Changing Mig Wire

[Jim Timber]

Some of you seem to like making things far more difficult than they need to be...

Needle nose pliers? Really?

 

[Big Barn]

It was a "suggestion" for the OP. Just tryin' to help....

 

[arkydog]

eye site, old age, arthritis, shakes, hangover, in a hurry to go to the outhouse, poor lighting, what ever reason would be a good reason to try this method. i have done it with pliers, tiny picks, miniature plyers, side cutters, what ever else you can think of, i like unscrewing the mig gun & cable and running the wire outside the machine and inserting into liner. then putting gun back into machine with wire threaded into gun.

 

[Big Barn]

eye site, old age, arthritis, shakes, hangover, in a hurry to go to the outhouse, poor lighting, what ever reason would be a good reason to try this method. i have done it with pliers, tiny picks, miniature plyers, side cutters, what ever else you can think of, i like unscrewing the mig gun & cable and running the wire outside the machine and inserting into liner. then putting gun back into machine with wire threaded into gun.

While your mig gun is disconnected, take the opportunity to blow out the liner with compressed air. Disconnect the tip and blow from that end.

Terry

 

[5030]

my miller is pretty straight forward,, I take the roller off and clean the groove out, I also put the felt and paperclip on the wire to pre clean the wire

Try an unsmoked cigarette filter (regular or menthol don't matter) in between the wire spool and the drive rollers. That is the cheapest wire wiper made, every welder I know that runs a wire machine uses that trick.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Try an unsmoked cigarette filter (regular or menthol don't matter) in between the wire spool and the drive rollers. That is the cheapest wire wiper made, every welder I know that runs a wire machine uses that trick.

That might have been cheap when cigarettes were 30 cents a pack, but at $8-10 per pack (and not a lot of folks still smoke), not a very cheap route anymore and they wont work as well or as long as the proper felt wiper. You can also add a few drops of wire lube to the felt so it not only cleans the wire but lubes it a bit so it slides more easily thru the liner.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I don't see what all the hoopla is about changing spools. It is not a difficult task, just open the roller feeder and place the tip of the new wire into the liner a few inches, close the roller and pull the trigger. It is easier if you remove the contact tip because it will sometimes bind up at that point especially if using aluminum wire. This is also a good time to clean the contact tip and blow dust and whatever out of the liner prior to feeding in new wire.
What is harder than putting in the new wire thru the rollers is keeping the wire tension on the spool so it doesn't bird nest on you while getting it into the liner. It takes a lot more attention to do that than putting the wire thru the rollers and into the liner.

 

[arkydog]

if you have to pay a lot more attention to keeping the wire tight to keeping it from bird nesting, its easier to just remove the gun since the roller closed already have tension on the wire. just remove the gun, one wing nut, turn wire speed up and voltage down since you have to do it anyway, and pull trigger. easy.

 

[ovrszd]

if you have to pay a lot more attention to keeping the wire tight to keeping it from bird nesting, its easier to just remove the gun since the roller closed already have tension on the wire. just remove the gun, one wing nut, turn wire speed up and voltage down since you have to do it anyway, and pull trigger. easy.

Who would have ever thought you could get this much activity with "Changing Mig Wire" as a thread title huh!!!!!

 

[crystallake]

I wonder if op is not raising the roller off of the tension catch? This is not a big deal. Several YouTube shots of this procedure. Takes less than one min.