Mig Welding Question

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I have a Farmhand 125 mig welder from Tractor Supply that my girlfriend gave me for Christmas 2 years ago. I have used it with flux and now I have a tank connected to it. When welding I get surging with the wire feed. I was told the wire speed is to low and have increased it. From reading some of the post on this site that the metal needs to be very clean. I do run a wire wheel over the rusted or painted area I weld on. I will say that some things I weld are not like new metal after the wire wheel. Is it that the metal is not clean enough to keep a continuos arc? I have a Lincoln buzz box that it seems I can strike an arc on anything. I know that it being 220v is a big difference. Just trying to get a good long running weld with the mig.Thanks for the helpjcooper
Reply:Did you reverse the polarity?    MIG requires opposite polarity than fluxcore.There are no small projects
Reply:Having it really clean will make a huge difference. It isn't like stick that just blasts through about anything. Try taking a grinder to your pieces, make 'em real shiny and give it a go. I predict you'll be pleasantly surprised at the difference.Oh yeah, and check that polarity too like the other poster said....- John
Reply:Yes I did reverse the polarity. I had the same problem on both. I don't have that much time on it. It came with the kit for the tank and even a cart so I finally got around to getting the tank. The gas makes the welds smoother and I know it takes practice but I was checking to see if I was doing something wrong because of the surging. I have .035 wire in it now.Thanksjcooper
Reply:I'll try the grinder. I put a weight box on the front of my little garden tractor for pulling my wood splitter around ( tired of doing wheelies ) and I used the grinder for cleaning the c channel and I did get a longer continuous weld. I put up a 30x50 12ft. ceiling garage last  summer so I have a lot of projects that I would like to do. Thanks for the imput I'm getting.jcooper.
Reply:Try adjusting the drive roll tension and make sure you have the correct size and type of drive rolls.  It makes a big difference if you use the wrong size.
Reply:0.035 solid wire with a little 125 amp MIG running off of 120 VAC?  That's not quite the right wire to use in the little 120V MIG units, they are OK with 0.035 flux-core wire, or 0.023/0.030 solid MIG wire.MIG, or more correctly GMAW, needs clean metal.  FCAW tolerates some 'crud' on the metal better than GMAW.  Stick or SMAW can tolerate more crud with the appropriate rods.  Note that 'tolerate' does not mean that clean metal is ever bad from a welding standpoint.  Grind, wire brush, flap-disc, and/or solvent wipe as needed.  Be CAREFUL with solvents, welding makes sparks and sparks can ignite things.Wire feed problems?  Make sure drive tension is set right, make sure drag on the spool is set right, make sure you have the right tip in place, make sure you have the right drive rolls in place, keep the whip as straight as possible, blow out and clean the liner or replace the liner if it's NG, make sure the wire spool is clean and not cruddy.
Reply:I mentioned wrong size wire. It is the .030 that I am running. It calls for .024 or .030. This welder has not even had a full spool run through it. I've run the half spool that came with it and I have a new spool on it now with maybe 30 ft. off of it. I do have the right roll drive in. I know it is just being new to the mig and lots of practice is needed. I'll make sure the metal is very clean and shiney next thing I do and see what the results are.Thanks everyone for the imput. Great site. A lot to be learned from this site.jcooper
Reply:How about the contact tip? Have you changed that out at all? That can cause your troubles as well, it will lose and regain contact with the tip and it will cause erratic welds.