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Heavy equipment Welding repair

John C.

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I used to love running the dual shield on big bucket and blade jobs. Ran lots of .045 and latter went to 1/16 for things like bed liners and scraper push plates. Seldom ever ran hard wire for anything but thin sheet metal. Now days when I get around other shops, all I ever see is spools of hard wire. As far as being Mig or not, out here everything done with a squirt gun is considered mig.

For that kind of repair, I would prefer rod because of the crap in the base metal and the penetration you can get. Look to me like you did a nice job.
 

Welder Dave

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Dual-shield flux-core is different than Mig. I think he's saying he'd use dual shield flux-core but not solid wire Mig. Those Mig welds are terrible and it's a Cat branded attachment. Makes you wonder where Cat sources them from. Cat seemed to have some quality control issues on some of their CTL's as well.
 

Welder Dave

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GMAW = MIG, FCAW(GS) = Flux-Core gas shielded, FCAW(SS) = Flux-Core self shielded, MCAW = Metal Core, SAW = Submerged Arc. In Europe they refer to CO2 shielded GMAW as MAG (Metal Active gas) because CO2 is not inert. In N. America they lump CO2 shielded solid wire with Mig but it technically isn't. It is the closest to Mig though as it uses a solid wire. Metal-Core is kind of like Mig on steroids but uses a hollow wire. Some Dual-Shield Flux-core also uses CO2 shielding gas so cannot be considered an inert process and any wire feed process with a hollow wire is not considered Mig. Submerged Arc uses an external flux and no shielding gas with a solid wire. They are all arc welding processes that use a wire feed but are not the same or interchangeable. That's why they have different designations. If you're doing critical welding each process will require you have a separate certification.
 

John C.

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Around here a squirt gun or fire hose is still considered a mig welder. You can call it anything you want.
 

John C.

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Sounds like a personnel issue.

The machine and industrial shops around here just call it hard wire or dual shield. No confusion at all.
 

Welder Dave

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If you called it hard wire or Dual-Shield. If you went and asked for Mig wire expecting Dual-Shield could certainly cause confusion. Ran into something similar when a customer kept ordering 5" buffing wheels and then complained because he got wire wheels for a grinder that are commonly referred to as buffing wheels by pipe welders. He wanted flap discs and the dumb part was he kept making the same mistake.
 

Welder Dave

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Don't need to invent anything. Welding consumables are pretty straight forward when you refer to them by the proper name.
 

Tugger2

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I like fluxcore and Co2 for fabwork. Ill do some repair stuff with it if i can clean it up ok. In my opinion hardwire is only good light gauge new materials ,things like building fuel tanks 1/4" and under. Nothing looks worse than seeing cracks or brackets welded up on a muddy lowbed with hardwire,but you see it all the time.
Anyone here ever burn 3/32" NR311 ? I used to use it P9101973.JPG for big cutting edges and shanks when it was the only stuff we knew about. Made a fog around you of white smoke but it was self shielding so you could have a big fan going.
 

Welder Dave

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I like fluxcore and Co2 for fabwork. Ill do some repair stuff with it if i can clean it up ok. In my opinion hardwire is only good light gauge new materials ,things like building fuel tanks 1/4" and under. Nothing looks worse than seeing cracks or brackets welded up on a muddy lowbed with hardwire,but you see it all the time.
Anyone here ever burn 3/32" NR311 ? I used to use it View attachment 226344 for big cutting edges and shanks when it was the only stuff we knew about. Made a fog around you of white smoke but it was self shielding so you could have a big fan going.


Burned some 3/32" NS3M. Looked like sub-arc and could go through a 50lb. coil in 2-1/2 hours. Just don't get arc blow.
 

John C.

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Biggest I've ever run in that rod was 5/32. I didn't like it much. Anything other than pristine steel and it would pop and blow a hole with molten steel going everywhere.
 
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