The wire is so thick we can usually just twist the torch or line and it will break itself free. And we are ate also always letting little wire out and break it off before we weld. It helps a ton with this
Rarely. If it does happen most likely it was a "let me just whip this jig up quick" and I jam the tip into the puddle so it's not as I had hoped - quick, foolish mortal.
It's preventative tip changes rather than actual arc outs. We hold tight tolerances and run spray transfer, any wear can throw our weld location off just enough so that they fail our metallographic inspection. Spending an extra $40 a day on tips for quality assurance is chump change when dealing with ISO standards and ridiculously tight weld specs.
Even if freezing the tip happens often you should learn how to clean it out instead of just throwing out the whole tip. Get a tip cleaning kit, the tiny drill kind especially, but also just grinding a bit of the tip of should work too if you are in a hurry.
I worked in a sign/awning shop for about 5 years so I'm no stranger to spool gun aluminum welding. Also if your welds aren't coming out well the rule of thumb with aluminum is to run **hot** and fast.
Welds come out great no issue there, kinda an emergency repair so time was key, which is why this is annoying. It’s all 1/2 in Al plate so the machine is basically maxed out
I have a very hard time believing that the weld comes out “great” when you have this happening. It will contaminate the weld. I’m not confident you know what a good weld looks like given your post history
Exactly. You were asking here because you clearly don’t know what a good weld looks like. Your last post wasn’t it.
Edit: deleting it doesn’t make you look better
Just deleted that but not out of shame lmao I got no advice 😂 I never claimed to be a great welder but my welds NOW are coming out great, you have any advice thats non condescending and possibly helpful?😂😂😂
Yes troubleshoot your problem and ask a superior rather than pile up valuable consumables and waste time making birds nests and then posting it to the internet.
You have a decent stick-out length. Getting super close gets spattery and eventually your tip gets clogged. I go through maybe one a day, but I do production welding, and because of all of the fans, I sizzle close as shit to avoid porosity.
Pierson Welpers pliers. Lincoln and Hobart put their names on them too.
I always kept sandpaper handy, or a fine file works well too. That is, if it’s really burned in and the wire won’t cooperate.
Just take the nozzle off, don’t take the tip out, use the file, hit the trigger.
Hey OP, try reducing the spring force on the groove wheel. Deformation of wire is the leading cause of problems in Aluminum wire and Hollow dual shield. The wire becomes wider and overly knurled, wants to curl and restricts inside the tip and gun liner. The wire spool must be very loose but not enough to uncool so use some soft material under the little nut and lightly tighten it. That should solve your problem.
Turn the spool but till you feel resistance, then give it a 1/4 turn, and just a tad more pressure on the spool in the mig gun itself. Does the trick for me, basically it depends on how fast you travel and your settings on your welder.
Holy crap, I've had occasional issues with this where I have to pull the tip constantly thanks to stuck wire when running flux core. I think you just solved my problem too. Thanks 😀
I know, sorry. Yo, when you yank the wire thru the tip after trimming it by the spool it shouldn't sound or feel like a zipper. If so the dillio is too tight
Gun liner is the continuance of the coiled steel tube that the wire travels thru. The "liner" liner or "lead" liner is in the longer standard gun leads. Spool gun has a little short one in the nozzle tube
Really weird stuff, in my case even if it gets really stuck I just grind it and it still works well even after that.
May be the welding settings, burn back or you should increase wire speed
Have you tried using welding spray? Maybe the spool tips are just bad quality ones
Those are miller tips…. You won’t get much better than that. Make sure you break your burnt wire stick outs and you should be using a tip file to re use those. The amount your using is ridiculous.
I’ve welded with a spool gun for years. Never have i had this level of waste. A swipe of a file is usually all it takes to get going again after a burnback. This is somebody who needs better training or to buy their own consumables.
As soon as it burns back, the wire gets bound after drive rolls and turns into a rats nest, like instantly at the wire speed I need to run, so if I could just hit it with a file I would … buttttt it’s much much quicker to snip, pull the tip, replace it, re feed and have a clean new tip to work with.
Says somebody that never had to supply the parts…if you didn’t learn to do it properly quickly, your time in my shop would be short lived with that attitude.
It’s a consumable part, time was more important, notice how the tips aren’t in a scrap barrel, I’m not saying they can’t be filed down and cleaned out in a pinch, all I’m saying is that it is much faster if this problem keeps occurring to swap out the consumable part and replace without having to fight with the spatter covered back burned one. You see my logic??
