good bucket wire

[old mate]

what's a good high deposition wire for welding adaptors and wear plates on buckets etc..... I'm over 3xp, looking for something quicker. used some lincoln flux core stuff on dragline buckets back when I was a pudd, but can't remember what it was, but it was pretty nasty when you de-scaled the flux.....211 or 232 or something like that. any pointers appreciated.

[Stringy]

Lincoln NR211 has been around forever, has a greyish semi covering slag coating but is still used a fair bit. pool solidifies fast. Old school and not that high a deposition.

Lincoln NR232 is very high deposition in all positions with the slag forming to hold the molten pool in place. Fluid pool which wets out.

There are also inershield wires like Lincoln NR233, WIA coresheild 8 and Hobart fabsheild XLR-8 wires that have slightly less deposition than NR232 but are easier to use.

[old mate]

thanks Stringy, I shall give them a go and hopefully smash those adaptors out a bit quicker. I've used the coreshield 8 on tray relines and found it gives a good fillet in one pass downhands instead of three with 3xp.

[Stringy]

NR232 is the go if you are after deposition in all positions. It is very sensitive to drag angles and technique, you must watch the slag forming (a break in the slag is a disaster) as well as the weld pool and keep the wire speed up. The arc looks way too hot and you will think the pool is going to fall in your lap, this is how it runs best though! Many tradespeople I worked with never conquered the stuff so called it #%!$$@@#! If you do go this way, Lincoln printed a manual that went with this wire, try to get hold of it.
And of course feel free to ask any questions.

[old mate]

thanks again Stringy, sounds like a challenge to look forward to. probably go for the 2mm 232. using a big blue air pack and the old faithful LN25. cheers

[Stringy]

The 2mm will be a big big handfull and your LN25 will have trouble feeding, a LN9 is the only way to go with 2mm and then only if a lot of downhand work is to be done. Go with the 1.7mm!