Noob here, and this might be the most useful video on welding I've run into. Thanks!

Got myself a Flux core welder trying to teach myself how to weld. And I thought I was a idiot who could never learn how. All disgusted Until I saw your video. Thank you for raising my WELDING I.Q. WITH KNOWLEDGE WORTH KNOWING. I HAVE A BIG SMILE ON MY FACE BECAUSE IM MOT A IDIOT WHEN IT COMES TO WELDING. IM STILL A IDIOT BUT I CAN NOW WELD! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KNOWLEDGE.

Outstanding video.....my whole time i've been welding i've had spatter everywhere....I was about to give up till I saw this. Thank you!

Great video. Simple, easy to follow advice. I bought a MIG unit from a local, supposedly reputable specialist welding supplier about 10 years ago. It was a ‘special deal’, allegedly for our state agricultural show. Turned out, they were dumping the units as they were having major issues getting all the products from the manufacturer to operate correctly. After a few months of horrible welding, blaming myself, a mate (much more experienced than me) tried to use it, and had the same issues ( dirty, splattery, horrible weld lines, that took ages to grind, and major pitting necessitating rewelding / over-welding (?), incomplete or weak welds, machine would run for about 10 minutes then need 1/2 hour to cool down etc). I took the unit back for a ‘service’, and they sent it back with the wrong setting on the ‘drive-wheel’ for the wire that was on it. Eventually, I disassembled the machine. I found the cooling fan (generic ‘computer’ type) was rubbing on another component, so i rescrewed it onto the steel case. I then reset the incorrect settings that they had done. It now works flawlessly, and will easily weld for longer than I can. Took it back to the company, showed them what I did, and made the professionals a bit embarrassed. They gave me a bunch of new swag, including fancy switching- magnetic clamps. Sometimes it takes a new ‘inexperienced’ eye on a problem to pick out the issues.

I just started college this last week for a welding certificate knowing basically nothing about welding, but when you talked about straight and reverse polarity, I knew exactly what you were talking about because we're currently learning the basics. Straight polarity= Direct Current Electrode negative (current flows from electrode to work, transferring 70% of the heat on the work), Reverse polarity= Direct Current Electrode Positive (current flows from grounded work to electrode, transferring 70% of the heat produced to the electrode) and Alternating Current spreads the heat 50/50 towards electrode and work.

Thank you for the lesson! My wife bought me a new Lincoln 90i it can run both MiG and Flux Core and I have been fighting it trying to clean up my welds and make it look presentable! Now I know to try this and will be practicing it tomorrow in the shop! Appreciate you!

I've been welding off and on over 40 years. I never knew about this. I normally run gas, but I do have a couple of rolls of Flux core if I have to welding outside and there is too much wind. Now I'll know to make that change, and my welds will actually look good. Thanks for this very useful tip.

Learnt more in the last 12 minutes than I’ve ever been taught about welding🙂 thanks cobba

We're cooking with flux now! Thank you, I was getting depressed. Im a novice but I knew I wasnt that bad

This is one of the things that really impressed me with the HF Vulkin Omnipro220. The manual is VERY in-depth and actually covers this and WHY it is.

This makes sense since DC current always flows from negative to positive. The instructions for my welder tells you to reverse the cables when welding with flux core wire.

That was one of the best explanations of polarity iv come across. Thank you

Great info! Thank you for wearing correct PPE and demonstrating proper set up!

I was just having this exact problem so I went straight to KZfaq. You saved the day Sir 💪

Now I know why the Small Lincoln single-phase 110 volt welders we had at our old shop were horrible to work with. Thanks brother! Appreciate your video! Great information! I mig weld now with a Snap-On mig with gas and non flux wire. Wow! What a difference! 👍

DUDE, for the last few months i was learning to weld and bro my welds were good but there was so much spatter and super inconsistent. Nlt kidding after one hour of swapping pos and neg i got some pro welds and im finally ready to weld my whole flatbed and not be ashamed of my welds! 🙏🙏🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Great video, I’m a complete novice at this stuff and your explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks

Jake, thank you. This is the best demonstration I have seen, of the difference made by changing polarity. I have been viewing (for the past year) many videos, on modding a flux core machine to DC.This shows the potential, of staying AC. 😁🖖✌

Thanks for the tip. I’ve been running Blue Demon flux core wire positive ground with great results.

