What am I doing wrong?? Help Required Please :)

[WorkshopChris]

If this continues then its got to be either electrical supply or wire.
Have just seen the wire is sif brand. From experience i wouldn't trust consistency in anything sif other than the brazing and tig rods.

 

[Davek0974]

Only other thought is wrong parameters set such as wrong wire dia or gas type etc but as it welds ok sometimes then that is also unlikely.

Only need to set wire dia and plate thickness - i was happy last job so i even set these in memory on it, today i just recalled the memory.

If this continues then its got to be either electrical supply or wire.
Have just seen the wire is sif brand. From experience i wouldn't trust consistency in anything sif other than the brazing and tig rods.

Wire would answer a lot of things - it went bad on the old welder on sifmig 0.8 then i ran out so fitted a new reel of sifmig 0.6 and got great results hence my "new roll...." thread. Then i ordered another reel of sifmig 0.8 which was just as bad on the old machine, as born out by the posts in the other thread. Now it has gone intermittent on the new machine and one constant is the reel of sifmig 0.8 - this time I "fixed" it by changing reels and then returning to the sifmig - this would have wasted some wire.

Maybe there are bad spots in the wire?? and reeling some off just gets past the junk? I have the roll of new wire i was recommended to buy on here (cant remember the make, think it was super6?) I will fit that and go from there in the hope that the fault will not return. The only other constant is the gas but i changed bottles on the old machine and the fault remained so i'm doubtful of that.

I guess if the wire suddenly went "soft" it would do exactly what i see - the wire melts before hitting the pool and blobs up - just guessing here.

I might even put some new wire in the old box and test it - at least i can sell it as working or not then.

If its just bad wire I'll be happy in fact i'll be over the moon but i'll still have a quiet scream about buying a new machine

 

[steve_s]

Hood I have no experience of the new style welders my present welder is a oxford mig 20 ish year old just power setting and speed and have been welding for 40 odd years and cant say iv ever had bad wire only wire wound bad unless its rusty ?

 

[WorkshopChris]

If you can try Lincoln wire, never had a problem or known anyone who has.

 

[Davek0974]

If you can try Lincoln wire, never had a problem or known anyone who has.

Just been out to check - i have a new, sealed reel of Lincoln Supramig so I'll pop that in I think.

 

[Hood]

Hood I have no experience of the new style welders my present welder is a oxford mig 20 ish year old just power setting and speed and have been welding for 40 odd years and cant say iv ever had bad wire only wire wound bad unless its rusty ?

Never really had bad wire myself but it does seem to be the one constant as it is happening with two different welders and one of them is a good enough synergic machine.

Actually I did have issues with the Super6 1.2mm 5356 Alu wire, it still welded ok but was a bit spattery where the Super6 1mm wire was fine.

I then got some EWM 1.2MM 5183 wire and it was beautiful in comparison.

 

[armalites]

I watched a few video about the Rebel today, I didn't realise it will tune itself to your welding style.

 

[Hood]

Only need to set wire dia and plate thickness - i was happy last job so i even set these in memory on it, today i just recalled the memory.

Do you not have to tell it the material type , IE steel, stainless Alu etc? Also gas type?
The EWM takes all that info to choose the ideal default programme and then you can tweak from there.
It made a massive difference, when I first tried the EWM things were cronic then I noticed it was set for Pure Alu, set it to AlMg and it was better but still not right then I noticed it had jumped to 1.2mm wire when I was using 1mm, after that things went better

BTW Super6 is not the best wire, personally I have used their 5356 wire for years on a standard Mig and it was ok but the EWM wire I got and also the Esab wire I tried out were noticeably better.

 

[Davek0974]

Yes, sorry, you set metal type, wire dia, plate thickness, no settings for gas types.

There are (IIRC) 8 different wire feed options for each plate thickness, then you can tune voltage +/- 9v, once set you can pretty much use any stickout you like and it adjusts to suit, most i have was the deep V and that was about 1" stickout, my normal is about 3/8" or just under.

The guy it came from is querying the damaged reel of Esab wire - presumably I will get a replacement there, only downside is its not copper coated and even the reel in the box had signs of rust on it. The only Super6 I have is a small reel of stainless I got for messing about, not tried it yet.