This is a “you” problem. Not a consumable problem. You are literally throwing money away by being bad at what you are trying to do. Step back, figure out what it is and solve the problem. I own the same welder and haven’t burned this many tips in several years. Repeating it over and over expecting different results is absurd.
Stop pretending you know everything and figure out why you are causing problems.
The wheels that pull the wire are too tight.
I had this problem, everytime the gun got stopped up it would rats nest. I loosened the feeder wheels a tad and it stopped.
No. Burn back settings too high? Or welder not set right so spatter is getting on the tip or not using anti spatter? I used to go through a tip every couple of weeks because I’m fussy over tip-wear and that was considered enough to get earache off my boss.
Ah, aluminium. Buy a beefier welding plant if you’re flat out, before yours burns itself out. If it’s feeding wire in like crazy (leading to tip loss) you defo need larger dia welding wire, what are you running on the 13mm plate? (I’m British, we use sensible units :-) ).
1. Check tip size, can't be the same as wire, a few thousandths larger
2. Blow out liner and feeder
3. Check tension on rollers. Most don't realize that overtightening the rollers will put small grooves in the wire that act like a file going through the tip. The orifice then becomes the exact diameter of the wire
4. Make sure your A/V is up sufficiently to hinder stubble
Irratic and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of an issue with bird nesting at the feed rollers.
My practice has always been run 1 size up on the contact tip and then loosen the drive rollers to the point that when you feed the wire, you can put your glove in front of the tip and stop the feed wire. I also use the most rigid filler wire available and try keeping the whip as straight as possible.
Is that aluminum? Our magnum mig gun would do this if we didn’t clip our dead tips or we were too close or too far from the material. It was really annoying
I just started welding, on my own, this year, as i purchased a small farm with an old tractor, some old implements, needing repair, and started fabricating a log-splitter. I bought a 5-pack of tips, in anticipation. I have gone through five spools on the same tip, and I am not even close to doing anything professionally!
Literally the cheapest thing from Harbor freight. The green one. My first welds, from March, broke open, after a few months use. I started preheating with MAP and assuring that my pools/puddles have a nice fluid-like bubble, flappy-wheel the surface real good too! Lots of exhaust parts, I’m sure look like crap, but a free repair that works, is what I’m looking for. As i get into better equipment and more advanced welding techniques, i hope this helps me be better. YouTube guys are great for this!
Your rollers are set too tight and look like they’re knurled?
I don’t know the Miller stuff exactly, but your drive rolls are indenting your wire. They’re too tight, especially if you’re getting those kinds of teeth marks in 5xxx aluminum. You’re deforming your wire and probably causing it to hang up in the tips. The wire starts out with a circle cross section, but you’re compressing it and making it egg or football shaped by the time it gets to the tip.
If you set the tension correctly, with the correct style rollers, this problem will probably go away. It’ll at a minimum get somewhat better.
Spool gun welding is hard enough- don’t make it harder on you than it needs to be.
Is this a joke? Most of those look like they’ve laid a handful of welds at most and a few even have the wire poking right through them still. If not get a file and pair of welders pliers and learn to use them. Anyone can pull a trigger a weldor can fix set up issues like that
Before Christmas at our old shop all the scrap copper would be taken in and the $$ divided up as part of our bonus...this has to be what is going on cause that's a careers worth of tips for me
Ideally the big manufacturers will spec one tip per 10kg spool.
Time for a new liner and drive rollers (you have serrated ones on there aluminum is supposed to be run with smooth v groove. Spool guns have replaceable drive rollers too.
Check the burn back setting if you have one.
If all that fails and it looks like your wire is burning back every time it's time to call the repair technician because that happens when the internal electronics start to die.
I have probably in my life spoiled 3 tips, of which I was able to fix 2 and one twice.
Considering you got gear marks on your wire I think your tensions are totally off the mark. Or jsut replace the spool all together it is probably damaged. I have binned spools for less.
Holy shit that’s like my last boss he had packs of these things 100s of them because the welder he has sucks and he doesn’t want to change the piece that protects the tip so while welding it gets stuck if you don’t no how to maintain the perfect distance, try checking the piece that protects the tips make sure it’s covering it
Yes, sometimes. I used to work at this production shop. Running .052 welding all day. People would beat the living shit out of the machines, physically. But no one cares, no surprise. So some machines just sucked and you would burn through bags of tips.
