Attaching wire feed to a stick welder

[BukitCase]

Same problem with shortage of outlets, so I ganged 3 deep 4x4 boxes together with conduit nipples, put a nema 6-50 female in each box, daisy-chained all together, added a few feet of #6 SO cord and a male connector, and plugged each machine into its own outlet.

If you're a one-man show like I am, it's not like you're gonna use any two machines at the same time, so it's no biggie current-wise.

Easy wiring, just cut pieces of stripped out SO cord long enough to reach from one receptacle to the next, twist the (stranded) pigtails together, shove 'em into the connectors and tighten pretty tight. Black to black, red to red, green to green.

Sure beats plugging and unplugging 240 volt plugs all the time... Steve

 

[Oldpath05]

"Attaching wire feed to stick welder" This sounds exactly like what I use to do, I bought 115 volt mig welder year's ago, to weld thin steel easier, usually I use 3/16 7014 on my 250 amp AC DC welder, to do a lot of welding, but my brother in law pull in on day with a lot of 1 pass welding to do, I was out of 3/16 rod, welding store closed. So this is what I did, unscrewed the cable that went to the mig gun, clamed the welding tongs to the cable, set the stick welder to some where's around 180 amps DC reverse, hooked the ground from the stick welder to the work, coiled up the ground from the mig machine, didn't want stick current to back feed through the mig feeder, turned up the welding gas pressure a little more to help keep the barrel cool. I used .030 70s6 mig wire, now I had all kinds of heat, and the wire speed almost bottomed out, it really put down some footage quick, it would weld faster than 3/16 stick rod. Now the down side, the wire was always live, so I just had to be careful where I set the gun down, or it would arc out the contact tip, I also ran a .035 tip to help with that, and that's how I did that.

 

[muddstopper]

"Attaching wire feed to stick welder" This sounds exactly like what I use to do, I bought 115 volt mig welder year's ago, to weld thin steel easier, usually I use 3/16 7014 on my 250 amp AC DC welder, to do a lot of welding, but my brother in law pull in on day with a lot of 1 pass welding to do, I was out of 3/16 rod, welding store closed. So this is what I did, unscrewed the cable that went to the mig gun, clamed the welding tongs to the cable, set the stick welder to some where's around 180 amps DC reverse, hooked the ground from the stick welder to the work, coiled up the ground from the mig machine, didn't want stick current to back feed through the mig feeder, turned up the welding gas pressure a little more to help keep the barrel cool. I used .030 70s6 mig wire, now I had all kinds of heat, and the wire speed almost bottomed out, it really put down some footage quick, it would weld faster than 3/16 stick rod. Now the down side, the wire was always live, so I just had to be careful where I set the gun down, or it would arc out the contact tip, I also ran a .035 tip to help with that, and that's how I did that.

I pulled this thread back up because somehow I missed this reply. I only found it because I was thinking about buying a bigger mig machine and somehow it popped up on google.
Anyways. If I understand this correctly, Oldpath used his stick welder for welding power by connecting to the mig lead and used the 115v mig machine for the wire drive. Has anybody else done this and how did it work out for you. It has me thinking about frankenzing a cheap mig to make wire feeder for my stick welder. I dont know how hard that would actually be to do either, but think it would be worth exploreing.

 

[yomax4]

Wow, this is a new one on me..Seems like it could work . I'd have to run it by a repair buddy of mine before I risked it.The small amp gun on the 120v mig would cook welding 3/16 material for very long. You would likely want a larger gun. I think I'd look for a used voltage sensing feeder like an LN25 or Thermal Arc VS212 that have contactors and gas solenoids. They do a fine job and would work well with your current power supply. The power plants near me would always use a DC power supply with voltage sensing feeders for boiler repair. They could run as long a lead to the feeder as they wanted to and everything was heavy duty.

 

[muddstopper]

I have a 175amp mig I use, but I did find the work around very interesting. I just wondered how well the wire speed on a small machine might keep up with 250amp stick welding power. Other than that, and the wire being hot all the time, I dont really see why it wouldnt work. If I run across another used mig for cheap-cheap, I think I will give it a try. Wouldnt take long to run thru one of those little rolls of wire.

 

[yomax4]

I have a 175amp mig I use, but I did find the work around very interesting. I just wondered how well the wire speed on a small machine might keep up with 250amp stick welding power. Other than that, and the wire being hot all the time, I dont really see why it wouldnt work. If I run across another used mig for cheap-cheap, I think I will give it a try. Wouldnt take long to run thru one of those little rolls of wire.

I'm going to try it too. I run across 115v migs pretty often. I'll hook up as described previously. If this works you should also be able to power the mig from one of the small little tig stick inverters. As far as the wire always being hot, early Century migs were hot all the time too and it's not much different that a stick being hot all the time.. I have no need for this setup but I need to know if it works.

 

[muddstopper]

I dont know how big a wire you can run thru one of those little mig, just looking thru the online catalogs, it seems the 175's run the same gun as the 140's. I suspect if I turned the amps up to the full 250amp of the idealarc, something would get pretty hot. Wire speed seems to be limited to about 500ipm so without a bigger wire, dont think the little mig setup could keep up with the extra amps. I aint willing to try it with the only mig machine I own, but I have bought and sold 175amp migs in the $100 range. If I find another one in that price range, then I plan on giving it a try. I dont need a bigger machine than I have often, but just knowing I could do a simple conversion like this might just keep me from buying a bigger welder.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I think it's all about current handling. Some of the bigger guns are even water cooled to deal with the higher currents and duty cycles.

 

[muddstopper]

Yomax4, have you had a chance to talk to your repair buddy about this yet. I am really wanting to try this, but not willing to risk my mig welder. I am also wondering about hooking the little mig welder up to the dc tig side of the idealarc. I could use the foot pedal to cut the power on/off to the gun so it wouldnt be hot when I laid it down. Might be a little to much rigging to be used as a full time mig, but I just got to know.

 

[Oldpath05]

"Oldpath used his stick welder for welding power by connecting to the mig lead and used the 115v mig machine for the wire drive."<<< And that's all it is was use for when hooked to the stick welder, that small mig welder worked great on 16ga down to 22ga, exhaust pipe.... So if you have a small mig welder and a 250 amp AC/DC welder and you want to mig weld 1/4" plate but cant afford a bigger machine, just do what I did, remember to unhook the ground from the mig welder remember the wire stays live so keep the gun off the plate.

Now on .023 the stick welder will be to much so go to .030 or .035 wire. For most of us we dont weld more then 2 ft at once, usually 6-12" on 1/4"-1/2" plate and that's when that little extra heat makes all the difference. My previous welding machine have burnt up 4 years ago when my shop caught fire from the wood stove(another long story) I now have a Miller 211 mig welder, good for 1/4" plate, but miss my Century 250 amp stick welder, next month I'll be investing in another one.