I have had crappy wire before too, it sucks..... I get the stuff at TSC, it is much better than what we get at the local welding place. when I get a bad batch, I'll continue the search for the good wire again.

 

I've heard several people complain about Radnor wire. I've got some .35 in my machine at home and it welds just fine, no problems. However at work we use Radnor tips/nozzels and other consumables and they suck! They don't last half the time the old tweco stuff did.

 

I hate corporate Ahole AirAss. Our locally owned welding supply based out of Colorado Springs is owned by a wheeler and are awesome to deal with.

Anyways the local welding supply said the ESAB wire is the shit, so I'll be trying that next time I'm in need of a refill.

 

i buy lincoln brand wire from Lowes. its the cheapest priced stuff i could find and welds great.

 

i use ESAB 33# spools, its works good.

 

I had problems with the Radnor .030" wire in my Miller 180. You could tell it didn't want to feed correctly for the whole damn spool. Now I'm using Hobart wire, and no feed problems.

 

i had problems with the radnor .030" wire in my miller 180. You could tell it didn't want to feed correctly for the whole damn spool.

x2

 

We buy and use pallet fulls of Radnor mig wire and haven't had any problems.

It may not be the wire, you should have someone watch the spool as you are welding. You're problem sounds alot like it is a spool wound problem, which means the spools are poorly wound and the wire is overlapped. Jerky and rough feeding.

We have had that problem but not with Radnor.

 

Radnor wire is not one of my faves. Just plain and simple dont like it. Mainly for the reasons the OP listed. I bought a 10lb spool...used about 1/2lb and donated it to the dumpster.

 

Yes there is a lot of bad mig welding wire out there.

I have some information about this issue on my website:
This is the direct link.: http://www.learn-how-to-weld.com/mig-welding-wire.html

A lot of companies will buy the wire from a factory in say China where I'm told there is about 300 manufacturers of wire and they simply make up a brand name and stick the wire in the box.

Over time they will have arguments with the factories and go elsewhere and when they do that the quality changes. So the moral of the story is to use a very good mig welding wire.

What's $5 more per spool of wire on a job that might be worth $50K. So you might have to pay an extra $200 bucks on the job because you used a better wire.

The time that you will save in downtime will certainly warrant the extra cost of a premium mig welding wire.

Peter

 

i just put a roll of HTP .030 wire in my mig. it works good and its cheap.

 

I don't know if it's the wire or what, but I have a spool of .035 Radnor that spatters like crazy! I've tried everything, including having my weldor buddies look at it. No luck.

 

radnor wire blows....ive always had good success with washington alloy wire. Just say no to shitty wire made in china!

 

i make my living of of welding usuley the welder every once and a wile youl get bad spool of wire but most of the time its the welder orthe machine .TIP . LINER . OR CRAPPY .EGUIPMENT my 2 cents. most small spolls of wire will be ruff at the end or un smooth

 

We weld everyday here also and the one thing in wire is you get what you pay for. Why people skimp on wire for their project amazes me when a normal guys spool will last a long time in a home shop...so buy good shit IMO.

Lar

 

Hmm, I just picked up 2 spools of .030 Radnor, have about half a pound of wire left on the spool at the moment, will have to see what happens with the Radnor stuff. Sucks that all the local welding shops were just bought out by Airgas and that's all they sell, so if it doesn't work well, I'm ****ed for buying locally.

Washington Alloy is the smoothest I've used so far, but unfortunately nowhere local sells it, when I lived in the OC I used to buy it it because it was cheap, but as I got better and tried other wore I found it was flat out good welding wire.


Edit, are you guys having trouble with 2lb, 11lb, 30lb spools, all none, just one size. Seems like they'd be the same, but who knows.

 

Why people skimp on wire for their project amazes me when a normal guys spool will last a long time in a home shop...so buy good shit IMO.

I THOUGHT it was good shit. For what Airgas charged for it, it should have been gold plated.:shaking: I don't see the local Airgas staying in business very long. They are way overpriced compared to the competition. That was the last item I bought from them.

 

I've had good success with Harris wire. I used to buy the 11# spool, but now run the 33#. I've had 2 spools of lincoln wire that were wrapped shitty, won't buy that crap again.

 

try the esab shit it works good.

 

We used to use Esab wire, but our local weld supply was purchased by Praxair and now sells their house ProStar brand. They don't weld the same, but they are similar.

Sometimes you just get a poorly wound or contaminated spool with any brand. Seems to be very rare though.

 

I'm using radnor now but i think it's time to try somthing different for comparison... I did notice that it will surface rust after sitting in a dry shop, just enough that you have to wipe it with a white towel to notice it. Fed it through my liner and fuc$%3ed it up... $35 later:shaking:

 

A friend here had trouble with Radnor stainless wire

 

Just had my welding supplier deliver a spool of Radnor wire... I turned it away and asked for something else.


Thanks to the original poster (and those who have contributed) for the heads up on this. :beer:


Chris:cool2:

 

Radnor wire brings the suck, I ran through a whole spool trying to figure out what the issue was.
I like Hobart wire, at least that's what I think it is. I comes in the metal cage spool, not the plastic. My local CarQuest carries it and it's cheaper than the welding store.

 

Great, i just bought an 11pounder of this crap this weekend. Wish i would have seen this thread.

So far its welding like normal.

Its sad when Tractor Supply has the good stuff and the welding supply shop carries the junk. So much for trying to support the little guy.

 

I love welding with blue demon wire, resonable cost and very good quality wire.