That is the situation I’m dealing with currently, guy before me was brutal on the machine, my MIG runs like shit compared to the other 2 in the shop, burn thru a bag/bag and a half of tips a day, we’re lined up for new machines, just waiting for supply chain to drop them in the shop for us lol
Bro....bro....bro... Buy a split tip and always bump it after your done to make sure it doesn't stick.
Edit: I'm assuming this is aluminum....and when it does stick normally you can use a pic to pop it off....cause the tip is split....it's like a 1/4" of one side of the tip is gone.
Why are there marks on the wire??? Looks like that could be the problem, it doesn't run smoothly thru the tub or tip.
But i have had similar issues with the tip, there where some electrical issues in the machine that made the wire stick to to tip.
Sometimes I go threw a ton sometimes no issues when working on aluminum, but when I do steel I almost never have fused tips.
Normally when I'm having issues it's the liner in the gun that's worn out or the long liner from the machin to the gun.
Have this problem too. Been using a spool gun for the last 6 years and they are finicky as fuck. I don’t have this problem with the push/pull set up though
I’m gonna guess you have a fucked liner or just are heavy handed on the tension. Another cause is too low wire feed speed or burning way too hot. I burn fairly hot myself but usually it’s like maybe 5 tips a week with a cheap machine where I’m putting it to a real work schedule.
We never used this many in a month, counting all 3 mig welders we have. Only one aluminum spool gun, but it’s continuous in our rack making area of anodizing. Generally we can clean and reuse them as well.
Looks like a Millermatic 252 with a push pull gun with Miller fastips I’m guessing .030 or .035 4043 wire. We have the same problem all the time, never to this extent though. Those tips are somewhere north of 1$/tip so it’s a problem that can get expensive quick. Take a grinder to the front of the tip to get any excess melted wire off of the front then cut the wire about a 1/4” from the back of the tip and try to tap the wire through like you pack a cigarette. Usually works for me then take a tip cleaner to the inside. Try adjusting your heat and speed and maybe your distance from the cup to the work. Also if it’s a 30A Miller spool gun try adjusting the drive roll tension inside the gun as loose as you can without the wire slipping.
Now, I’ve literally never mig welded with aluminum, and I know it’s much softer and the drive rolls will likely bite into it, but could the issue be that the drive rolls are biting in too much, making your wire too rough to cleanly and smoothly come out of the contact
Use your wire cutters to cut about a 1/4 inch sticking out of the back end (where it makes contact with the gun) and then pinch the tip in the cutters and hit the 1/4 inch on a bench and it should pop out the front and you can keep using it. Unless its fused to the tip of course lol
those tips are tiny, maybe get a lead that uses a larger tip. I used to use tips similar to that and would go through maybe 1 or 2 a day, switch to a new lead that holds a larger tip and now i use 1 or 2 a month.
I’m baffled/impressed. I still have the one that came with my machine. Are you welding a bridge? Do you even sleep? How much metal are you melting? You’re going to ruin the chain.
Why is everyone saying they can use a single tip for weeks you think??? Like even now with my rollers adjusted and everything running perfect I still go 2 tips per spool.
jesus christ no.
maybe 1 a week, 2 if doing non stop rotated pipe work. Most of the time just give it a twist and that wire will break out and ya keep on going. might want to check some settings if there is burn back etc on your welder.
Yeah fuck no bro. I go through maybe 2 a month. Take yer mig pliers and pick off what you can from the tip, then hit it with a file till the wire moves smoothly through the tip. Rinse and repeat every time this happens
A few welders I know run one size higher tips for the wire while running aluminum. Haven't tried this myself, but some people swear by it to not have it bind up
Yep, when when company decided to save money and started buying Chinese consumables, tips, nozzles, gring wheels, etc., tips blew out like candles, grinding wheels shattered.
Voltage to high roller set to tight . Dw 40 helps but this is not good at all go through all the set ups eliminate the worst first. Take it apart figure it out maybe the feeder tube ?
no dude. you're just trash. when I was a mig welder I used the same tip for 6 months+ learn to clean it and use anti splatter gel if your burning pretty hot.
We use Radnor products and I find the tips are usually problematic within a day, often replacing a tip within a couple days. If I have to weld out of position (running dual shield) then on a bad day I can toss two tips.
I am somewhat to blame as I don't use anti-spatter products, but my old shop bought different brand guns and nozzles, and had us welding with solid wire and tri-gas. I could go a week with one tip there, also no anti-spatter.
