SMAW or otherwise known as Stick welding use a Flux coating on the rod that vaporizes to shield the welding area from oxygen, A flux core is what it sounds like, the flux is contained within the core of the wire so it can be wound onto a spool and travel through the torch liner without falling away or gumming up the works, Pretty ingenious if you think about it, But it has draw backs, Just like welding rod flux core wire needs to be stored in a dry area, You'll notice welding rod is stored in containers that can be resealed, People buy these flux core welders and leave the spool in the welder, where just like welding rod it absorbs moisture from the air and goes bad, Then a month or two down the road when you go to weld something all you get is splatter, burn through and contaminated welds, So if your not using a spool a week or removing the spool after every use and storing it in a can with a desiccant its a waste of money,
While the argon/co2 gas mixture used in MIG welding does give better penetration and a nicer looking weld with no slag to brush off, if you're working outside on a windy day the gas mixture tends to get blown away as the shielding gas envelope is small and not under a lot of pressure. When this occurs oxygen from the air enters the welding puddle and oxidizes and weakens the weld.
The use of shielding gas also allows you to weld a thinner gauge of metal than flux core. I always have solid & flux core on hand simply because it's Murphy's law that you'll run out of shielding gas right in the middle of a project on a Sunday evening when all the welding shops are closed.
These are an attempt to provide a more simple way into welding for the beginner, at home - and frankly, they suck. It's FAR better that you learn to use (have someone teach you, and practice on scrap metal until you can write your name!) a MIG set-up which DOES use gas, and a good general rule, if you REALLY are looking to keep the costs down, is to use a CO2/Argon mix for unseen chassis-repairs, and only use more expensive pure Argon gas for the visible bodywork repairs that you do - that said, you really aren't saving much. So in a nutshell, 'gas-less' welding works best as a cheap-skates' money-saving idea, but in the real world (I'm summing-up the findings of a well-know magazine I read, called Practical-Classics, which is all about owning, running and maintenance of older cars) it doesn't produce good results, and you are far better-off buying the best REAL MIG kit you can, and getting some training on it.
You can try ebay for cheaper pre-used set-ups, and there are companies who will sell you pre-filled gas-bottles so you aren't paying a monthly rental for something you don't use much. Get your welding up to a decent standard, and you may soon find that you are doing little jobs for people which provide a small side-income to pay for the gear.
HI the method of using gas is to stop the weld oxide making the weld weak. so if it has no gas it is not a good weld it becomes just an arc weld so this in a proper electric welder requires a lot more power which is related to the thickness of the metals being welded.
so tie to take some lessons on the subject. local collages do these courses as short terms ones.
flux core wire
I've seen adds for gas less MIG welders. Can somebody please tell me how they work as I've always understood that the "IG" in MIG stands for "inert gas"