 

[TomCGB]

I went from super6 SG3 0.8mm to ESAB autrod 12.51 0.8mm. For me the difference was really noticeable. There was a lot less spatter and the weld toes were smoother when going uphill. It may just be me, but my tack welding has got a lot neater since I started using the ESAB wire.

In ESABs range, aristorod is the non-copper coated, autrod is the copper coated wire.

 

[Davek0974]

Ok, after having my right carpal tunnel injected with steroids this morning, the pain has finally subsided to a point where i could go out and play a little, sort of.

I fitted the new reel of Lincoln wire, I have also ordered a reel of Esab autrod 0.8mm as well.

Then i spotted something not right....


And...


Can't be right, these are hard shavings off the wire i ran through yesterday. I pulled the wire out and found the feed roll was out of alignment by practically the full width of the wire!


The entrance to the liner is machined very nicely to the contour of the rollers - nice for Aluminium as little chance of birds-nesting That was where the shavings were coming from. Easy fix was to fit a small washer under the plastic cap knob that locks the roll on the shaft - this allows the roll to 'float' a little and self-align, its key driven so no need to lock it up tight.

Simple fix but would have been nice to not need it I guess.

Anyway, I tested the Lincoln wire and it sounded very nice indeed, same settings and no sign of any messing about yet.

 

[armalites]

That machine has a 3 year warranty, I would be taking it back, you shouldn't have to be adjusting.bodging a machine of that level

 

[Hood]

That machine has a 3 year warranty, I would be taking it back, you shouldn't have to be adjusting.bodging a machine of that level

I agree, not something you expect from a decent machine. Had it been a cheap Chinese one then that is different.

 

[Davek0974]

I agree, not something you expect from a decent machine. Had it been a cheap Chinese one then that is different.

I have forwarded the pictures and explanation to the supplier, lets see how this develops....

 

[Davek0974]

Still working ok, popped out to shop, turned on, tack, fillet, nice result.


Seller requested serial number today so he is on the case re the wire-feed, I'm just happy its still working

Tomorrow I'll try putting a plug back on the old machine and running the dodgy roll of Esab aristorod 0.8 through it just to see what happens.

 

[arther dailey]

that looks better, good job you found the fault ,hopefully you can just rack on now saying that will be interesting
to see what happens with blue welder ,are you going to try the lincoln wire in it?

 

[Davek0974]

No, but i will try the damaged reel of Esab wire that came with the new box.

Hopefully get a chance tomorrow night.

 

[henry Kadzielski]

No, but i will try the damaged reel of Esab wire that came with the new box.

Hopefully get a chance tomorrow night.

Just to chime in I had a bad roll of wire and still got the remnents of it. Instead of the sizzling 'bacon' frying sound it was positively roaring, much sooting and more spatter. On an old transformer mig, it seemed ok, but on a synergic not good. It had me stuffed for months doing samples for the mig ticket, had one of the trainers around to visit to help me improve my technique and even he mentioned it was a strange sound. Finally with the purchase of the new toy and trying this wire, back to back with the new toy's dealer wire, the difference was massive.
I got a roll of wire from the TAFE college where the training was being done and all went much better from then. Informed the supplier of the problem with the wire and notified them of the batch number, they claimed no problems with the wire from any of their customers.
I believe that your problem is wire, change to a reputable brand and see what happens

 

[Davek0974]

I believe that your problem is wire, change to a reputable brand and see what happens

Thats what i'm leaning towards now, I thought SifMig was a good brand, I bought he 0.8 because the 0.6 was lovely stuff. I'm using Lincoln now and also have a reel of Esab Autrod on the shelf just in case, the Esab was a good price too £14 for 5kg reel.

Hopefully it was just me getting caught with bad wire, at least i will be able to sell the old machine with a clear conscience, and i have now got a great welder, even if it was an unexpected purchase

 

[Cobbler]

Rtech sell SIF wire, I wouldn't have thought they would have sold wire that won't work well on their machines. I've bought some & it works ok on my welder, mind I wouldn't know good from bad!