can't get wire to feed in flux welder

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SE18

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I never liked mig but I got one yesterday, although I think it's not a true mig but rather a 90amp flux wire welder from good old central machinery in chicago. Guess there must be a chicago in china.

So it's a long story why I got one b/c I was looking on CL to get a stick or inverter and found a deal I couldn't pass up, meaning for $30 I could get a HF helmet (which I needed) AND this flux wire welder and extra wire that came with it.

So I cleaned the tip and the spool turns OK but the place the wire goes right before it enters the cable (I don't have instructions so I don't know what it's called), has a thumb tightening wheel and when it turns, I notice it just spins against the wire.

I tried tightening and loosening it and it still spins, just occasionally griping the wire for a micro-second to feed out a tiny bit of wire. I also tried different wire feeds and faster just causes it to spin and slip faster.

Anyone with advice appreciate.

(the other problem is it's hard to see what I'm doing with the helmet, even when set on lowest 9 reading. I did some test welds, but had to pull wire out with pliers)
 
On those rollers, they are used to set the tension. There should be grooves in them. Different sizes for different size wire, make sure you have the correct size for the wire you are using.

When you pull out on the wire with no tension, does it pull easy or hard? You may need to take the gun assembly off and blow out the liner.

HTH
Chris

P.S. make sure your spool tension is not set too tight. Where the spool mounts there should be an adjustment there also. When you have everything set correct, you should be able to pull the trigger and the wire will lift the gun up a little bit off of your table.
 
thx, I'll try that out. Got to do some honey do things at moment
 
Chris covered it pretty good but I just want to add to watch out for the wire being welded to the tip in the nozzle. People will short the tip to the work piece causing the wire to weld itself up into it. Even if the tip looks good from the outside unscrew the tip and make sure it is free. Second thing is to look for kinks of bends in the liner that pinch the wire. Final thing is any of these things may have happened and someone has "spun the rollers" on the wire causing premature wear to them. Rollers do wear out and I have heard some of the Asian machine use plastic ones and if that is the case they would wear out very fast just spining on the wire.
 
I am assuming you are running the correct sized wire, liner and gun contact tip.
Likely 0.035" size wire, make sure the liner and contact tip are the for that size wire.
What you have is a flux core wire welder, 90 amps is not going to weld much more
than sheet metal. Generally on the low end FCAW welders you have a single drive
roller with a V groove or U groove in the driven roller and a flat bearing that provides
pressure. If you can remove the gun and cable from the machine, some cheaper
machines the gun is not easy to remove, if so do not. Pull a couple of feet of wire
off the spool and cut if off. FC wire if hollow and delicate if it gets flattened, easy to
do to it, it will not feed. Back off almost all the pressure from the drive assembly and
see if the wire will feed, if you have removed the gun this should feed wire out of
the machine, if you cannot remove the gun do the following. remove the nozzle and
the contact tip from the gun and used compressed air to blow back to the machine,
liner's like to collect all kinds of dirt in them, blowing back to the machine can dislodge
blockages, I do not like blowing dirt back to the machine but often if you have
blockages you will just make it worse trying to blow them down and out the gun
end. Also I will blow out my liner every time I change my spool of wire, I run 33-44
pound spools on my machine, FC Wire is a lot dirtier so I would still suggest every
spool. Once your liner is clean and you have wire feeding out the machine reattach
the gun (if you removed it) release the pressure screw off the bearing most machine
the screw just flips off and manually feed a few inches into the gun. They replace
the pressure spring/screw and pull the trigger the wire should feed. Run until you
get a few inches out of the gun then slide the contact tip over the wire and screw in
snug. They take a piece of wood, a 2x4 works well hold the gun at a 45° degree
angle and feed the wire against it, if the wire does not feed add pressure to the drive
assy. until it does, the Miller manuals explains this well.

Look at sections 4-10 and 4-11 yours should be similar, Miller has good pictures and
explains it well.
http://www.millerwelds.com/om/o225311c_mil.pdf
 
Shade, Triple 3, thanks. I'll save your advice in a word doc for future reference.

After my honey do project, I discovered, thanks to Chris, that the wheel has 2 groves. I had to remove the assembly with allen screwdriver to flip the wheel over and behold, it took this time.

Barring further incidents, I need to practice now with it.

And for heavy jobs, I'll rent the 2 or 3K miller mig at Fort Meade where I work. It's around $12 an hour to use there and found it better to use their O/A welding setup than my own, as gas is so hi

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DaveV
 
well, I guess I've got the hang of it. Did what a million people probably did for a first project. Welded up bedrames (the top, 4 sides) for a welding table.
 
SE18 said:
well, I guess I've got the hang of it. Did what a million people probably did for a first project. Welded up bedrames (the top, 4 sides) for a welding table.
Click to expand...

Bedframes weld okay, but don't try drilling them. They are hard SOB's
 
SE, believe it or not they can make some decent welds.
I would highly recommend getting some Lincoln Innershield NR-211-MP welding wire. IMHO it's the best mass available wire you can get easily. Most box stores have it, i Know Home Depot does carry it.
For the 90 amp machine go with the .030" you'll be a lot happier. if you can plug the welder into a 20 or 25 Amp circuit you'll also have a better experience in welding heavier pieces of metal. Keep in mind you'll only weld 2 minutes out of 10 on max setting to keep the unit alive for more than a month.
Don't use the HF wire it's really crappy and spatters badly. also food for thought the Chinese wires are generally not good for much than hanging pictures, and scarcely suitable for that if you spent more than $10 for your art.

the 90amp units are sweet little 110v units if you try to use them within their capabilities.
Enjoy the new tool!!!!
 
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