I have an older version of the same Lincoln you are using. I can smear some wire on two pieces of metal and make them stick together but I would never call myself a "welder". A lot of our stick welders where I work have a polarity switch right on the front so I knew that there was a purpose for reversing polarity but never new why. The funny thing is.....I have asked about it and none of the career "welders" at work could tell me why you would ever use it 😂 This will go a long way toward improving my results. Thank you!

Thank you for a great example of setting up and explaining setup for flux core. I am fairly new to welding and I heard about + ground for flux core, but hard to find a good explanation of it as you have given. I do make good welds with flux core. I like flux core over gas, over the cost of gas. Have no problem brushing the flux off the weld. I just upgraded to a Vevor 250 mig which allows easy switch to (+) ground.

Thanks for doing this video. I bought a used Lincoln mig a couple years ago. I recently ran out of gas and installed flux core. I switched the polarity, but got the crap welds you showed. I just went & checked, and the polarity was wrong. Guess I've been running mig wrong, too.

Thanks. I’ll give this a try. I’ve had a hell of a time with my Eastwood MIG welder using flux core. Paul

OMG!! I have been running flux core on my Lincoln with wrong polarity all this time. No wonder I have been getting the results I get! (It ain’t pretty!!). Thanks SO much. I can’t wait to try out proper polarity. Thank you!!!

This is probably one of the best videos for anyone to watch that buys a box store welder to use around their garage. Without this simple tip, at the beginning of learning, it saves an immense amount of frustration, and disappointment. So glad I found this video. We have the exact welder at work for doing minor repairs etc, and it acts that way. Have to put feed higher, and keep turning the welder down to not burn the wire to the tip, and jumps back and forth, hard to keep straight. Sounds like it’s the exact problem. Awesome man!

Excellent demo.

Great suggestion!....Just switched the polarity on my wire feed that i run on 220, it is like night and day, so much less spatter, and it cleans up super easy, Thanks for the tip

Cant wait to try this on my chicago electric cheapo. Been welding with stick for many years, but couldn't get a decent looking weld for nothing. Thanks!

Most important welding video I have ever watched. Home Hobbyist and with a 12 year old Mig that has caused me nothing but heartache.

Good job on this video, Kid.Proud of you

This tip was a BIG help, thanks.

Good demonstration. Fluxcore is the wire version of stick welding and extremely strong.

Stumbled on this video and was excited. Not a “welder” but did a year, at night, at local tech school and have TIG, stick and gas MIG in my shop. Needed remote operation at my farm and bought a HF 110v flux core machine. It was ugly but it worked. Recently helping weld on a bush hog and using the 120 machine and yea…messy. Saw this video and at 1115pm went out to my shop to see. HF 100v flux core welder is not switchable. It is all hard wired in and I’m not a sparky. Damn! Still great video and I plan to share this with my buddy who was my welding instructor.

Thanks. My mig was set up wrong on my 1st exhaust job. It was splattered and ugly. Flipped polarity and my 2nd exhaust job is nice.

I bought the cheap Lidle "Parkside" welder, and I thought it welded really well, with little splatter. i've just checked it, and it was +;ve earth out of the box! Happy days!

I consider myself a weekend warrior and a self taught welder. I purchased a Lincoln 140C welder similar to yours, but instead of my amp settings being fixed to only five or six settings, I can actually fine tune the amperage with the dial. Picked it up in an estate sale for $350 and never used. A smoking deal considering the cost of this model new. At any rate, I, like everyone else made the assumption that the units were sent from the factory for the proper setting for flux core. And now you are proving that wrong. Good on you for bringing this to our attention. I thought that my welds weren't getting any better as shown in your example. I will reverse my leads the next time I have a small job and see if my work is any better. Great video! Cheers from Ontario.

