Mig Nozzle Gel?

[larrynjr]

Does anyone use this? I got some with my MIG from Northern Tools and have been using it to clean the spatter off my nozzle and tip but have been experiencing a great deal of wire feed trouble. I discovered tonight if I don't use it, I can weld alot more without the any feeding trouble.

Why would they sell this stuff if it actually makes things worse?

[Pault17]

Larry,
law in no way even pretending to know welding, but in the mig glass I an currently in, we use the gel regularly.
I just dip the nozzle in a half inch or so every couple of minutes. Mind you, in the class, it is almost non-stop welding for 4 hours.

[irnsrgn]

might be the quality of your tip dip, all its supposed to do is keep the little hot ball bearings from building up on the very end of your tip, and inside the very end of the nozzle. and some wires spatter a lot more than others creating problems. it won't clean the build up off the tip, you have to do that, then use the tip dip sparingly to keep the build up down. flux cored wire gives much more problems than gas shielded wire too. If your using flux core wire, you need an inch of stickout to preheat the flux also.

[larrynjr]

I am using flux core, by an inch of stickout do you mean having the wire an inch outside of the nozzle?

[irnsrgn]

yes, an inch of wire sticking between the tip and the weld puddle is the standard recommendation

that should have been in the owners manual/instruction book.

flux cored wire is messy as far as spatter is concerned.

[Mills]

LOL I wish I had asked about flux core when I gave it a whirl the first time. Larry holding it farther away produces a better weld and less spatter. Starting with a clean tip weld a little to warm things up then dip the tip about an inch MOL and back to welding. I may go 10 or 15 min welding steady NOW that I discovered what Irnsrgn said, with minimal trouble. The closer you get the more spatter and since the tip is closer it builds up faster and thicker.

Also I have been having greater success dragging the wire, rather than pushing. With MIG I had pretty good success either way. I definitely need to work on uphill with FCAW It really stinks. Downhill of course looks better already.

[Thomas Dean]

Downhill with the FCAW process is really not recommended. If you take a cross section cut of the weld you will only have a fraction of weld deposit. For light work, 1/4" and less, no problem. I would hesitate downhill welding on anything thicker. Of course, 15degrees off horz. is considered uphill/downhill!

[Mills]

yeah I'm welding 14ga tubing for fences. Usually 1 inch and finials overhead and flat, then I install a gate from time to time. Lotsa practice for the day when I can kick it up a notch.

[larrynjr]

OK, I won't get to try it till tomorrow but I'm sure it will make a huge difference. Thanks everyone!

[Dodge]

Don't dip a cold nozzle. I like to weld for a little bit, say a minute or two, to heat up the nozzle. Then dip. Then I would wipe off excess gel and weld on a piece of scrap for a few seconds to also burn off any excess that could otherwise drip into the weld puddle. For the production welding I did, I would do this maybe 4 or five times and hour removing splatter build up b4 each dip. I would take the nozzle off at the end of the shift and replace with an old one. Most welders that preceded or followed me would either get a new nozzle and destroy it by the end of the day because they didn't use the gel, or use the nasty one I left because they didn't care. I would keep the one I took off in my tool box, and it would last for months. Thats of course provided I remembered to take it off at the end of the shift