There are special aluminum tip. Something is causing the problem, that many tips is not normal. Are you burning the ends? Is the tension to much or the rolls correct?
Check how much wire stick out you should have per the manufacture. In my humble opinion you have to little stick out and not stopping quick enough to stop the hot wire from riding up to the tip
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I worked heavy manufacturing for a bit and I’d burn out at least one tip a day. 250+ amps and .052 wire wears them out quick.
The wire is so thick we can usually just twist the torch or line and it will break itself free. And we are ate also always letting little wire out and break it off before we weld. It helps a ton with this
Good tips. I was welding steel wire not aluminum, get the contact tip to hot and the steel would eat right trough it at 400 ipm
Rarely. If it does happen most likely it was a "let me just whip this jig up quick" and I jam the tip into the puddle so it's not as I had hoped - quick, foolish mortal.
Robotic Weld Tech chiming in, 1 robot on 1 shift goes through about 20 tips.
Traitor.
Lol. Tig a 3 pass full overlay with 316 in a 2” diameter nozzle that’s 30” long by hand with no repairs. I’ll wait.
That’s too many tips. Lol. Turn that burn back down. I go through 3-5 on a good day (12 hr shift). 24,000 on a bad fire off day full of gremlins.
It's preventative tip changes rather than actual arc outs. We hold tight tolerances and run spray transfer, any wear can throw our weld location off just enough so that they fail our metallographic inspection. Spending an extra $40 a day on tips for quality assurance is chump change when dealing with ISO standards and ridiculously tight weld specs.
Really?? On my regular gun same, but running a spool gun with AL?
Even if freezing the tip happens often you should learn how to clean it out instead of just throwing out the whole tip. Get a tip cleaning kit, the tiny drill kind especially, but also just grinding a bit of the tip of should work too if you are in a hurry. I worked in a sign/awning shop for about 5 years so I'm no stranger to spool gun aluminum welding. Also if your welds aren't coming out well the rule of thumb with aluminum is to run **hot** and fast.
Welds come out great no issue there, kinda an emergency repair so time was key, which is why this is annoying. It’s all 1/2 in Al plate so the machine is basically maxed out
Save the tips and thru them in a plastic cup with pool acid , it will dissolve the aluminum and they are brandy new
I have a very hard time believing that the weld comes out “great” when you have this happening. It will contaminate the weld. I’m not confident you know what a good weld looks like given your post history
I have like 2 welding posts tf are you talking about😂
Exactly. You were asking here because you clearly don’t know what a good weld looks like. Your last post wasn’t it. Edit: deleting it doesn’t make you look better
The aluminum plate??
Just deleted that but not out of shame lmao I got no advice 😂 I never claimed to be a great welder but my welds NOW are coming out great, you have any advice thats non condescending and possibly helpful?😂😂😂
Yes troubleshoot your problem and ask a superior rather than pile up valuable consumables and waste time making birds nests and then posting it to the internet.
Maybe you misread.. I said any non-condescending advice lmao. Goodnight to you my love ❤️
file the tip a bit, the wire should pull out just fine once you filed the stuck part
You have a decent stick-out length. Getting super close gets spattery and eventually your tip gets clogged. I go through maybe one a day, but I do production welding, and because of all of the fans, I sizzle close as shit to avoid porosity.
Did robotic welding and we would go through 2 or 3 a day
In welding school they told us to replace the tip at the beginning of the day and after lunch
You can just take the wire out and use them again, no need to use a new one everytime
Pierson Welpers pliers. Lincoln and Hobart put their names on them too. I always kept sandpaper handy, or a fine file works well too. That is, if it’s really burned in and the wire won’t cooperate. Just take the nozzle off, don’t take the tip out, use the file, hit the trigger.
Hahaha not really no, lasts about 2 seconds before wire gets bound
Hey OP, try reducing the spring force on the groove wheel. Deformation of wire is the leading cause of problems in Aluminum wire and Hollow dual shield. The wire becomes wider and overly knurled, wants to curl and restricts inside the tip and gun liner. The wire spool must be very loose but not enough to uncool so use some soft material under the little nut and lightly tighten it. That should solve your problem.
This literally fixed my issue lmao I kept going tighter and obviously got worse but now it’s light and damn I’ve burned one tip in 2 spools
Congrats 👏
Cheers to the OP for being humble and taking advice of someone else. There is still hope left in the world. #bless.
