the speed right. My profesional welder agreed - said he also didn't like the .6 wire with my machine - ended up using 3X the feed speed before it worked right.

changed to 0.8mm wire, left all settings on the machine the same

went from this


tube weld


to this


bracket weld

Looks like you are pulling the gun instead of pushing it. Turn the wire speed down a bit and use your other hand to steady the nozzle as well and you'll keep it a lot straighter.

i welded inside and out, so the inside looks a lot better. doing the outside was just to make sure there's nowhere to trap water. i'm going to buff it all down on the outside, but i'll try turning the speed down a bit, i did try turning it down a little, but it didn't sound right so i put it back up again

0.6mm for me.

In theory I think I can go slower and it seems that the welder has an easier time too.

That said it is still a bit quick for me.