Surging Mig wire??

admin

Hi all,  First post on the forum.I have a Lincoln 180T which I've had for many years and its been a reliable machine.  I've not had in for service and never changed liner etc.  I had some surging in the wire yesterday about mid project.  Not sure if thats a tension thing or liner thing.  It was like the wire was pulsing.I've put about 6 big rolls of .30 through the machine in its life.  Anyone know what  may be the cause?Thanks
Reply:Cut the wire at the spool and try pulling it by hand. A lot of times i have gotten wire snags from wire overlapping itself in the spool like what happens on a fishing reel sometimes.I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:gofast, I have a similar machine and had intermittent wire pulsing problems.  Pull the liner out, it is easy to do, and inspect it for kinks.  My liner was barely kinked, had to look close to see it.  Putting in a new liner was cheap and made a world of difference.  Now, if I could just weld as well as the machine is capable of.....
Reply:I've been running into that myself at work here lately.   It's a feed issue.   Your liners starting to clog up or is excessively worn.   Could also be the contact tip has too much spatter built up on the end around the exit hole or has been roughened up inside by wear or arcing.   A lot of times I can solve this problem (temporarily any way) by taking an oxy-fuel cutting tip cleaner to the contact tip and cleaning it out to make sure there's no fine spatter or rough arc marks in it.  Have you ever blown out the gun liner?   If not I'd suggest you try that first before replacing it.   I'll bet though that it's your contact tip.   Try a brand new one and see if that solves the problem.
Reply:Further investigation and I've determined that the drive spindle is actually skipping a beat.  Its a problem internal to the machine.
Reply:Check the liner in the gun. Check the guide (if so equipped) at the inlet of the wire drive. Sometimes they get worn out, or filled with crap and hang up. Lastly, remove the spool hub and inspect the spring and friction washer(s). Often, after wire feeders get a good amount of use, the friction washers wear out, or can begin to bind on their mating surfaces, thus creating excessive drag and slowing the wire roll down as the drive is trying to pull the wire thru it.After inspection and reassembly, tighten the spool hub up just enough to prevent the wire roll from freespooling after the drive stops feeding wire. There should be just enough drag on it to brake rotation, but not so much that it hangs up when the drive is feeding wire. As Mike mentioned, check to make sure you didn't get a wrap around with the wire and it's hanging up between the hub and shaft.Liner problems are usually the root cause of this issue. Change the tip as HT suggested too.Start there.Expert Garage Hack....https://www.facebook.com/steven.webber.948
Reply:When I run it with outwire you can see it hesitating on a consistent timing.
Reply:Could be motor drive problems. The gear reduction drives in those smaller feeders are usually cheap plastic and non repairable. Just pulled one out of an older Miller 130XP. The drive would only start about halfway thru the speed control's rotation and then was really loud and inconsistent.The pot controlling the motor may have an issue. Dunno the values for that machine offhand tho. You can try putting a meter on it set to ohms and see what range of resistance you get between one end to the other.Besides that, the motor control board is the next guess. Hard to say without it in front of me.Expert Garage Hack....https://www.facebook.com/steven.webber.948
Reply:Originally Posted by weldermikeCut the wire at the spool and try pulling it by hand. A lot of times i have gotten wire snags from wire overlapping itself in the spool like what happens on a fishing reel sometimes.
Reply:Originally Posted by HT2-4956mikey,We use those 60 lb. coils of wire that have to be put on an adapter where I work.    You'd think that would be a pretty straight forward, easy to accomplish task but a lot of the younger less experienced guys where I work have found some really creative ways to puck that up to the point where a lot of times most of the coil ends up in the scrap bin because it gets snarled beyond redemption.   What happens mostly is they don't get the side plate of the adapter tightened down far enough before they cut the four tie wires holding the coil together.
Reply:how often should one even replace the liner??VictorPraxairAir LiquideMillerLincoln Electric
Reply:Originally Posted by 7A749I had several spools of the 60 lb wire rolls, and did that one time.Got in a hurry and some of it popped out of the inner ring of the adapter when I put it on. Exactly what you said, didn't get it all tight and set before busting the banding off it. I was pretty pissed, but that's what I get for getting in a hurry 60 lb spool is the only way to go if you got a machine that can handle the big reels. I got six boxes of uncoated Hobart .035" solid wire at a resale outfit in Cleveland (not HGR some other place I can't remember the name of right now) for $100I'm down to my last two rolls.  Would have had three if I hadn't have pulled the Faux Pas with the last one Gonna have to buy more at some point. But, as little welding as I do it'll probably last awhile
Reply:Originally Posted by HT2-4956I've been thinking for some time that a short tutorial (with pictures) on how to correctly go about changing out one of those 60# center-less coils would be a good idea.  I've thought about asking permission to take some pictures the next time I change out one and writing some simple instructions down that I could then pass up the food chain for one of the office personal to turn into a power point presentation that could be shown to (or printed off and given to) new hires.   I'm just leery that opening that particular can of worms might hurt some ones feelings and end up getting me resented.   A couple weeks a go the engineer who appears to be in charge of our welding and QC  along with another gentlemen from our parent company in CD were doing spot checks out on the shop floor to see if the welders were staying with in the procedure parameters.   He timed one of my welds, measured how long it was and then calculated (it seemed with some difficulty) my travel speed.   When he told me what my travel speed was I just knew it didn't sound right so I said as much (politely of course) and offered to show him a simple formula for calculating it.  [total inches / total seconds x 60].    While he wasn't rude in any way I could tell by how he stiffened up that getting technical advise of that nature from a mere welder out on the shop floor didn't really set well with him.   He made the excuse that he'd calculate (and check) the travel speeds latter and was only trying to get some data at this time.
Reply:http://www.lawsonproducts.com/lawson...-Red/CW5866.lpThis will not fix your feeder issues but I thought I would share this.  My LWS sells wire wipers that look like these.  One is for lubrication and another for cleaning wire.  They sure don't cost what Lawson wants for these.  They must help because I have very little issues with wire feeding.To trouble shoot your feeder issues can you put a voltage meter in the input wires to your motor.  If the voltage stays consistant the motor might be the problem and if it jumps around it could be the control board or reostat.  Also try the same thing with the output to the motor, with the motor disconnected.Dan D.Manipulator Of Metal
Reply:Just a thought, you may want to try and turn the wire speed up 1 or 2 and see if that helps.Thermal Arc 210 - Tweco 211I - Cutmaster 52
Reply:Originally Posted by gofastwelderWhen I run it with outwire you can see it hesitating on a consistent timing.
Reply:Originally Posted by jr tigAfter running through this exact issue on my 140 and going through and changing speeds, wire, liner, cleaning the roller and every other consieveable issue I went on a leap and changed out the drive motor assembly. And that's what fixed it. I move the machine a lot and it looks like the output shaft of the motor bent, Idk why or how bent that's what it looked like running the motor with no cover. And the motor was the only part you couldn't buy individually. It was expensive $180. There are ads on Clist for guys that Will buy you non working welder, for -$100. Spent $275 on a 600 welder but at least I'll have a spare 30lb spool and a working welder to sell later for more than $100
Reply:Solved my Problem,I short while ago I ordered new drive rollers.  I bought a knurled roller as recommended by the parts supplier.  I've been running the knurled roller for non sheilded regular mig wire and its been chewing up the wire - material has been accumulating both in the liner and on the roller.The accumulated metal on the roller was causing it to skip and slide  - hence the pulse.Machine works as it should now but I found the Lincoln 210 MP in the process  and I'm thinking of upgrading