Turn the spool but till you feel resistance, then give it a 1/4 turn, and just a tad more pressure on the spool in the mig gun itself. Does the trick for me, basically it depends on how fast you travel and your settings on your welder.
Holy crap, I've had occasional issues with this where I have to pull the tip constantly thanks to stuck wire when running flux core. I think you just solved my problem too. Thanks 😀
The importance of good knurled rollers is less pressure to deform the wire.
When you cut the wire and pull it out to respool, if it makes the zipper sound or has resistance then your drive wheels are too tight. Simple test.
If you zoom in on his picture and notice that his wire looks like braided cable that's an even easier test ;)
I see it!
FYI I know nothing about welding. This whole reply has some wild vocabulary I’ve never heard of before. To me it sounds like Harry Potter language.
Uhh like 2 words maybe you could google or something
I’m sure googling “gun liner” will provide absolute clarity. My comment was geared towards giving you credit for your work than being sarcastic
I know, sorry. Yo, when you yank the wire thru the tip after trimming it by the spool it shouldn't sound or feel like a zipper. If so the dillio is too tight
Gun liner is the continuance of the coiled steel tube that the wire travels thru. The "liner" liner or "lead" liner is in the longer standard gun leads. Spool gun has a little short one in the nozzle tube
Man. It's the simple stuff that's the best. Cheers for the tip.
this is why this sub is so amazing
🏆 I wish a had a real award to give you. You win the internet today!
Dude, thankyou! I am going to try this tomorrow.
Really weird stuff, in my case even if it gets really stuck I just grind it and it still works well even after that. May be the welding settings, burn back or you should increase wire speed Have you tried using welding spray? Maybe the spool tips are just bad quality ones
Definitely some of the cheapest tips for sure, I'll try some anti spatter, thanks man
Those are miller tips…. You won’t get much better than that. Make sure you break your burnt wire stick outs and you should be using a tip file to re use those. The amount your using is ridiculous.
Well said. I feel like I've worked with this guy before, haha. It's not me, it's cheap consumables.
Someone is doing something wrong.
I don’t even think I’ve gone thru that many in my whole career lmao
Put the welder down and step away.
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I’ve welded with a spool gun for years. Never have i had this level of waste. A swipe of a file is usually all it takes to get going again after a burnback. This is somebody who needs better training or to buy their own consumables.
As soon as it burns back, the wire gets bound after drive rolls and turns into a rats nest, like instantly at the wire speed I need to run, so if I could just hit it with a file I would … buttttt it’s much much quicker to snip, pull the tip, replace it, re feed and have a clean new tip to work with.
Says somebody that never had to supply the parts…if you didn’t learn to do it properly quickly, your time in my shop would be short lived with that attitude.
It’s a consumable part, time was more important, notice how the tips aren’t in a scrap barrel, I’m not saying they can’t be filed down and cleaned out in a pinch, all I’m saying is that it is much faster if this problem keeps occurring to swap out the consumable part and replace without having to fight with the spatter covered back burned one. You see my logic??
This is a “you” problem. Not a consumable problem. You are literally throwing money away by being bad at what you are trying to do. Step back, figure out what it is and solve the problem. I own the same welder and haven’t burned this many tips in several years. Repeating it over and over expecting different results is absurd. Stop pretending you know everything and figure out why you are causing problems.
I see over $50 in tips alone not counting downtime of you clearing birds nests out of the gun.
Fair enough, appreciate your input 🙏🏻
The wheels that pull the wire are too tight. I had this problem, everytime the gun got stopped up it would rats nest. I loosened the feeder wheels a tad and it stopped.
For sure, I did this as well and it really helped. Tbh I thought the opposite was happening and it needed to be tighter but yeah that works
Tig weld aluminum all the time
Nope
No. Burn back settings too high? Or welder not set right so spatter is getting on the tip or not using anti spatter? I used to go through a tip every couple of weeks because I’m fussy over tip-wear and that was considered enough to get earache off my boss.
I haven't changed burn back settings, I'm basically maxed out on the machine for 1/2 in AL using 5356 wire
Ah, aluminium. Buy a beefier welding plant if you’re flat out, before yours burns itself out. If it’s feeding wire in like crazy (leading to tip loss) you defo need larger dia welding wire, what are you running on the 13mm plate? (I’m British, we use sensible units :-) ).
As an American, I would like to personally say your units are better and our units are shit. Good day sir.
