Changing Mig Wire

[arkydog]

i just thought i would share this with everyone that has a mig welder. I'm sure that you all might know this, but the other day i was changing my mig wire and i usually just use needle nose pliers to guide the wires thru the guides and rollers. getting it into the metal liner thats past the rollers is my hardest part.

usually the wire is bent from the spool just enough to make it hard to insert into the liner. by accident i had the gun off the machine and realized how easy it was to feed the wire into the liner. after 30 years of not removing the gun, i will from now on. so much easier. just thought i wood pass this on.

rob

 

[ericher69]

i just thought i would share this with everyone that has a mig welder. I'm sure that you all might know this, but the other day i was changing my mig wire and i usually just use needle nose pliers to guide the wires thru the guides and rollers. getting it into the metal liner thats past the rollers is my hardest part. usually the wire is bent from the spool just enough to make it hard to insert into the liner. by accident i had the gun off the machine and realized how easy it was to feed the wire into the liner. after 30 years of not removing the gun, i will from now on. so much easier. just thought i wood pass this on. rob

why not just remove the contact tip??

Never have any issues this way!

Sent from my iPhone 5s 64Gb using TractorByNet

 

[arkydog]

I'm talking about inside the welder at the rollers. i had a easy time inserting the wire into the first guide and between the rollers. when inserting the wire into the liner of the mig gun from the rollers, was the difficult time. found out if you remove the mig gun from the machine and running the wire out the machine, inserting the wire into the liner of the gun, its a lot easier to do than with the gun attached to the machine.

 

[Jim Timber]

Cut the bent end off - problem solved.

Never had an issue with feeding anything through a mig except for 4043 (aluminum) through my 30' Push-Pull gun. Talk about a pain! Gotta have the line stretched out straight or it'll have too much resistance and kink at the feeder before it gets out to the gun. And that's with a Teflon liner.

 

[arkydog]

10 lb spools and 2 lb spools, the wire still has a slight curve, just enough to not be perfectly straight. the wire will possibly bird nest around the spool if you give it much slack. i feed the wire off the spool with a lot of spool tension to the first sleeve guide thru the opened rollers, closed or opened rollers, and trying to feed it to the liner in the gun can be trying. thats where removing the gun and liner outside the machine and advancing the wire is easier to put wire into liner outside the machine than in the machine. more space to work with the slightly curve wire. just saying to help someone else that might have this problem. thank all for looking!!

 

[ovrszd]

My access to MIG welders has been limited to Miller and Hobart brands. With the rollers open it's a simple matter of feeding the wire across the bottom roller and pressing it in alignment with the liner using my fingertip. I never considered removing the gun w/liner. I'll hafta look that possibly over next time I replace a roll. Just never considered it.

 

[lamanated]

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

 

[arkydog]

i have never considered felt on the wire. ill have to try that. thanks.

 

[/pine]

10 lb spools and 2 lb spools, the wire still has a slight curve, just enough to not be perfectly straight. the wire will possibly bird nest around the spool if you give it much slack. i feed the wire off the spool with a lot of spool tension to the first sleeve guide thru the opened rollers, closed or opened rollers, and trying to feed it to the liner in the gun can be trying. thats where removing the gun and liner outside the machine and advancing the wire is easier to put wire into liner outside the machine than in the machine. more space to work with the slightly curve wire. just saying to help someone else that might have this problem. thank all for looking!!

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

My experience is the same...regardless of how much you cut off there is still a slight curve to the wire and even after it is in the groove across the roller it is tedious getting into the end of the liner...!

 

[Jim Timber]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

My experience is the same...regardless of how much you cut off there is still a slight curve to the wire and even after it is in the groove across the roller it is tedious getting into the end of the liner...!

Take the tip out of the gun, load up your new spool (keeping tension on it), open drive rolls, feed wire (with clean cut end) into the liner a couple inches, close drive rollers, pull trigger and wait for wire to poke out the end of the gun, put tip back on, cut excess wire, get back to welding.

In 15 years, from 120v hobbyist (junk), to the highest end digital feeders made - this method has never failed me.