Need help with welder tip

[camire09]

We are running a XMT 304 CC/CV to weld our wheels. The weld is about 20" long. Recently we have run into a problem with our tips on the one welder getting tight and the wire either gets stuck or slows to a crawl. Our original settings were as follows 27.3V and 600 wire speed, tip was about 3/4" away from the part. That was getting a little hot on the 1/8" material so I changed it to 21.5V, 430 wire speed and tip is about 1/2" away. Originally we thought that dirt was tight in the liner and changed it, matter a fact I even changed the entire cable hose gun assembly. I tried tightening the feed rollers but then the wire gets kinked. Also we are running wire out of a drum and getting below the half way point so I tried putting on a fresh spool of wire but no change. Any ideas would be great.

[Country Metals]

That is a huge spread of voltage / wire speed. Volts/WS are usually increased / decreased in same %'s but it seems here that they weren't.

What material are you welding?

[camire09]

1/8" low carbon steel

[Diversion180beads]

Need help with welder tip

Try goin down to about 19v and 270-290 ipm and go from there....

[camire09]

I'll give it a try. Any ideas as to why the original settings worked for years and work on the other welder (same equipment and material)?

[Diversion180beads]

Need help with welder tip

Wut size wire r u using??

[camire09]

.035 wire

[Diversion180beads]

Need help with welder tip

Ya try the 19v and 280 wire and go from there....

[camire09]

Okay well so far I tried it at 19v 280 and went up till I got to about 22v 465. At 19 it ran okay but the weld was too narrow for the job. Basically we are covering 40 1/4"pins line up in holes in an 1/8" plate. We set it on a turn table and the arm comes down and welds while the wheel is turning. I tried a different tip and insulated the arm to reduce any current draw. And lowered the gas flow to about 40-45, they had it wide open. I ran about 26 welds without doing anything. Didn't clean the torch or anything. I just moved it out a 1/4" every time i went to weld and the back again. That way I would be putting a strain on the welder. So far so good. I will have to see what happens on Monday when production gets their hands on it.

Fingers crossed

[Diversion180beads]

Need help with welder tip

You should be between 20-25 cfh...

[camire09]

Well no luck. I think the settings are fine. There has to be a problem with either the wire feeder, turn table or welder.

[camire09]

Well no luck again. As soon as production did a couple welds it screwed up again. I even tried replacing the potentiometer for the wire speed adjustment. This thing is driving me nuts.

[cruizer]

Well, it more sounds to me that its time you changed the drive gears and center gear on your feeder, cause if you notice, your drive is bouncing around. This causes the wire not to pass straight. And naturally binds with the liner, tips wear out fast and a not so good final weld.

[camire09]

I changed the gears out early on but I couldn't tell if they were new gears or used ones. They had a bunch of them here. I will try to order some and see how it goes. Thanks.

[cruizer]

Its the center one you need to be concerned with as well as the others, For that one you'll need to pull the outer drive housing off