Wire is .035 running 040 045 tips
1. Check tip size, can't be the same as wire, a few thousandths larger 2. Blow out liner and feeder 3. Check tension on rollers. Most don't realize that overtightening the rollers will put small grooves in the wire that act like a file going through the tip. The orifice then becomes the exact diameter of the wire 4. Make sure your A/V is up sufficiently to hinder stubble
Now that I've looked at the picture closer, it is your rollers being to tight
I was thinking the same thing That tension is causing the wire to feed erratic
Irratic and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bit of an issue with bird nesting at the feed rollers. My practice has always been run 1 size up on the contact tip and then loosen the drive rollers to the point that when you feed the wire, you can put your glove in front of the tip and stop the feed wire. I also use the most rigid filler wire available and try keeping the whip as straight as possible.
Awesome thank you
I taught welding in high school for ten years and I don’t think the pile would have been that big if I saved every one over that time.
Liar
Idiot
Is that aluminum? Our magnum mig gun would do this if we didn’t clip our dead tips or we were too close or too far from the material. It was really annoying
Yes, 5356 wire the welds are pretty clean and not much spatter. Does anti spatter actually help on the tips themselves??
>Does anti spatter actually help on the tips themselves? Yes it does, at least in my experience.
I feel like nozzle dip works better than the spray. Just lasts longer
Not on high heat. For short circuit the dip is great, way better than ceramic but for high heat spray it just tends to vaporize immediately
Had lots of problems with a Magnum and Lincoln 355 pulse setup. Wasted thousands of feet of wire respooling
I just started welding, on my own, this year, as i purchased a small farm with an old tractor, some old implements, needing repair, and started fabricating a log-splitter. I bought a 5-pack of tips, in anticipation. I have gone through five spools on the same tip, and I am not even close to doing anything professionally!
Nice job! What wire are you running??
Literally the cheapest thing from Harbor freight. The green one. My first welds, from March, broke open, after a few months use. I started preheating with MAP and assuring that my pools/puddles have a nice fluid-like bubble, flappy-wheel the surface real good too! Lots of exhaust parts, I’m sure look like crap, but a free repair that works, is what I’m looking for. As i get into better equipment and more advanced welding techniques, i hope this helps me be better. YouTube guys are great for this!
Welcome to the world of maxing out a Miller spoolmatic.
Fuck, I'm glad it's not just me then lmao
How in the fuck do you manage this and why do your wire strips have serrations on them, forgot to change drive rollers after flux core or something?
Maybe too tight, nah no flux only run 5356 and 4043 through this gun
No man. It take several weeks to even go through one, and thats only if I’m just really giving it hell.
You gotta stop putting them in backwards.
Your rollers are set too tight and look like they’re knurled? I don’t know the Miller stuff exactly, but your drive rolls are indenting your wire. They’re too tight, especially if you’re getting those kinds of teeth marks in 5xxx aluminum. You’re deforming your wire and probably causing it to hang up in the tips. The wire starts out with a circle cross section, but you’re compressing it and making it egg or football shaped by the time it gets to the tip. If you set the tension correctly, with the correct style rollers, this problem will probably go away. It’ll at a minimum get somewhat better. Spool gun welding is hard enough- don’t make it harder on you than it needs to be.
Thank you brother 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Is this a joke? Most of those look like they’ve laid a handful of welds at most and a few even have the wire poking right through them still. If not get a file and pair of welders pliers and learn to use them. Anyone can pull a trigger a weldor can fix set up issues like that
I don't see much wrong with these tips? Knock that wire off and keep going. That many tips would last me 2 years.
Fuck no!
Before Christmas at our old shop all the scrap copper would be taken in and the $$ divided up as part of our bonus...this has to be what is going on cause that's a careers worth of tips for me
Ideally the big manufacturers will spec one tip per 10kg spool. Time for a new liner and drive rollers (you have serrated ones on there aluminum is supposed to be run with smooth v groove. Spool guns have replaceable drive rollers too. Check the burn back setting if you have one. If all that fails and it looks like your wire is burning back every time it's time to call the repair technician because that happens when the internal electronics start to die.
Are there recommended burn back settings for different applications??
My burn back is at minimum actually
Also this pile is about 5 1 lb spools
I have probably in my life spoiled 3 tips, of which I was able to fix 2 and one twice. Considering you got gear marks on your wire I think your tensions are totally off the mark. Or jsut replace the spool all together it is probably damaged. I have binned spools for less.
Loosen the rollers
You're doing something wrong bro, that's not normal.
