Welding Wire Size Guide

The american welding society aws code 5 18 allows some flexibility on the contact tip.

Welding wire size guide. If you have the specifications readily available you can simply choose the appropriate wire with your specs from the welding cable size chart. Multi pass welding or a beveled joint design may be required for material thickness 3 16 and greater depending on power output capability. If one or more of the criteria is not defined on the welding cable size chart it would be safe to go with a wire that correspond to the larger size from your required specs. In the metric system welding cable size is typically expressed in square millimeters mm2 representing the cross sectional area of the cable.

Multi pass welding or a beveled joint design may be required on material thickness 3 16 and greater depending on your welding machine s amperage capability. Gauge or gage sizes larger than one are zero also expressed as 1 0 pronounced one aught two zeros expressed as 2 0 pronounced two aught 3 0 and 4 0. Electrical cable is typically categorized by an awg american wire gauge size where the smaller diameter cable has a larger number. You can select for a certain type of wire.

If your wire is solid the code states that there is a 0 001 tolerance range for 0 045 wire. Check with your machine manufacturer for any information that may pertain to your welding system. Figure 2 shows a comparison between welding cables in awg sizes and metric sizes. Double click on chart to view quick guide for selecting mig wire size and welder amperage for your application.

Cable sizes between 4 and 4 0 are typically used for welding cable.