Feeding mig wire?

[graffian]

I usually use 1.6 mm filler, A15. I am welding 18swg steel, and the welds are much neater using .8 mig wire as filler.

But feeding filler is a pain, and as it was mig wire and us not straight I also have to rotate it so it's pointing at the puddle. What I find myself doing is feeding it in and when my fingers get to hot I back right off the pedal, but keeping the arc as a light source Then feed a few inches of wire, and rotating the wire so it's pointing at the puddle. And so on.

Any tips on straightening wire? .8 seems to be a good thickness. Tips on feeding wire?

 

[Erie Fred]

"Cold wire feeder".

 

[Munkul]

I'd just buy some 1.0 TIG wire. I've tried straightening mig wire before but never succeeded.

 

[BrokenBiker]

As above, 1mm Tig wire is the way forward, but if you have an abundance of mig wire that you want to use, cut it to whatever lengths you are comfortable with then clamp one end in the vice, other in a drill and spin it under tension. Even with 1 strand it works well enough but 0.8mm is flimsy even when you have done this...

Also, I was told when I was starting that mig wire isn't as good as Tig wire, something to do with deoxidizing I think. I found mig wire to be quite sticky when feeding