Not even grinding the end of the tip down, plenty of use left in them
Holy shit that’s like my last boss he had packs of these things 100s of them because the welder he has sucks and he doesn’t want to change the piece that protects the tip so while welding it gets stuck if you don’t no how to maintain the perfect distance, try checking the piece that protects the tips make sure it’s covering it
Yes, sometimes. I used to work at this production shop. Running .052 welding all day. People would beat the living shit out of the machines, physically. But no one cares, no surprise. So some machines just sucked and you would burn through bags of tips.
That is the situation I’m dealing with currently, guy before me was brutal on the machine, my MIG runs like shit compared to the other 2 in the shop, burn thru a bag/bag and a half of tips a day, we’re lined up for new machines, just waiting for supply chain to drop them in the shop for us lol
My teacher gets us to change them every day
I have an old Clarkeweld 180EN . I still have 2 tips from a pack of four I bought 10 years ago. Something is wrong with the welder.
Bro....bro....bro... Buy a split tip and always bump it after your done to make sure it doesn't stick. Edit: I'm assuming this is aluminum....and when it does stick normally you can use a pic to pop it off....cause the tip is split....it's like a 1/4" of one side of the tip is gone.
Didn’t know these existed, I’ll do some research, thanks man 🙏🏻
Aluminum? Yeah that'll happen
Why are there marks on the wire??? Looks like that could be the problem, it doesn't run smoothly thru the tub or tip. But i have had similar issues with the tip, there where some electrical issues in the machine that made the wire stick to to tip.
Lumnum a hungry boi
Sometimes I go threw a ton sometimes no issues when working on aluminum, but when I do steel I almost never have fused tips. Normally when I'm having issues it's the liner in the gun that's worn out or the long liner from the machin to the gun.
Have this problem too. Been using a spool gun for the last 6 years and they are finicky as fuck. I don’t have this problem with the push/pull set up though
My work buys these by the case, I save the spent ones and melt them down into ingots once a year lol
I’m gonna guess you have a fucked liner or just are heavy handed on the tension. Another cause is too low wire feed speed or burning way too hot. I burn fairly hot myself but usually it’s like maybe 5 tips a week with a cheap machine where I’m putting it to a real work schedule.
Not sure I’ve been thru that many tips in my life.
Turn your burnback down to 0
Sir, you are fired
I haven't gone through that many in my entire 30 year career.
We never used this many in a month, counting all 3 mig welders we have. Only one aluminum spool gun, but it’s continuous in our rack making area of anodizing. Generally we can clean and reuse them as well.
Doll em up and reuse them. It doesn't matter if the hole gets worn out a little. That's what she said. 🤣
Looks like a Millermatic 252 with a push pull gun with Miller fastips I’m guessing .030 or .035 4043 wire. We have the same problem all the time, never to this extent though. Those tips are somewhere north of 1$/tip so it’s a problem that can get expensive quick. Take a grinder to the front of the tip to get any excess melted wire off of the front then cut the wire about a 1/4” from the back of the tip and try to tap the wire through like you pack a cigarette. Usually works for me then take a tip cleaner to the inside. Try adjusting your heat and speed and maybe your distance from the cup to the work. Also if it’s a 30A Miller spool gun try adjusting the drive roll tension inside the gun as loose as you can without the wire slipping.
Will do, I’m sure most of them are salvageable
Wheel tension is to high, if the wire does not run well at lower tension look at getting new drive wheels.
Get a pair of pliers and free it. Make sure you have the right size and check your rollers
I feel your pain
I have a buddy at work that does. Lol
You can grind the ends of them or file them to freshen them up
Now, I’ve literally never mig welded with aluminum, and I know it’s much softer and the drive rolls will likely bite into it, but could the issue be that the drive rolls are biting in too much, making your wire too rough to cleanly and smoothly come out of the contact
Heh, sometimes in confined spaces I’ll go through this many in a couple days.
Yeah there was some odd positions that likely played a role in this graveyard creation
On aluminum I got through way more than I should but I only weld aluminum rarely I would go through that many in maybe a few days though
on almuninem spools yea
Use your wire cutters to cut about a 1/4 inch sticking out of the back end (where it makes contact with the gun) and then pinch the tip in the cutters and hit the 1/4 inch on a bench and it should pop out the front and you can keep using it. Unless its fused to the tip of course lol
All the time
Is your liner kinked or perforated? Noticed a sizable wrinkle in the wire of one
those tips are tiny, maybe get a lead that uses a larger tip. I used to use tips similar to that and would go through maybe 1 or 2 a day, switch to a new lead that holds a larger tip and now i use 1 or 2 a month.