Great info, I will say, I just picked up a new Titan 125 from Harber Freight (cheap as hell I know), and took it apart to check... From what I can tell they actually have the clamp wire hooked up to the positive side. Granted, it's "self inverted" or whatever, so it's not the same set up and connections as a proper Lincoln, but the clamp wire is connected to the transformer, and there is a seperate smaller red wire that runs to the board, and is labelled V+ . So that's good. Still splatters some, but not as bad as other machines I've used (that probably weren't set up correctly). Suppose I just need to dial in my wire speed.

Bloomin brilliant. I will be swapping my polarity n my flux core 👍🏻

Thank you this helps a lot I will be switching my leads

after fighting flux for years,this is the answer for all flux problems,i am welding 22ga with very little problems. hubba hubba.

Thanks man. Doing body work on my c10. I will be changing the leads this weekend. Still in the learning curve.

A few years ago I purchased a Lincoln welder 240 . In the instructions it said “ if using flux core, reverse the polarity for optimal performance “. I just did and my welder has always worked amazing. Thought you still do get a bit of spatter , however common with flux core.

What an incredible difference! Thank you for sharing!

Very informative, thank you.

Im going out to check my welder now after this video. I bet I've been welding with it the wrong way this whole time.thanks for the information

Good video. People need to read the book

I've got a HITBOX multi-purpose welder, just switched the contacts around, and sure enough, much less splatter and way easier to get nice looking welds. Cheers!

Thanks bud , give this a try 👍

Thanks for teach us buddy 😊👍🏻

Fantastic video, I’m so happy I watched this . I’m inexperienced as they come it’s been since high school since I messed with a welder . I will apply with set up to my flux core welder when I get it . I just purchased a kicking horse welder . New sub here

I have an Italian DECA welder (Decastar 150E) I bought from Princess Auto almost 30 years ago. This unit is second to none for flux core. I have a Lincoln mig-pak 180 for Gas welding.

Cool! In retribution to your lesson I subscribed to you channel.

I'm a self taught stick welder who's got hold of a MIG welder and how much easier is this, it had flux core wire and was set up wrong and since i found your video I'm now welding like a pro, just joking but my welds are 200% better. Thanks mate.

Recently picked up a cheap 110v flux core welder, that is not able to be set up to run with gas. I bet it is also wired up like the gas version welders. I'll check the polarity next time I go to use it. Thanks for the tip!

Great video was wondering y my cheap harbor freight welder wouldn't weld right thanks keep up the videos

Thanks. Very good video

JT, I thank you for this information, my welding instructor’s never told me this. Which .030 wire do you prefer, I currently use Hobart’s .030.

Great video, Thanks!

I've been trying to learn with an HF flux core welder and my results are exactly like your first test. I'm going to go check the leads and reverse them if needed, and maybe, just maybe I will finally get a weld that will hold. Thanks!

Very cool tip

I watched this video this morning and it prompted me to check my recently purchased Harbor Freight Titanium 110vac solid wire machine. I had to remove a side panel to check. The Titanium came already set up as positive ground. Posting so that others will know.

Thank you so much bro i just got this same exact welder helped alot to make surr what im doing

My harbor freight titanium, 125 came set up correctly with the clamp positive!! Suprised me forsure!!!

Great video!!

Great video!.

Thanks! Great info

Wow. I really did not know that. 😮 Thank you. All this time. 😅

Great information Thank you! I don’t have a setup like that I only have one wire that’s bolted like that and that’s coming from the plug wire the other wires are on the other side and go into something wrapped around. Not sure if I can do this with mine. If anyone has any experience doing this with a 130 Mig welder from Amazon please let me know

I did my first weld today with a Titanium 200 and .30 flux wire, clean up the metal before I started, set the polarity correctly for flux core, used the suggested settings for the material I'm welding, and I had 10x more beads and even burn through. Once you get them, I learned you can't go over it because you can't get between the beads to clean the slag, so you just make it worse.

Cool video it even sounds different too

Thanks for the post. My welds look like your first past and I thought it was me just being out of practice. I used to be fairly decent for a part time welder. Just small projects, nothing elaborate or critical.

Never knew this swapping the leads and so, ill definitely try it thanks.

