Welder Blues

So I picked up some C25 Friday and started messing with it today. It's much cleaner but I'm having issues. It keeps hanging up the wire. Meaning I will do a number of "spots" stitching my sheet metal, and after like six, it seems to catch at the tip and kinks inside. I have to take my pliers and pull out a section then carry on. Am I doing something wrong?

110 v Mig, C25 @ +/- 15.



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When is the last time you changed your liner?

 

I get that a lot too. I'm interested to know why as well.

 

Sounds like the wire speed is to fast maybe.

 

First problem is 110----Instead of 220.

 

Common misconception. Most of the fab shops that I have worked in, in the last 25-years, use a 110v machine on sheet metal.

 

Tip may be worn .You might need to remove the wire all the way from the spool.Liner may be a suspect as well.

 

110 for sheet metal is fine.

 

actually your wire speed may be to slow and burning back to the tip,, try increasing a little

 

This happens to me as well, with a brand-new Millermatic 211. I'll try upping the speed.

 

yup...up wire speed..little more stickout...should be fine....220 usually too hot for light sheet metal..110 works great....

 

Have you guys tried some nozzle gel?
What about rust on your wire? are you using a wire lube setup and spraying your roll from time to time? Cleaned your cable/gun connections lately? How does your ground clamp look?

These are all things that will cause this issue.

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Thanks for all the fast responses. Clearly the easiest is to up the wire speed. I will give that at try first.


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Secondly, I was double checking my air volume. Everything I read indicated that it was 12-20 CFM. Looking at my gage, it's actually L/min or CFH scale. I know there is a BIG difference in CFM and CFH. What's recommended?


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try keeping the line nice and straight. try tightening the drive wheel tension. check the drive wheels most have a slots that the wire rides in, so make sure it is in the right slot. if the tip or liner are worn [as said] it will give you grief.

 

My flowgauges are locked at 20.

 

Twenty what? CFH or CFM or L/min?


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Cubic Feet per Hour.

 

Thank you sir.


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I recently had the same problem with my Miller 252. I was puzzled as this had rarely happened before. The machine is new and has had only a few spools run through it. After a bit of tinkering, it seems that I had the drive roller adjustment way to tight. After backing off a few turns it stopped this very annoying trait! Every time this happened I lost 15' of wire. Also small wire like .023 kinks easier. This worked for me. Hope it helps.

 

check wire tension and good ground maybe turn down the heat some or wire speed up

 

What size wire? Are you using the correct size tip?

 

.023 wire. Tip is same. Also up sized the tip once to see if that was an issue.


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I got a bad spool of wire once drove me nuts till i finely figured it out

 

the two rollers that push the wire thru to the gun, might be wrong for that size wire. see if you need to change the rollers. my miller 210 was doing this with the small 023 wire. I bought some new rollers with the smaller grooves and that pretty much cured that.

 

overheating tip

 

My take on the problem is to slow a wire feed and it is melting back to the tip. Also holding the tip to close to the material causing melt back I have had this with my Miller. It is a learning curve thing.

 

Also stay away from welding wire made in China. That crap will make you think your welding machine is junk. I will only use Lincoln wire.

 

This could also be the issue. Just burning what came with the welder.


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Few things to check.
First is the drag on the spool. That needs to be correct and does require some routine maintence. I need to do mine quickly (3 mins) every 5lbs or 1/2 roll and thorough every spool change.

Next is the drive rollers. Most have two sets of grooves and the grooves need to match the wire size. The rollers can wear out and need replacing. They should have nice serrations, but brand new rollers can cause some grief because they can be too sharp.

Next would be the liner. These get dirty inside and can be blown out with pretty good results. A small wire wiper can easily be installed to knock the crap off the wire before it goes thru the roller guide and another before the liner. I use a cigarette butt because they are handy. Liners also can wear out eventually and need to be replaced. The liners can get damaged and kinked.

Next and probably most important is your drive tension. You'll never get this right if any of the above stuff is off. The rollers need to push on the wire hard enough to shove it out of the tip - but not so hard it deforms the wire. If you do stick it and the rollers slip there is a very good chance you'll kink that spot and it will stick again at the tip and the vicious cycle repeats again and again.

Ill assume that you are doing the "trigger weld tack skip around and eventually connect the dots" method. Set your machine to weld a nice continuous bead on some equall thickness scrap. Once you have that set, turn your heat up at least 10% for the tacks. You may need to turn it down for bigger gaps, but you don't want 47,000 cold tacks and then bullshit yourself into thinking you actually welded something.