Ratnesting wire

[wrench3047]

I recently used a older small red mig and the guy who had it said "good luck." The only wire he had was .030 flux core. No matter what the settings were at I would only get a second or less the wire would rat nest between the gun and the feeder. ?how much room is suppose to be inbetween the gun and feeder? ?might the gun not be seating in all the way? ?is the liner suppose to flush with the feeder side of the gun? These questions are just ideas I thought of. The other guy is about to get rid of it cause one hour of trying to weld you throw away a pound of wire.

[Andy249]

I would just go through a few of the basic things, make sure you have a decent contact tip that matches the size and type of wire you are putting through it, make sure you either clean the existing liner or as I would do, chuck it and put in a newie.

It also sounds like the rollers have too much tension on them. I usually set up my roller tension so that when I pinch my two fingers over the wire at the end of the gun, the wire is only just pushing through, don't try and squeeze the wire too hard though!! And also make sure you don't end up being the conductor between the gun and the job!! (I've done it with a wet sweaty glove and it livened things up!).

Hope this helps

Andy249

[wrench3047]

THANKS HAVEN'T TRIED REPLACING THE LINER. WHATS THE BEST WAY TO GET IT OUT. THIS ONE SEEMS AWFULLY TIGHT.

[ASKANDY]

The liner should meet right to the end of the drive roll without actually touching them. The closer the better chance the wire won't push around the inlet to the liner.

A-

[wrench3047]

I thought It should be close. Like I it's a small machine. A hobbist model. Once the wire leaves the roller in goes into a 1 inch liner before the gun and can't see past that. The mess is almost a quarter inch thick of balledup wire. Is it viable to say if the gun doesn't seat completely it could cause this?

[Andy249]

Usually you would disconnect the gun cable from the unit, from there you should be able to undo a nut that holds liner in place and just pull it out. Don't chuck your old liner until you have the new one so you can measure up and cut the new liner to length.

If you have a webcam or digital camera get a piccy so we can see what you are working with! A picture is worth a thousand words they say.

Regards,

Andy249

[wrench3047]

I would get a pic but the machine isn't here at my place. It's a (lincoln weldpak100)and it's been abused a little, ok alot. I had to break the trigger a little more to unstick.

[wrench3047]

Since I don't have the it here to look, where is the nut holding the liner most of the time. I haven't been able to mess with mig much. mostly stick and oxy.

[hankj]

3047,

Do two things. First, get the manual for the machine. Second, tear down the gun, replace the liner and any other replacable parts (I don't know anything specific about "Red" guns), check the wire drive mechanisim and replace the drive roller if necessary, and start over. Once you've done all this, if the machine still fails to feed wire, junk it and buy a Blue one.

Be well.

hankj

[wrench3047]

thanks I'm going to try to tear it today, if I get over there. I don't think I will put any money into it unless he gives it to me.

ps I found the manual on the lincoln website last night

[Paul Seaman]

Wrench:
The weldpak100 is a nice piece of equipment, I started on one of these as my first welder and we still use it at the race garage and take it to the track for possible breakage. These guns are light and somewhat fragile but the cost of replacement is not that bad. Also as I remember the hose has a posative stop inside the power supply.

Good luck,

[H80N]

wrench3047
as Andy249 suggested.. try cleaning the liner etc.. you may be able to improve things by removing the wire from the liner..and removing the tip... then blowing out the liner with compressed air ... you might be surprised how much crud gets pulled up into the liner along with the wire... after that rethread the wire into the gun and see how it feeds without a tip on it... IF it feeds smoothly without birdcaging.. try putting the tip back on and see how it feeds... would use a new one.. they are cheap enough.. (also check for kinks.. usually where the cable leaves the power supply or at the gun).. nother thing... make sure that you are trying to feed CLEAN shiny wire... nasty wire will hang up in any liner.. new or old..
compressed air is the easiest way to clean out a liner... if that fails then by all means replace the liner...
hope this helps
Heiti

[klsm54]

Try though I might, I could not get the links to post here for the parts list and owners manuals for the WeldPak 100. They are available at Red Website

Just got to the quick links at the top center of the page and choose owners manuals from the drop down menu. After you get the list of owners manuals up, it is about 5 or 6 pages into the list. The is an "IM", instruction manual, and a "P" number, parts list. You can download either of them, altough the IM is not showing a parts breakdown.

In the parts list, you will see that there is a hex-head set screw on the gun adaptor (at the back end of the gun adaptor) that holds the liner in. After you lossen that, the liner should pull right out.

I have had luck in taking the liner out and soaking it in a cleaning solvent before blowing it out with air. New liners are not that costly if you suspect trouble with it. There should be no place where the wire has to bridge much of a gap after it passes through your drive rolls. Both at the back of the gun, and as it leaves the liner to go into the tip adaptor and contact tip. Too short of a liner can cause bad feeding problems. If you replace the liner, make sure you don't cut the new one off too short.

Clean wire is a must, if it has sat around and gotten rusty, it is going to clog the liner and give you feeding troubles real quick.

I suspect that you have a simple problem causing this, it just may take some tinkering and fine tuning to find it.

[cnslmva]

Just a small tidbit, most of the "Red Guns" are rebadged Tweco guns parts are cheap and plentiful. I just bought a Lincoln M400 Mig gun because my supplier could get it cheaper than the Tweco model. After getting it home I discovered that it was a Tweco in a Lincoln box.

Good Luck!

[wrench3047]

thats good to know. I was removing the gun from the machine today and the screw that holds it in place twisted in half. The threads got really stripped the last time it got put together. When I get back from training I'm going to have to perform surgery . I'm going to be gone from early on 15 May til about the last week in June. I'm debating replacing some parts or trying to extract and retap the hole. Thanks for all the info and helping a soldier that likes to melt metal together.