I cant answer your question but, is Ag-Cat the name for those yellow crop dusters?

 

They are crop dusters, but they don't have to be yellow. Many of them are though.

 

I have been using blue demon, buying off amazon. Reasonably priced, and good quality.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

My LWS carries lots of Washington Alloy. I can also get test reports for my military and aerospace customers.

All I use for non post weld hardened 4130 weldments is er80s-b2 or er80s-d2.

 

Finding ER70S-2 in Europe that welds as well as US-made was difficult. In the US it has a sort of cult following, but due to slower sales in Europe the suppliers don't want to stock it, even one claimed that it was outdated and recommended ER70S-3 in its place as being, "more modern." There is or was a filler in Europe that was similar to ER70S-3, but with less carbon and slightly more manganese. It was similar to ESAB Easy Grind MIG wire. It was sold as a, "ER70S-2" with an additional two letter suffix that I don't remember. It did not meet AWS ER70S-2 or ER70S-3.

I weld a lot of non-hardened 4130 seamless cold drawn tubing, 4130 seamed tubing that is stress relieved and harden seamless and seamed 4130 tubing. The stress relieved seamed tubes give the best looking welds. One maker of the hardened tubes recommends ER70S-6, but I like to use a modified ER312 that has additional moly in it with the hardened tubes.

 

I'd start with Lincoln/Harris and ESAB. I didn't find any Hobart Brothers -2 listed.

 

Harris has the small diameters I use listed. I don't know anything about their quality or where they are made. Harris I think is now owned by Lincoln. Some companies list the smallest diameter as 1/16" but state that other sizes are available on order. I suspect ESAB might be European-made. The Italian made ER70S-2 welds didn't seem as good looking as welds with US made filler.

 

I use Washington Alloy mig wire, flux core, and stick.

It's common where I live and works very well- I may as well look to see if I find tig rods too

I never actually checked the brand on the bulk box the LWS sells to me out of...

 

All AWS specs are pretty wide when it comes to filler metal composition. ISO specs that is used in Europe seems tighter. For instance ER70S-6 is two grades in the ISO system, G3Si1 and G4Si1. So filler metal that is ER70S-2 can actually vary a lot. If it was made for the european market it was made to fit ISO specs primarily, that's why you may not find an exact match in Europe compared to the States, even if it's the same brand.

Cheap wire may also be out of specs if the plant quality control sucks.

ESAB filler metal sold in the US is primarily made in the US using US steel. Perhaps some odd products are not though.
http://www.esabna.com/us/en/products/buy-america.cfm/
I know there is a plant for wire in South Carolina.

It seems like it would be best to try a couple of different quality brand to see which ones you like. Everybody would probably not agree anyway. Lincoln seems logical to start with.

 

Years ago, before I went to Europe, Lincoln was my go to choice, but a lot of things have changed since then. I have heard Lincoln has a plant in Mexico now. That in itself isn't bad, but some people claim it doesn't weld the same. I know Lincoln and others still have US plants required for government and military contracts. I wonder about the quality of Harris these days. Some companies get filler from Asia and Europe. The latest Hyundai English catalog no longer lists ER70S-2, and theirs used to be pretty good. The Hyundai website still has data sheets for ER70S-2 though. Is there a non-copper coated ER70S-2 of quality available in the US? I'm not completely against copper coating, but the non-coated fillers seem to usually be the premium grade. With the copper coated, I'm never sure until I try it. I might give Harris a try, unless somebody says it is not so good.

 

Ag-Cat, I looked at my 70s and it is 70-s2 3/32. Its PRO STAR by PRAXAIR. It works for me and its just what my LWS handed me. My local LWS was bought out by PRAXAIR but I bought the 70s before the by out. I forgot to check where its made but metal from Mexico is good stuf. We used Mexican metals to beet Nazis in WW2 and Solingen steel is supposed to be the best in the world.

 

The PRAXAIR rods I have are made in KOREA

 

The Korean ER70S-2 has been some of the best I've used. Finding them in 0.035" and 0.045" can be a challenge. The company that used to source theirs from Korea, started sourcing them from Italy and they didn't weld as nicely as the Korean ones.

 

amazon has er70 Harris mig wire and blue demon tig filler rod. anyone have positive experience with the blue demon stuff?

 

I haven't used it in several years because I've been out of the country, but Harris used to some of better stuff. Harris has since been bought by Lincoln and suppliers have changed their sources and products over the years.


I am going to try the current Harris (and some others) and see how it goes.


On the internet, it, "looks" like Blue Demon gets good reviews for their ER70S-2. I don't know anything about it. There is a supplier about 100 miles from me that sells it, but I don't plan on going there for a while.