Running dual shield on a small welder

Archdukeferdinand

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Location
Vilas, NC
Anyone have experience with this? I've been thinking about keeping some .035 outsershield on hand to use w my miller 211. The only times I've run it before have been on bigger machines, .045 w straight co2.

lincoln's parameters claim it's also rated for use w 75/25, my main concerns are will it be colder with the 75/25 and is there enough headroom/duty cycle in a small machine to push it- usable voltage ranges from 20-33 and my little machine tops out around 24. If I'm only going to end up being able to burn 1/4" with it for 10 seconds at a time it won't be worth the trouble.
 
Dual shield sucks ass with 75/25.
 
Thanks, I sort of figured it wasn't the best set up. Was thinking I might get the heat of flux with a bit better bead appearance but the venn diagram of gases/welders I own, and what it takes to run dual shield well doesn't have a lot of overlap.
 
I've been running .045 Radnor on a MM210 with 75% for a couple years now for one heavy press that we build. Once you get it dialed in, it's pretty awesome to watch. Only recently, we started having embrittlement problems. Welds cracking for no apparent reason. So we started testing. The presses are built with 1x10 plate and 3x5x3/8 angle. Root penetration on the 1" plate was pretty sad, but the legs looked fantastic. Anything 3/4" and down looked great once etched, though. It really is impressive what it's capable of doing. I could push the welder for 15-20 minutes of staggered welding before going into thermal shutdown. I'd usually get one side done, then let it cool before moving on to the other side.

I fully understand that we should have been using a bigger machine this whole time, but this is a product that's been made for quite a few years now, and always done with a 200A range welder and .035 solid wire, and they've been holding up beautifully in the field, even though it's "wrong." They were intentionally designed with a ton of weld area to help compensate for this. When we started building them for the customer, we were in no position to buy a bigger welder, so we just kept doing it the way it had always been done, and we've had one, maybe two welds pop in the field out of the 30 or so that we've built. We went to dual-shield for more peace of mind. I believe our cracking problems were either a bad batch of cheap wire or issues with the 1" plate. I'm trying to get ahold of a spool of Lincoln or Esab to compare, but we'll see. After this last round of issues, we may cease production.

My point is: For what you want to do, I think you'd enjoy playing with it. It takes a little time to get it dialed in and get your technique right, but when you do, it produces the most satisfying hiss. Welding with it was quieter than welding 1/8" material with our 110v welder.
 
That's a good perspective on it. If it's usable on stuff up to 3/8" then I'd be very interested in trying it. I'll be honest, part of the issue is I haven't bought the knurled drive roll for my 211. Always had machines at work or school if I needed dual or regular flux, so it's not just buying the wire and trying it out. But I need to go ahead and get that roll either way.
 
we run 45. knurled rollers & straight Co2. great for the vertical up & over head.
 
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