Welding Chromoly Frame With Flux Core

[a.tab56]

Hello all,

I'm new to bike frame fabrication. I have a Lincoln flux core welder I split with a friend (I'm a college student). I'm wondering if I would have to only use mild steel or if I could use my flux core welder to weld prefabricated chromoly tubes? I've seen some information on the internet where people did some projects with flux core but then other saying that mixing dissimilar metals wouldn't be a good idea.

 

[Pondo]

Hello all,

I'm new to bike frame fabrication. I have a Lincoln flux core welder I split with a friend (I'm a college student). I'm wondering if I would have to only use mild steel or if I could use my flux core welder to weld prefabricated chromoly tubes? I've seen some information on the internet where people did some projects with flux core but then other saying that mixing dissimilar metals wouldn't be a good idea.

Welcome to the forum! I'm a novice welder myself. I've been welding on bike frames for small projects for a bit now with flux core and gas flux. Mild steel welds pretty nicely but I have trouble with chromoly blowing through. Not sure why but chromoly is trickier to weld. There are probably some good videos on welding chromoly but I haven't investigated it yet. Most of the vintage and dept store frames I weld are mild steel. Maybe some of the more experienced welders on the forum will weigh in. Make sure to post pics of your projects, we'd love to see them!

 

[Captain Awesome]

You can get adhesion using flux core on chromoly but the problem is that it doesn’t carry the tensile strength you want. Also with fluxcore you’re going to see a lot more HAZ as well as the spatter. The spatter can be cleaned up, but that heat distortion/uneven distribution is always a problem with fluxcore.

So can it be done, yes.

Are we just talking about some beach cruiser or what?

 

[Pondo]

I think TIG might be better for chromoly?

 

[Captain Awesome]

I think TIG might be better for chromoly?

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