Contact Tips

admin

Ok got a question for you wire welders (I'm a stick guy). I bought a Hobart Handler 140 to use at home. I haven't mig welded since 1987. This welder came with a 2lb spool of .030flux. I'm half way through the spool and started thinking, Would it be smart,wise,dumb ect. to switch the contact tip from the .030 to the .035 and leave the .030 flux wire in the machine? I've read numerous articles about contact tip problems. Personally I've had the wire stick twice. No biggy, I cleaned the tip and welded on. Just wondering.....
Reply:Use the proper sized tip for the wire you're running. Folks up-sizing the tips because of sticking problems are only utilizing a poor work-around for other issues that need worked on."The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -Theodore Roosevelt
Reply:Thanks Sandy,  Thought so
Reply:Yeh, you'd be surprised at how many folks run about a hundred feet of wire and the 1st thing they want to do is start blaming the tips. Everybody sticks the wire every now and then or cooks a tip up inside but 99% of the sticking problems magically go away with trigger time and as you learn your machine, the right settings and the wire, what it will and won't do. Stick with it and it won't be long you'll be running tips till they are all wallowed out on the end and the only way you can justify a new tip is because the old one is just plain oogly or you just want to see what a new one looks like."The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -Theodore Roosevelt