Cheap spool gun mod

[cmarlow]

My brother used the welding rod on jumper cables trick too, usually 1/8 6010 on the positive terminal. It was a surprisingly good setup for light welding but tended to cook the batteries, so he kept a few used batteries around just for this kind of thing. He used his banks of batteries jumpered together to give him 24 volts.
The current draw on the wire should be much lower.
The gun I bought has an adjustment for feed speed but because it was designed for connecting to a welder and using the trigger to control the solenoid for welding I will be running it hot all the time. Now you have me thinking about adding a solenoid Maybe a truck starter solenoid would work.

[Frank S]

My brother used the welding rod on jumper cables trick too, usually 1/8 6010 on the positive terminal. It was a surprisingly good setup for light welding but tended to cook the batteries, so he kept a few used batteries around just for this kind of thing. He used his banks of batteries jumpered together to give him 24 volts.
The current draw on the wire should be much lower.
The gun I bought has an adjustment for feed speed but because it was designed for connecting to a welder and using the trigger to control the solenoid for welding I will be running it hot all the time. Now you have me thinking about adding a solenoid Maybe a truck starter solenoid would work.

As I said I haven't tried the flux core with the spool gun but welding with the 0.035" aluminum wire I had my miller 210 set on the highest heat and the speed on 80 to weld the 1/4 & 1/2" stuff. Way more amperage than using 0.045" duel shield for the same thickness where I normally run at 6 or 7 and 40 or 0.035 ER 70s6 solid wire on 1/8" at 4&30 I don't use solid wire for anything thicker than 1/8" and hardly ever on anything thicker than 14ga
I was trying to remember how long a pair of 8D dozer batteries lasted using the Forney wire welder. but it has been a lot of years since I used one.
Stick welding with batteries on military trucks was great the 5 ton wrecker had a 150 amp alt so you could weld forever just about, as long as the engine was running.

[Tooler2]

I tried a spool of flux core on a full size miller when I was doing a big project because gas is unusable in a breeze. I was extremely disappointed with the results. Actually I hurt my back during that job and have not used that welder since. That was 2011, I imagine the wire will be too rusty to use now.

[Frank S]

I tried a spool of flux core on a full size miller when I was doing a big project because gas is unusable in a breeze. I was extremely disappointed with the results. Actually I hurt my back during that job and have not used that welder since. That was 2011, I imagine the wire will be too rusty to use now.

I'm not a fan of it either but have used it when no other method was available.
If you have ever pipelined then you know about why you run a hot rod. the same thing goes for the gasless wire you got to get hot work it into the puddle and not try and carry too large of a bead in one pass. don't pull or drag if at all possible, always try to push but maintain only a few degrees from perpendicular to the weld path.

[Frank S]

I've had this cheap gun for a couple years now and have used it many times.
Frankly I am amazed it has held up and still works But I hardly ever use it for more than a couple hours at a time taking care of what I suspect its probable limited duty cycle would be. I have made some sizeable welds up to 8 feet long though in thick enough metal to require more than a single pass to fill

[mwmkravchenko]

I'm not a fan of it either but have used it when no other method was available.
If you have ever pipelined then you know about why you run a hot rod. the same thing goes for the gasless wire you got to get hot work it into the puddle and not try and carry too large of a bead in one pass. don't pull or drag if at all possible, always try to push but maintain only a few degrees from perpendicular to the weld path.

I've run flux core for years on a quality Chinese machine. I learned that having about an inch of stick out between the MIG tip and the puddle gets you a better weld to. Something about preheating the flux. I do repairs and weld up trailers and such once in a while. There's pretty much no chance for gas to work out in the open.

2 cents from a guy that can lay a decent bead. But I'm no welder!

[stillldoinit]

Frank, can you post a link for the spool gun?
I can’t seem to find an mbc200 .

Nice job, I have a pile of old tig cables and torch handles to rob.

[Frank S]

Have you tried it with flux core?

No reason to. I have it connected to a mig machine that I keep .045 dual shield flux core wire on
I have a smaller machine that I run .023 solid with 75/25 gas or run .035 gasless flux core on
The only thing I have run on the little spool gun has been either .035" aluminum or .030 stainless

[Frank S]

While as a general rule I rarely have anything that is el-cheapo to last for any extended period of time, however, I have to date ran at least 20 2lb spools of aluminum wire through this gun I leave it permanently attached to my mig machine just don't leave the extra tank of gas on it since that gets used on my tig machine, but I hardly ever use my tig machine since I hate tig welding