I've got that same welder run 20 amp breaker and low gauge extension

Great video, thank you.

Thanks !

Thanks for the tip. In my gasless fluxcore post, I can’t tell the polarity of the connexions, it doesn’t say + or -. How can I tell? Do you know?

I’ve recently been learning to weld and despite all the videos I’ve watched (and it’s a LOT!) I was frustrated by the spatter issue and porosity of flux core. I’m going to try changing polarity as you showed, and nobody else I’ve watched has mentioned. Thanks for this video, I’m really looking forward to trying this out!🤞🏼

Amazing! Thank you!

great tip, I'm going to check my welder leads today and see about that, thanks. It's a cheap Canadian Tire 110 FC welder and I am almost positive they will be backwards plus I think it is running off a 15 amp circuit so these are a big part of why my welds look like that one you did or worse.

Thanks for the tips. 👍

Do you know if the titanium flux 125 from harbor freight need this done? And if so do you know how to check? From the factory the gun cable is connected to the main electrical board in the machine. The cable connections are labeled + or -

Here in Australia I have a 240V 100A flux core welder which I run on a 10A circuit. It must be set up correctly, because my welds look your second weld, not the first mess. I can get a few different brands of wire, but I think I prefer the Renegade wire over the Bosweld wire, although the Bosweld wire is still good.

hi.do you know on the settings is wire speed first knob on left and is it amps knob on right.im using 1.0 wire flux core on some bulkhead sheet metal .it was burning thru metal so turned both knobs down to minimum .i did have 0.8mm wire in machine at first but thought 1.0mm better for my van vw t4 camper.ive not welded on van yet just practising on bits metal 😊

You can reduce some of the splatter by turning the heat or amperes up and the wire feed down!

Great video. Very important information. Thanks.

In the UK we have mainly Super 6 both rods and flux core mig wire, not a great deal of choice really, but I find that I can weld pretty good with either, it's the 'make the best of what you've got' approach over here.

I have an older Craftsman 125 that when you open up the side cover, there is a label stating where the cables are to be attached for welding mig wire and gasless flux. Flux wire in my opinion still gives you a poor weld compared to running mig wire with gas and set up correctly.

Awesome! Thank you, although my wire still splatters, it’s is significantly less. Thank you!

I want to get a basic welder - mostly for extracting rusted bolts in engine blocks, frames etc... Which the most economical and effective setup?

What if the machine doesnt have this option, under the panel on my machine just has the gauge and speed setting sticker and the spool/tensioner but no cables to swap polarity, unless I have to open up the machine lol

I watched a video of a welder rating 5 or 6 different brands of FC wire and as I recall Lincoln scored on the low end and Hyanede scored on the high end, I don't remember all the brands he tested.

I have a sca mig welder unfortunately after opening it up to transfer the wire I noticed they have hard wired so it’s not like yours where you can just undo a lock nut. Can I cut the wires then either solder together but they might get hot or buy 2 joiners that I could use, any advice is appreciated, I live on a disability pension so I can’t afford a better welder , I also live in Australia so it’s 240 v. Cheers Andy.

I just bought an entry level welder (arccaptain 130) it uses both wire and stick. How will changing the polarity affect the stock welding?

If you buy a Hobart handler 140 its set up properly,from the factory, for flux core.

Any recommendations of generator size I would want to buy for this? I really don't want to use household lines for it.

Im really impressed here. Thank you big time for explaining what others tend not to do. I am thinking of getting into welding just as a DIY'er and I was really wondering about the power source for a 120v welder. Im wondering if you turn up the power on one of those 120v welders could you (or have you ever) blown the 20 amp breaker? You did a really good job explaining everything else and you have a great speaking voice. Kudos to you!! If I do decide to get into it I will burn what you said into my old brain :)

i bought the cheapest titanium flux core welder from harbor freight and mine was set up properly. maybe the Chicago electric is set up with negative ground but mine is positive ground

What size does the ground clap go to on the machine when you welding flux core + are -

Thank you!

Ok, I have a titanium from H F . if I make this change do I still run the suggested setting for flux core on steel (electrode neg)