One of the issues I've had with fluxcore, and why I got a bottle of gas, is that the wire burns a little hotter and isn't available in as small of a wire size, which means it's not as well suited to thinner materials.
For clean materials, I quite like gas shielding. I'm hoping to play with fluxcore a bit more, but with multipass or when you're tacking it's nice to avoid some of the cleanup.
As far as cost goes, there's less upfront investment in a 2lb spool of fluxcore wire than a 2lb spool of solid wire plus a bottle. That said, I don't think the fluxcore goes quite as far (some of that 2lb is flux, although I don't know how much), and around me it costs about 3 times as much. For someone that uses a few pounds of wire a year, fluxcore is probably cheaper. For someone that can justify using 12 lbs spools, I figure gas is pretty comparable to flux (maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower, depending on what you're paying for leasing the bottle and for refills and what size bottle you have).
For clean materials, I quite like gas shielding. I'm hoping to play with fluxcore a bit more, but with multipass or when you're tacking it's nice to avoid some of the cleanup.
As far as cost goes, there's less upfront investment in a 2lb spool of fluxcore wire than a 2lb spool of solid wire plus a bottle. That said, I don't think the fluxcore goes quite as far (some of that 2lb is flux, although I don't know how much), and around me it costs about 3 times as much. For someone that uses a few pounds of wire a year, fluxcore is probably cheaper. For someone that can justify using 12 lbs spools, I figure gas is pretty comparable to flux (maybe a little higher, maybe a little lower, depending on what you're paying for leasing the bottle and for refills and what size bottle you have).
