As title really. All was fine until the other day, but last night I went to use it, and though the wire feeds fine when you pull the trigger, when you go to weld it seems to not move much/all, make a buzzing noise from the machine, and do just the odd sparky spatty shit bit of weld then nothing. Obv if the earth was shit it wouldnt weld either, but surely itd just feed out a load of wire wouldnt it? If the wire feed was fucked, why it feed ok into open air when i pull the trigger? Bastard thing!
Could be a tight spot. If the feed wire is tight does it come through better opposed to having it slack or depend on how you hold it angle etc? I had this problem before. Ended up being moisture on the wire and a dodgy nib.
It could be the Wire feed. Try to tighten it. then put your hand you and push the trigger and if you wire can curl up in your can then you have enough pressure. Also it might want a new liner putting in. If you have a bad earth try grinding way a clean area and try to keep the earth close to your weld...
As above, many things. Wire feed tension sounds likely (are you using 0.6 wire with a 0.8 wire feed? worth checking), check gas, check for rusty wire, reel turning freely without too much friction? Is it a clarke? If so then just learn to deal with it haha
what welder is it? how old is the wire? is the wire rusty? does the spool say machine wound? dont go mad on tightening the feed roller
Funnily enough mine did exactly the same thing the other day. Fan still works, gas is coming through but the wire wont feed. The Bridge Rectifier went on the board. Just randomly i was welding, put the torch down to clamp up the next piece and then just stopped... Just trying to source a rectifier as a replacement board is £56 and a bridge rectifier can go for a couple of quid. if that. EDIT: mis-read that it wasnt feeding. Sounds like the pre-tension on the wire isnt enough.
Haha is it an issue with clarke welders then? I've got a 220e and the bastard thing has been jamming up a lot recently. Have to have the cable from the machine to the gun pulled taught when using it overwise it seems to do it.... It causes the wire to then jam up in the feed mechanism and then spool up inside of the welder! The only way to sort it is to pull it back through the gun and cable, snip off all the crap thats spooled up inside the welder and refeed it again.. end up using like 5x as much! Considering buying a new gun/wire feed cable thing if its the insides that are sticky etc? I'm just dealing with it as and when it happens at the moment but its becoming more annoying esp when I'm in a rush
more than likely it is down to slightly corroded wire coming through the nozzel.... basicaly slightly thicker and when you weld the wire swells because of the heat and it bites on the tip untill it cools enough to feed out again, giving you the stop start welding! If you take the tip off the gun and give it a clean out with one of the files used on the oxy torches then give it another go Jono
Could be catching in the tip or the liner in the big cable to the torch, had this on most of my MIG's from cheapie single phase to my big expensive 3 phase one ...
I think you and the opening post may find the problem is the feed liner. It works fine when pulled straight and taught but then it's bent or twisted to actually weld the wire is jamming inside. The liners have a metal coil and a grove can wear in them that snags the wire, it's also possible the wire is fusing to the liner with heat. I've replaced my liner and it's made a world of difference (mine does get a lot of use though) but they are fairly cheap so it's worth a try.
Feed liner, that's the word...I'd check him first, went through 3 in a year once. Was welding most days like Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I had similar problems, I changed the feed/swan neck liner to a steel one and braced the wire feed and it was sorted.
Haha, yes mate, they are well known for their bastard wire feed issues. I have one myself, have replaced the liner, swan neck, wire, tip....etc. And don't get me wrong, it's better, but I still get the old tangle of wire inside the case at least once each time I use the fecker. One thing that can cause these issues is as mentioned, dirty or kinked liner. They're around £15 (from memory), but apparently boiling them then pulling them taught and allowing to dry works well too. Not sure if you'd rather just spend the £15 though haha. Don't forget to check your wire feed and tip size though, I know it sounds obvious.
Are you welding the same guage material as before when it worked? Is the wire burning back to the tip if so wind a bit more wire speed on. Check the tips especialy the gas diffuser is screwed in to the torch tight. Check that it isn't arcing out through the shroud. i.e spatter build up on tip. Wouldn't recomend overtightening the feed roller as everytime you get burnback and it sticks to the tip you'll get a birds nest in the wire holder and spend half your time re threading the torch. At work ours are set so as they can slip on the wire if there is a blockage. try turning the gas down especialy if you use co2 as it cools the weld effectively reducing the power of your welder. the output on mine is set at 8psi. Not a big fan of flowmeters.