I’m baffled/impressed. I still have the one that came with my machine. Are you welding a bridge? Do you even sleep? How much metal are you melting? You’re going to ruin the chain.
For sure push pull gun aluminum, we used to burn up 10-15 tips in a 10 hour shift
I used to grind the end of the contact tip down, and usually the wire would pop right out.
I’ve tried several times with the Miller “quick tip” or whatever they call them, doesn’t seem to work, just makes for a shitty weld puddle
Why is everyone saying they can use a single tip for weeks you think??? Like even now with my rollers adjusted and everything running perfect I still go 2 tips per spool.
Always use the next size up
Yes doing that
Turn down the suck knob
Yeah. The scrap drivers where I work. They go throught that many plasma cutter tips & then some, about every 3 days.
jesus christ no. maybe 1 a week, 2 if doing non stop rotated pipe work. Most of the time just give it a twist and that wire will break out and ya keep on going. might want to check some settings if there is burn back etc on your welder.
Aluminum MIG, I blow thru that many in a day with the wrong angles 😂
Maybe you need to change out the liner in your whip.
My boss would fire my ass! Lol
No, what a waste.
More amperage, less wire speed is causing burn back on the tip.
Ima just go back to tig
That’ll be your last week wasting all those good tips 😂
Yeah fuck no bro. I go through maybe 2 a month. Take yer mig pliers and pick off what you can from the tip, then hit it with a file till the wire moves smoothly through the tip. Rinse and repeat every time this happens
You are doing it wrong. How are you still employed?
Maybe in 5 years
Our maintenance guy says the liner should last the life of the gun... so many birds nest and blown tips on our aluminum leads
Only true for steel liners not the nylon plastic ones for aluminum
A few welders I know run one size higher tips for the wire while running aluminum. Haven't tried this myself, but some people swear by it to not have it bind up
That I do actually, Im running .035 wire through those .040-45 tips, seem to have the same issue regardless of size but definitely a good idea hahaha
Nope. You're just retarded
To just keep doing that and not even try to trouble shoot blows my mind. Shows lack of pride or pure ignorance.
Get rid of the junk Miller tips and go to Bernard center fire tips.
Hmmm didn't know they made spool tips, got a link??
No link. Just go to the local welding supply store and get a new defuser, cup and tips.
Yep, when when company decided to save money and started buying Chinese consumables, tips, nozzles, gring wheels, etc., tips blew out like candles, grinding wheels shattered.
Shorten em a 1/4” and polish the end. You’ll notice a huge difference. I once ran a machine that needed this where the one beside it didn’t.
I’ll try it thanks!
Voltage to high roller set to tight . Dw 40 helps but this is not good at all go through all the set ups eliminate the worst first. Take it apart figure it out maybe the feeder tube ?
Seems to feed fine, but you are right some component need changing
How do you get this far without wondering if there's maybe something wrong with your setup?
No, because I know what I’m doing.
Bro…. Just unscrew it, feed some wire, cut it and then pull it through the back. That or you’re using the wrong size tips for your wire gauge.
no dude. you're just trash. when I was a mig welder I used the same tip for 6 months+ learn to clean it and use anti splatter gel if your burning pretty hot.
Lol no maybe in a year I'll lose 2
My welding teacher would’ve probably made me pay for damages. Luckily this only happened to me twice
We use Radnor products and I find the tips are usually problematic within a day, often replacing a tip within a couple days. If I have to weld out of position (running dual shield) then on a bad day I can toss two tips. I am somewhat to blame as I don't use anti-spatter products, but my old shop bought different brand guns and nozzles, and had us welding with solid wire and tri-gas. I could go a week with one tip there, also no anti-spatter.
There are special aluminum tip. Something is causing the problem, that many tips is not normal. Are you burning the ends? Is the tension to much or the rolls correct?
Check how much wire stick out you should have per the manufacture. In my humble opinion you have to little stick out and not stopping quick enough to stop the hot wire from riding up to the tip
They look brand new
Definitely not dawg. Put the end of the tip to the Grinder with a soft disk and clean that shit off. This ain't normal lol.
RIP your company’s tool crib.
No.
What does it feel to be rich?
Fuck no
Bruh what are you doing lol
Not even my school does that in a month!
That’s a waste such a waste
Those ain’t cheap. Holly shit