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hi guys --i'm a new member here. i've checked the site out many times for welding advice, and find it to be a great resource. you guys all seem to really know your stuff, and are pretty generous in passing along your knowledge. for what it's worth, i'm 46, & live near grand rapids, michigan. i've known a fair amount about welding for a long time, having been really into BMX bikes in the early 1980's (with their beautiful tig welds) & done some putzing with making my own parts & stuff as a kid back in the day, and later working as a draftsman at a metal-fab company, but i've always completely sucked at doing actual welding. hoping to change that.so, as a (very) novice welder, i was wondering if anyone could offer any info or advice regarding a used miller cricket welder i just bought. i got it for $130 off craigslist (i'm hoping i didn't get taken), and it's missing the cable hose & liner assembly.here are some pics:it fired up & seemed to run ok (the power indicator & fan), and the seller touched the gun contact wires together so i could see the wire feeder run. so even though i haven't seen it weld, it's at least somewhat functional. i figured i'd take the chance & quit spending endless hours fruitlessly trolling craigslist for a quality small mig. seems like all that ever comes up there in my area in my $$ range is pretty much either oddball, or basket-case, or low-quality welders -- century, clarke, harbor freight, solar, silver beauty, etc.the manual i downloaded shows that the gun i've got seems to be a ga-16c1, and the cable hose assembly i'm missing is miller's part #110-792.there's currently no gas solenoid installed, and the seller was using fluxcore. i plan to try that process, and would also like to learn mig with gas eventually. i do have a tank of argon/co2 and a flowmeter, and was thinking of maybe cobbling up some manual valve to open & close by hand when welding. not sure though -- maybe that's a stupid idea. or maybe, eventually, just buy a solenoid valve. i assume the trigger wires probably run in parallel to both the feeder and the solenoid, controlling it.can the 70-amp crickets satisfactorily weld 1/8" or a little above? i know that, with tig, the rule of thumb is 1 amp per .001" thickness. if that applies to mig as well, i'm kinda surprised that a miller welder, with a transformer as heavy as this one seems to be (compared to other 110v migs i've seen), can't do any thicker than a little over 1/16".my workshop is bargain-basement, and my welder budget is pretty low. i've already blown my $$ stash in just buying the welder, so i was wondering if it might be possible to fabricate a homemade hose assembly. i seem to spend half my life trying to cobble together low-buck workarounds for secondhand stuff i get, and am pretty used to it. the gun assembly doesn't look all that complicated, and the 4th pic above shows the parts i've currently got for it. most of the gun itself appears to be there.from what i can tell, here's what i figure i'd need:1. rubber hose (10 ft for stock, or longer if i get a longer liner) -- not sure yet about the diameter required2. a liner to match, for .023-.035 wire3. hose barb fittings for the above hose, with something like an m10x1.0 female compression fitting connector to match the gun neck, hopefully with a large-enough i.d. for the liner to fit through4. 2 trigger wires, with appropriate disconnects, to run through the hose, alongside the liner5. a short piece of larger-diameter rubber hose, to act as a strain relief at the plug endalternatively, i've also been looking on ebay for guns in my price range, and am watching a few that might work. they seem to have the modern miller-style plug end, although some are much higher amp-rated than i need, and are for larger wire. depending on what comes of looking on ebay, it may not be worth bothering to fabricate my own hose.and here are my other really dumb mig questions that relate to this attempted cobble-up:1. is it the wire housing of the liner that carries the welding current from the feeder to the contact tip? from what i can tell, it doesn't look as if there's a separate welding current conductor also in the hose.2. is the liner just kinda lying loose in the hose, or are there some type of spacers that keep it centered in the hose (if that even matters)?3. can the trigger wires be safely run alongside the hose barbs & out of the hose, or will the barb either chew them up or leak because of the presence of the wires? i believe that the gas flow at the gun is pretty low-pressure, so small leaks at one or both ends, around the wires, may not matter.4. if i was to end up buying an ebay gun, set up for larger wire, could i just put smaller contact tips in the gun & have it work ok with .023 - .035? some forum sites i checked mentioned possible feeding problems if doing that, but it was unclear if the oversize liner was causing the problems being discussed there, or if there were other problems in their drive assembly.5. in the rear end of the brass plug piece, there's this little screw-in fitting that kinda resembles part of a compression fitting ferrule. the diagram refers to it as a "liner collet." from what i can tell, the liner goes through it & ends up stopping pretty close to the drive roller. does this collet actually grip the liner & hold it in place or something? is it removable so that you can use different size liners with the same basic plug & only have to change out that fitting?thank you for taking the time to read all this stuff, and for any input you could offer. sorry if the homemade-hose stuff is a dumb (or dangerous) idea. and sorry for the lunkheaded basic questions.thanks!drew josephLast edited by DJCannon; 01-15-2013 at 10:25 AM.
Reply:Do yourself a favor & simply just buy a new one....they're inexpensive versus attempting to rebuild junk. Here's a link on E-Bay to look at others.....Dennyhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/HTP-Miller-1...item2ec43d6a5dComplete Welding/Machine/Fab. ShopMobile UnitFinally retired*Moderator*"A man's word is his honor...without honor there is nothing.""Words are like bullets.... Once they leave your muzzle, you cannot get them back." |
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发表于 2021-8-31 22:57:28