Repair of MIG welder

[SteveS]

Hi, Guys.

I went to night school a couple of years ago and enjoyed the welding course I went on. I did not know much about welders and purchased a Wolg 135 MIG welder as it seemed good value for money. However, I experienced problems with the welder as the wire would not feed through and there seemed to be a great deal of play in the mechanism that feeds the wire. Wolf were far from helpful and local repairers were only interested in industrial type welders or other makes, so the welder ended up in a corner of my garage and I lost any confidence in welding. Recently, I decided to try again to get the welder repaired and came across this forum and wondered if anyone out there might be able to recommend a repairer in my area (Winchester, Hampshire). Thanks for any advice.

 

[weldequip]

To be honest, you are on to a loser to start with from Wolf as they are now Chinese box-movers & nothing like the British Wolf power tools of old, but I'll do my best for you what's the problem?
weldequip

 

[SteveS]

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I had no one to give me advice on buying a welder - I certainly wished that I had waited and spent a bit more money on a better product.

The wire comes from the reel and feeds between a feed mechanism (sorry, I do not know the technical names/terms) consisting of one driven roller/wheel and one free-running roller/wheel. These rollers have a plastic cover over them and there does seem to be a lot of movement in this unit, so much so, that the rollers are not feeding the wire through. There is a screw to tighten the two rollers together, but this makes no difference. The rollers go round, but the wire stays still, sometimes feeding through a little, but then stopping again.

 

[weldequip]

Is the wire itself rusty?? Common problem, sat in the garage for weeks not being used... come to use it & it won't feed smoothly.
The lining in the torch that the wire feeds through is typically 0.9mm ID, so, if you are using 0.8mm wire there is very little clearance.. rusty wire & you automatically have feed trouble.
weldequip

 

[SteveS]

No, the problem with not feeding wire through was the reason the welder ended up in the corner - and it was a brand new reel of wire then.

 

[weldequip]

Hmmm... is there a worse wire feed assembly than the SIP Migmate on the market?!
It's very sad, but the large corporations with the largest marketing budgets get away with murder selling their products as 'professional' & 'ideal for car bodywork', with us little players pushed to the back of the line, knowing they are spewing utter bull!!
weldequip

 

[rtbcomp]

Do BOTH rollers turn and the wire stays still?

If so have you got .6 wire in the .8 groove? or are the grooves worn.

The driving roller pushes the wire and the idle roller is subsequently turned by the wire moving, so if the wire does not move the two rollers must be in contact without gripping the wire.

It could be possible that the roller bearings are so badly worn that one or both of the rollers are tilting and thus contacting each other.

 

[weldequip]

Sorry SteveS, rammbling off topic there Rtbcomp has a very vaild point.
Problems with MIGs are 99% always associated with wire feed trouble... you are trying to push a relatively very small diameter wire over a relatively very long distance, so anything not just set-up right & you can have feed problems.
weldequip

 

[irondarren]

Or the is the liner blocked, the other common problem though it sounds daft but i have seen it done, when a new roll of wire is put on the machine the end of the wire is kinked you need to cut that kink off, or it will just foul in the liner or worse still punch a hole in the plastic liner as it gets caught up.

 

[SteveS]

Thanks for your responses and suggestions. The welder is virtually brand new, so I do not think that anything is worn. I'll have another look this evening and cut off the wire and reinstal it and make sure that it is not rusty etc.

Thanks, again.