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I have bought a welder and tried to use tonight but need some advice!
When turned on and the trigger depressed the wire does not always feed out and stops and starts all the time....surely this is not normal I would of thought that the wire feed was meant to be constant
Does it matter what angle you hold the trigger?
The unit also trips the electricity sometimes aswell which i know is wrong but only seems to do this when wire stops feeding
Any advice welcome as I need to know whether it's fu**ed
Craig, like you I recently purchased (second hand) a Mig welder. Couple of things or so to check out, though I am not sure if you bought new or not :
1. Welding wire is shiny and new with no rust spots.
2. Torch if second hand has a new sleeve insert fitted.
3. Welding wire size matches tip size. ie .8 wire matches a .8 tip.
4. You have the correct size wire feed wheel fitted correctly. Mine is a SIP and as such the feed wheel has two different wire sizes on it - 0.6 & 0.8mm.
4. What ampage is your welder?
Reason I ask is that the one I purchased goes up to 180 amps. It therefore needs a 16 amp supply not off a 13 amp ring supply with a 13amp plug.
Really need to know your set up and machine details.
Welder is new
100 amp 13amp mains ok
all wire and setup came with welder so was meant to be plug and play it was a case of taking out the box and plugging in
With it being new, you might find the feed system needs a bit of time to bed in - it could be a stiction problem in the torch and supplying cable.
Mine was a bit bothersome when I first got it, but with use the smoothness increased quite quickly.
Is the feed jerky just when welding, or is it just as bad when trying to spool off a length without arcing? If it's "jerky" when welding, then perhaps your feed rate / ampage settings are the problem?
What gas are you using? I really recommend a proper bottle and regulator - messing about with the little hobby bottles will seem like a good idea (well it did to me), but the weld quality isn't in the same league as it is with a consistent supply of good gas.
If that welder is tripping your electricity, and it's not faulty, then I'd suggest you give the guy that wired your house a stern talking to (I couldn't resist that, knowing who wired your house!!).
Hi John, welder is being replaced tomorrow they are sending another one out today!
Wire would feed very sparadic and yes it was a hobby bottle wanted to try welder and bottle came with it
When the wire did feed it did not seem to weld properly as acted more like solder although it was my first attempt
House electrics are sound I'm ok with them, it's car electrics i'm sh*t with haha
New welder arrived this morning and seems fine and have actually welded a screwdriver to what will be my engine brace!!
Bearing in mind what John said about wire feed as it has stopped a few times obviously just needs bedding in
John out of interest if you don't mind me asking how much do you pay rental and fill charges for gas and who do you use?
Cheers
Mike
In short, it's expensive - exact price I can't recall right now, but it's the standard BOC deal (the prices are online I guess)....
I held out for a while, but I was getting through the hobby bottles at an alarming rate, so bit the bullet. In retrospect I wish I'd got the bottle earlier, as the weld difference is very noticeable.
I've got an argon mix, but I could have taken the cheaper route of befriending a publican to get a CO2 bottle, and taken that to a nearby place for refills at £10 a punt.