Nozzle/Tip Files

[Hitch]

Let out about 6" of wire, grab it with a gloved hand, twist it round in circles a few times until it breaks off...Job done, tip sorted.
Anything more, and its new tip time.

Watercooled sets we probably get about 2- 15kg reels to a tip....
Air cooled depends on what you are doing mind, they last about 1tip-1reel.

 

[Kent]

I honestly don't get tip saving they are so cheap and everyone should have a stack at hand

 

[Kram]

I am only on a hobby mig at low currents, but I find the end of the hole widens after some use. I file it flat and then the wire will feed where Im aiming. When I first got this issue I ordered a bag of tips, just before I realised they could be filed.

 

[Kent]

I am only on a hobby mig at low currents, but I find the end of the hole widens after some use. I file it flat and then the wire will feed where Im aiming. When I first got this issue I ordered a bag of tips, just before I realised they could be filed.

I don't think I have ever had this "wont go were I am aiming thing". Mostly a bad tip gives an inconsistent feed rate as the wire stalls passing through, at worst you get consistent repetitive burn back into or onto the tip if left. It can be other things but changing out a tip knocks that off the list of possibilities. Filing or other modifications is only a thing to attempt with no spare tip available in a push

 

[Kram]

Not a great pic but its worn or melted to about 2mm and wire going in every direction! I used about 700g of 0.8mm gasless, a lot of welds in a short time on max power. Had to keep filing it back or I would have used 5 of them. Its about 6mm shorter now, and new tip for next job!

Is it normal to eat through a tip in a small spool of wire? I did not get any stalling or burn back.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I used to get that with gasless, put it down to cheap crap tips off eBay, then found cebora tips would fit and bought some decent ones of weld equip...still had the same issue. Found it was worse with super6 wire, and at roughly the same time found out that suoer6 wire is stupidly inconsistent on some reels. Measured with a good quality digi vernier and the wire diameter varied from 0.65 - 1.08mm, which is why it used to stall unless I was on full power and then wire feed would force through causing the tip to wear out to oversize.

 

[BrokenBiker]

No I was always using the standard smooth rollers that came with the machine. One of the only things that I never had to replace on it

 

[Dimitri De Spiegeleer]

Are people using the knurled rollers with fluxcore? That nice sawtooth pattern they'll leave on the wire will do your tip a world of good...

This depends on the type of wire off course, one is softer than the other, but generally you're not supposed to set the tension on the drive roll so high that it leaves permanent marks on the wire...

 

[Richard.]

V shaped rollers on FCW deforms it and can create feed difficulties. Knurled rollers grip the wire and as said above they work very well under low tension so you don't need to Crank it up and mark the wire. Alu has the same problem that V shape squashes/deforms the wire but difference is you cannot use knurled on Alu for two reasons.
1) should you have a feed issue you want the roller to slip not grip
2) even with the slightest pressure knurled rollers will mark soft Alu wire and fill the liner with filings. So U shape is best here.
I always use knurled rollers on FC wire and the minimum pressure needed to avoid dents in the wire.

 

[Richard.]

With Alu mig?
I'd sooner it slipped with resistance Personally . I'm not saying I want it to slip away and be too lose but as you'll know it does not take much to cause Alu to bend and if the rollers are cranked down you'll spend all day with the spool door open. Infact come to think about it I don't wind them tight with any mig wire I set enough to keep the pressure on but not wound right up. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong then I just find if its slipping then give it a bit more till it stops.

 

[Kram]

Ill admit I have the tension very much maximum, but the spool gun has a poor design and needs it to take up the difference in the eccentric shaft - when I have my lathe set up Ill be making a new one Before the spoolgun using the sealey wire feed unit/modified as a spoolgun, used minimum tension possible and never had issues feeding, but it still ate through tips

 

[Richard.]

Ill admit I have the tension very much maximum, but the spool gun has a poor design and needs it to take up the difference in the eccentric shaft - when I have my lathe set up Ill be making a new one Before the spoolgun using the sealey wire feed unit/modified as a spoolgun, used minimum tension possible and never had issues feeding, but it still ate through tips

How do you mean ate through tips. How often you changing it

 

[Kent]

If you haven't got great feed don't bother migwelding ali
Adapting things and such is going to be frustrating to say the least
Tips are just a casualty of war in this and a futle one at that

 

[HMB]

1 15kg roll to 1 m8 tip. Cheap as chips

 

[sapperb]

They are cheap enough, I change them out after just a few hours of "gun" time.

 

[Wallace]

I have nozzle cleaners for gas and must have run them through a Mig tip at some stage in the past 30 years when welding was more of a hobby, part of the 'mend and make do' wartime attitude passed down from my parents! Now I tend to do as Hitch mentioned, feed the wire out and twist it to polish the end of the tip and if that doesn't work the second time I'll get up off my **** and go the 3m to the machine to service the nozzle & swap the tip. That's with my gear, slightly different at some customer sites as the tips are often under lock and key as they cost soooo much and contractors can't be trusted with more than one at a time.