SIP / Cosmo Wire Feed Solution

[Robotstar5]

Pimp my MIG

Being a Land Rover nut I would have to go for a +3" lift on the wheels and a bar mounted on top of the case with spotlights on for night welding

 

[traxsboy]

kc daylighter's or hella rally spec ones could go for some bf goodrige mt tyers on it or some bear claw ones sod all that go big foot stile so you can roll it over cars then weld them back together with a dixie horn on it

 

[gasgas249uk]

I bought my cosmo mig about 6 months ago and it was a pain in the ar*e and useless junk.

I was having continual problems with feeding the wire.

I SAW THIS THREAD AND COMPLETED THE MOD

BINGO IT WORKED . ALL THE BEST IDEAS ARE SIMPLE.

THANKS .THANK . THANKS

 

[big weld]

sip 150 top mig

hia,darren just bought a sip 150 top mig second hand and i have been having trouble with the wire feed could not get a constant feed of wire,i have just tried your idea of braceing the wire feed rollers with a strip of steel plate and it seams to work realy well thanks for your help will keep you posted on how i get on.

thanks big weld

 

[chargerholic]

G'day, Dave from Australia here. I've got an old SIP 130 migmate that I've had for nearly twenty years and it has struggled with the wire feed since the day it was new, so much so that I eventually gave up on it years ago and bought another welder. Well, I saw this strap mod and tried it on the old 130 and guess what, it now feeds the wire like a trouper.

Thanks a million, you've helped make a useless welder useful again.

 

[bigbird76]

Should make this a sticky

 

[BillJ]

What a top tip!

I saw this yesterday just in time to do the welding on the old Saab 90 today - the job I bought the SIP 130 for two years ago

I can't believe the difference. This welder has been getting progressively more dodgy and it's working like new now, or maybe even better.

Thanks!!!

 

[furry1]

Do the extra wirefeed transformer mod too, and use Argon/co2 mix... It's like night and day, there is just no comparison!

 

[BillJ]

I do use Argoshield. So much better than CO2.

I'll be doing the wire-feed mod in the near future. It must make such a difference to be able to rely on the speed being where you set it from one moment to the next

Still the repair on the 90 went well. Following an attempt at the MOT I'm having to rebuild the brake calipers but at least it wasn't the welding that failed...

 

[paulmowers]

wire feed probs

Hi all

I have a sip 150 mig and had the same old problem with the wire feeding when it felt like it, I didn't do the strap across the rollers as suggested but will be in the near future, its a superb idea. What I opted for after replacing the original plastic liner for a new plastic liner and two weeks later back to square one was to replace it with a teflon lined outer bowden cable (intended for lawnmower use) and it has worked well ever since, don't even have to keep blowing out the liner every second or third use.
As I said I am going to add the roller strap mod, and will look into the seperate power supply for the wire feed too, guess its on the forum somewhere?

paul.

 

[wyn]

This could be the one you're looking for Paul.

 

[paulmowers]

Perfect..

thanks Wyn

 

[willie w]

hi i copied the photo at the top of this page it did work ok (thanks bud) but then i removed the wire spool and drilled a hole 1" from the existing bolt hole it lined up perfect now works 100 percent now many thanks to all willie w

 

[tonyt25]

. . . but then i removed the wire spool and drilled a hole 1" from the existing bolt hole it lined up perfect now works 100 percent now many thanks to all willie w

Hi willie, I just wanted to check if I'm understanding what you did here . . . did you raise the height of the wire spool so that the wire feeds into the rollers at less of an angle? If so, do you use the big reels of wire (5kg) or the small ones?

Tony

 

[willie w]

Hi willie, I just wanted to check if I'm understanding what you did here . . . did you raise the height of the wire spool so that the wire feeds into the rollers at less of an angle? If so, do you use the big reels of wire (5kg) or the small ones?

Tony

yes tony raise it by 1" i have a 5 kg spool on it i have no probs i weld all day with no probs

 

[SilverSaloon]

i just bought my SIP welder 2nd hand. Not connected the gas yet but all seemed to be fine electric wise, but the wire just slipped through the rollers.

I will try this mod as it appears it may help.

 

[bikes-for-me]

Hi all,

I've been registered on this forum for a while now, but have been lurking quietly in the background most of the time! Great site by the way - amazing how much I've managed to learn from here.

Unfortunately, I discovered this forum after I'd purchased a Cosmo welder - probably would have gone for a different machine if I'd have known about the bad reputation SIP / Cosmo have

Anyway, I have run about half a dozen small reels through it over the last few months without any problems. Then within a couple of days of putting in a large reel, I started to experience problems with the wire feed.

The motor was turning, but the rollers were slipping and not feeding the wire through.

On closer inspection, I could see that the plastic pivot that carriers the idler roller was flexing. This resulted in the rollers being out of true, and losing the grip on the wire.

I came up with a simple solution that stops this from happening. So far, I've run another large reel through without any problems at all - wire feed is much more stable and no signs of slipping.

A couple of photos below to show the simple solution. Hopefully this will be of use to anyone who's suffering these sort of problems with their SIP / Cosmo machine. Probably worth trying before changing to a steel liner?

View attachment 1938

Will try that mod,any chance of photo showing the wire wheel.Mine runs lose on spindle,surley should be a spring or something to tension it.

 

[Stunter]

My SIP has been running fine with a 5kg reel and it feeds from the top even though the sticker says to feed from the bottom, just thought i'd add that as not all seem to have the feed problems and in case people were worried about running 5k reels.

I will however be doing this popular and effective mod as it may have the feed problem in the future - especially as i have probably just jinxed myself!

 

[danflex1]

I also bought a sip approx 2 years ago, to replace a sip migmate I purchased in 1985 which was a superb machine compared to my current heap of junk so much so I have had my mate to weld my van because of a total lack of confidence in the wire feed system on my current machine It was sent back to sip once because of this problem but was returned with a statement "there is no fault on the machine"This has put me off sip all together and each time I attempt to use it I vow to never by sip again, surely this must cost them more than goodwill when there is definitely a problem with their mig welders

 

[malcolm]

The modern SIPs are designed to a price in much the same way as the Chinese stuff you'll buy from eBay. That makes them fiddly to use.

SIP did build up a decent reputation when they sold decent stuff. And there are enough members on here that bought from that reputation who can help correct the faults with their new stuff. I believe a lot of it is down to an unsteady power supply to the wire feed motor. There was a lovely solution from BChild: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=8028 based on http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4061

Steel liner is a must too: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/sip-wirefeed.htm