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View Full Version : My mig welder was welding funny



T_Raven
10-28-2011, 08:31 AM
I have a Lincoln 140c, 110v mig welder. I've always liked Lincolns and decided this was the one I wanted for price and what it can do. I bought it a few years ago and it came with flux core wire. I used that to weld a few things and it worked great. Last winter I patched the floor of my 69 so I bought a gas bottle and some mig wire and switched it over. I remember it not welding quite as good as I would've liked but didn't think too much of it. A couple weeks ago I was welding a gauge panel here at work that I built for the 67 and was getting the worst welds. It was like I had the voltage too low and the wire speed was too slow.

Anyway yesterday I did some searching on the web and found a thread on a forum where a guy was complaining about the same thing. Someone replied to check the polarity because they ship them with flux core wire. I checked mine and it was backwards. I had no idea I needed to switch it when I switched to mig :hammer:. So I switched it and it welds great. Now I can go back and fix the lousy weld job on the 69's floor lol. I knew you welded with negative polarity with aluminum but didn't know that about flux core wire.

So moral of the story, if you're having trouble with a mig welder check the polarity.

John Wright
10-28-2011, 08:57 AM
+1 on checking the mfg's product data sheet for the brand/size electrode that you are using for the mfg's parameters.
Great Tip. I bet that will be something that you won't forget again....LOL.

T_Raven
10-28-2011, 09:18 AM
+1 on checking the mfg's product data sheet for the brand/size electrode that you are using for the mfg's parameters.
Great Tip. I bet that will be something that you won't forget again....LOL.

I sure won't lol. I figured I'd post it to hopefully save someone a headache when they buy a mig and it come set up for flux core and they don't know to change the polarity.

Johnny Blaze
10-29-2011, 11:51 AM
Interesting. Im gonna have to check my Hobart.