questions (contact tips & others)

[webhead]

Hi there,

I just started some cleaning on my machine which actually hasn't been looked at since it swapped owner

I noticed that I was welding 0.8 wire through a 1.0mm tip. I also seem to have spare 0.8 and 0.9 tips.
I haven't noticed anything odd but what advantage should I have by swapping out to 0.8 or 0.9 tips? Will this weld "better"?

I never had my wire burn back so far that it hits the tip. Actually it sticks out a 10mm or so and burns back to a little ball.
Maybe I'm holding my torch too far.

I did experience that sometimes, when I push the trigger my wire bumps the metal and only then starts. I assume something's not making contact the way it should... Clould this be tip related?

Thanks for the insights!

 

[slimjim]

Hi there,

I just started some cleaning on my machine which actually hasn't been looked at since it swapped owner

I noticed that I was welding 0.8 wire through a 1.0mm tip. I also seem to have spare 0.8 and 0.9 tips.
I haven't noticed anything odd but what advantage should I have by swapping out to 0.8 or 0.9 tips? Will this weld "better"?

I never had my wire burn back so far that it hits the tip. Actually it sticks out a 10mm or so and burns back to a little ball.
Maybe I'm holding my torch too far.

I did experience that sometimes, when I push the trigger my wire bumps the metal and only then starts. I assume something's not making contact the way it should... Clould this be tip related?

Thanks for the insights!

no it wont weld better, 0.9mm tips are to fit flux cored wire

 

[Ducky]

If you're welding with 0.8mm wire and you've got a 0.8mm tip I would use it personally

 

[webhead]

That's what I thought.
Point is, why bother with 0.8mm tips if it still seems to work fine with 1.0mm.
I can't think that a 0.2mm difference or a 0.1mm around the wire will make intermittent contact. That's such a narrow gap it'll always make contact.

So why bother? Why don't I just get a bunch of 1.0mm tips and be settled for life

And when is a tip worn? Seems like this one has done 10kg of wire and it still looks smooth...

 

[Ducky]

That's what I thought.
Point is, why bother with 0.8mm tips if it still seems to work fine with 1.0mm.
I can't think that a 0.2mm difference or a 0.1mm around the wire will make intermittent contact. That's such a narrow gap it'll always make contact.

So why bother? Why don't I just get a bunch of 1.0mm tips and be settled for life

And when is a tip worn? Seems like this one has done 10kg of wire and it still looks smooth...

Well it may work 'fine' using the 1.0, however it might work 'better' with the 0.8mm Still I'm no expert but that's how I'd see it.

 

[Robotstar5]

The reason it's called a contact tip is because it connects the welding current to the welding wire. 0.8mm tip will transfer the current more efficiently to 0.8mm wire than a 1.0mm tip. On higher currents you will get arcing between the tip and wire with oversize tip.

 

[pedrobedro]

I use .6 tips for .6 wire and .8 tips for .8 wire because it's what they are made for, they are consumables and it takes less than 1 minute to swap tips. If using a 1mm tip with .8 wire works for you and you can use them for everything why bother asking ?

 

[barny]

I recently ran out of 0.8 wire and only had 0.6 wire in the garage but no 0.6 tips so tried using the 0.8 ones, it worked ok but when I finally got some 0.6 tips it's just felt better.
Like it was stronger and more controllable from the second the trigger was pulled.

So in short I'd use the correct ones for the job but can get by in a pinch.