Trying to help neighbors kid

[Pat]

Last night while keeping the Western channel company there was a knock at the door. The 17 year old neighbors kid down the road wanted me to go to his place to look at a Miller welder that was given to him by some relatives. When I got there I observed that it is a MM185 mig welder. He does not know if it works, and the welder is missing the gun and cable. Other than having a lot of dust and bird poo on the outside, the insides look fairly clean. This kid is in a hurry to find out if the welder works so he is in need of a gun and cable, and will have to bring it over to my shop because they only have 110V outside.

Question: Will the M25 gun and cable from my MM210 hook up to the MM185 without causing any damage to his welder or my gun and cable. If so this will allow us to test his machine. His new toy also has a partial 10# roll of Lincoln flux cored wire in it so I suspect we will have to change the polarity if we want to try some solid wire with gas. The gun cable connector looks similar to my 210, and if I remember correctly his 185 has 5 or 6 taps compared to the 7 tap settings my 210 has. Any help would be greatly appreciated.......thanks.

[Danny]

Pat,

Your M-25 gun will fit on the MM 185. The MM 185 that I run at works likes to run .030 or .035 with C-25 . The MM 185 has 6 voltage taps to choose from. On my unit, tap #3 with wirespeed around 50 with an .035 solid wire and C-25, the unit has a pretty sweet arc on 1/8".

[ASKANDY]

I'd say Dan's on the money.
Any of the current guns will fit that housing. If the kid needs a gun, I have some old ones that came off of machines turned in from my race teams that I use for spares or loaners. I'm sure I can lose one.

Andy

[Billet Benny]

I am not sure about the cables and gun, I'll leave that for the knowledgeable folk around here but, to the best of my knowlege, solid core and flux core wires operate best on opposite polarities. (at least that is the way our little mig is here at home) Sorry I don't remember which polarity is which for what application, just wanted to confirm the reversing the polarity issue you mentioned.

Solid wire - Reverse Polarity (Gun Positive)
Most flux core wire (it depends) - Straight Polarity (Gun Negative)

[neophyte]

reversing the polarity

The attached image should help you with the polarity issue. You might want to go over to the Service & Support section at Millerwelds.com and pull him off an owners manual. You will need the serial number in order to get the correct manual for his welder. http://www.millerwelds.com/service/ownersmanuals.php
Hope this helps

[walker]

MM185 normaly came with a M15 Gun. They are spendy from Miller. I should know I bought one, as I didn't like the replacement types that were readily available here, and I needed it fast.

BTW, ANDY, There is a...ahh ...kid, yeah a kid, down the street from me that has a torch from a Dynasty, but no welder. Any chance of one of those in the ol' junk pile?

[flash_burn]

I'd say Dan's on the money.
Any of the current guns will fit that housing. If the kid needs a gun, I have some old ones that came off of machines turned in from my race teams that I use for spares or loaners. I'm sure I can lose one.

Andy, your the man.

[Pat]

Dan and others,

Thank you very much for the information. Because he goes to school and I work a mid-shift, we have not had a chance to get together to hook my gun up to see if that old jewel has any fire left in it. He is very eager to test it out so I am sure he will be visiting me bright and early this coming Saturday morning. Just a little background info on this young lad. While I was still in law enforcement a few years ago I had many contacts with him and some of his friends. He is what I would describe as being somewhat developmentally disabled, and was easily talked into doing illegal (stupid) things by some of his peers. One time when I had reason to haul him in he told me about a problem he was having making his bike (one of those where the pedals are in the front...the name of the style escapes what memory I have left) and a bike was his only means of transportation. I told him to bring over what he had and we would spend an afternoon seeing what we could do to get him on the road. Well he did, and since then he has pretty much straightened his life around and shows a lot of interest and ability in designing and fabricating metal based projects. So now it is not uncommon for him to be over here when I am around to supervise him while he is using my shop and equipment. I think it is time well spent if it keeps him on the straight and narrow. any way's......................thanks again

[Pat]

Andy,

Thank you for the generous offer. Like I said in the above post I have not had a chance to get together with him, and it will probably be this coming Saturday when we check it out. I am sure he would appreciate receiving a gun for his MM185 seeing his family appears to be on a somewhat limited budget. If possible could you send me an e-mail so I can get a shipping address sent off to you. I think it is just great that you would offer to do this........thanks again.

Pat

[ASKANDY]

If it works with your gun,
just send me your address to

[email protected]

and I'll get one with some extra tips to you. Does he need any wire? I have a half used roll he can have. .030 ER70S6 It's a solid wire so he'll need gas.

Andy

[Pat]

Andy,

Thanks. I will let you know after this weekend. I have several partial rolls of wire to give him so he will be ok there. I also have a spare 75/25 cylinder he can use. If the 185 is working properly, he will probably just park it at my place and use it here until he has 220V available at home. If the contact tips for the 185 are the same as for the 210 I have plenty of them to give him also........thanks again.

[tigman250]

it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy reading what you guys are willing to do for this youngster, the world needs more people like ANDY and Pat in it!! a big pat on the back to the both of you!!

[Dokterspeed]

I agree!! If there is anything I can do, I will help as well.