It sounds like a wire feed speed problem. If your feed is too slow and/or erratic, you might want to replace your feed wheels. Also, try welding a thicker piece of metal. I practice on a piece of angle steel. Start with a nice bead weld down the angle by "drawing" small circles as you move. Also, lay a bead down the edges too. It's great practice and welding thicker material is easier. YouTube has great videos too on welding techniques.

 

Your trouble could be polarity. When using flux-core wire the gun should be hooked up to the negative terminal and the cable to your work should be hooked up to the positive terminal. If it came set up for shielding gas I bet it is set up opposite, or its for solid wire only.

 

Oh. :xeye::

(Wow, quickly starting to reveal how clueless I am on the topic of welding...)

Well, now the polarity issue sounds important.

OK, I'll give that a check, along with continuing to tinker with the
erratic wire feed. Don't know if that's easily rewired on the el-cheapo
little welder I have, but I'll look.

Thanks!

 

sounds like polarity to me

 

Both of these guys each have a point and either one could be the problem. Although on a small machine like that alot of times you are stuck with straight polarity. Also, you may be trying to use what is called a dualshield wire. Meaning that eventhough it does have a fluxcore, you still have to shield it with gas. It is a common misconception. There are some straight fluxcore wires, but dual shield is fairly common and it will not perform well without gas.

Tex

 

It appears to be wire designed for use without gas. At least to my read.
Here's what I got:
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_612111_612111
"Gasless Flux-Cored Welding Wire", it claims.

I'm not seeing info on the dualshield wire from the Nothern Tool site.
Maybe Hobart has more info available. I'll do some rummaging.

Thanks for the heads-up on that issue though. I just bought flux-cored
wire of a size that would fit the welder and that's all the thought I put
into it. Didn't know there were different types.
(Definitely on the steep part of the learning curve here.)

 

How is the tension on your wire feed wheels? There is usually a nut and spring to adjust tension. Sometimes its loose. Also sometimes the feed wheels are reversible with different wire guages in them. you might have the wrong side on the wire.

 

That's all a little suspect. Yeah, found the tension adjustment. I think
the main problem there was the idler wheel was starting to rust in place.
(The welder sat for a long time unused before I got my mitts on it.)

The idler wheel wasn't turning at all, but I think/believe/hope I got it
freed up. Worked some oil into the bushing and got it back to where I
can turn it with my fingers. But no guarantees that it's functioning 100%.

The wire now generally seems to be running pretty smooth, but it seems
like it will still get an occasional stutter or slow-down. I've tinkered with
the tension setting, but I think I'm about at the limits of what I can do
to tweak that performance without starting to replace parts like the
drive wheel. (Like I said, welder is pretty old, and probably an old
Harbor Freight special. Don't know if I can get parts.)

I'll give it a second check. Seems like the drive wheel only had a single
slot milled in it for the wire to track along. But I'll give it a second glance
to make sure it's not removable and reversible for different wire sizes.

 

I believe on most wire welders, switching polarity is easy enough, just make sure it's unplugged first! You'd be surprised how many people I've seen work on stuff while it's still plugged in...

 

No shortage of good advice.

1) Make sure you drive wheels for the wire are clean and adjusted properly. Most drive wheels will be marked with the size of wire they work with.

2) .30 is a lot of wire for a 120v box. I would run .24. The wheels on my Miller support 2 sizes by flipping the wheel. I use mostly .35, but if I flip the wheel I can run .30.

3) Concur on the polarity switch when you move from gas to flux core. Flux core is ok, I personally have never used it. I just don't think the quality of the weld is there for the work I generally do and it requires much more post welding clean up.

4) Remember to MATCH the size of the wire to the thickness of the metal and to the amperage level to get better quality welds and smoother operating.

5) Do some reading and it will help you a lot. This is the resource center for Miller MIG welding, there is lots of info, pics and for about $25 bucks you can order the course books, I have a set and also have a set of the instructor manuals for when I teach a intro course.

6) FYI: There is ZERO correlation between "pretty' welds and good welds. I DO NOT care what your weld looks like, I CARE about how strong it is. I have my students weld to work pieces together then try to break it, then cut it open to see the inside of the weld. Focus on developing quality welds FIRST! After you get this down buy some 4 1/2 in angle grinders to make them pretty. I have about 10 or so, each with a different wheel...you don't need that many but it certainly keeps you from spending all your time swapping wheels.

Let us know when and how you get this resolved

 

The welder is rated to handle 0.024 and 0.030 wire. Northern Tool had
0.030 flux core wire, so that kind of solidified that choice. :

Yeah, I'm sure that the gas sheilding is superior. Maybe I'll get into that
as I learn. I'm just trying to ease my way into this at this point.

I've tried (and failed) to weld some stuff in the past. Turns out in talking
to people about it, that I was actually trying to do things that were somewhat
difficult. (Welding in the shallow angle of a round pipe onto a flat plate,
welding junk rebar, welding a thin piece of sheet metal to a thick bar, etc.)
All doable, but probably not a project for a complete beginner.

I finally got sick of owning two welders and being too stupid to drive either
one of them, so I made some time last weekend and played with the big
stick welder and some scrap metal. I know -- in theory -- that you're
supposed to work the weld in circles or similar, but I got so excited when
I found I was actually welding, that all that just flew out the window.:

So like I said, the weld was ugly, but I cut across the weld with my chop
saw when I was done, and it sure looked like it went all the way through.
Maybe could have gotten a little more penetration, but hey -- first attempt,
I won't complain. Then I put the piece in my vise and took a pry bar to it.
The metal bent instead of breaking at the weld, so I was thrilled.

I'm really leaning towards the polarity issue being the problem at this point
on the little MIG welder. The wire just explodes when it gets close to the
work piece. Its not even close to working. The wire feed might be a little
erratic, but it seems unlikely that the speed feed is that wrong. I'll check
the polarity and see if the thing can be rewired if need be.

I'm not above junking the little MIG if it's not salvagable and getting a new
one. It's old and obviously has some issues. It may just be "done".
I'm just kind of hestitant to sink more money into this until I can
prove to myself that I can actually learn how to do this. Some limited
success with the stick welder has been very encouraging though. More
practice time coming up this weekend.

Thanks to everyone for all the great advice! Really appreciate it. :thumb:

I'll let you know if I get the thing running.

 

I concur with the advise here, I keep all my welding books handy though some of them date back into the 50s .I need some newer books as well.

 

OP, look into a "continuing education" or welding course at your local college, tech school, or even high school. I took an evening welding course at 23 years old that was held at a local high school. It was two hour class, two days a week for three weeks. You won't get a degree or certification of course, but everything needed to fix a trailer.

That's actually what we did, someone "donated" a trailer that was so rusted out the welds were falling apart. By the end of the course, that sucker looked brand new using the school's equipment.

 

SavageSun, we arent gonna have an AK vs. AR debate between Lincoln and Miller are we?

Tex

 

Tex, now you know there is NO debate this LOL:

So does your blood run red? In fact I have a Lincoln setting in the shop, nothing wrong with Lincoln at all.

 

Ive got a little SP 135 for small projects
Ideal Arc 600 shop machine for BIG projects
an SA 200 on the truck for mobile work and pipelining
just sold an SA200 Redface
and a little while before that I let a friend talk me out of my 48' SA 200 Shortbody with a hand crank.

Now what was the name of that other company you mentioned? Dont believe I've heard of them.

Tex

 

There is nothing wrong with hobart wire. It's the same as miller, they are the same company.

 

What he said.
Personally, I dont care for it, but that is personal preference. Esab and Lincoln are both good too. Stay away from generic brands and also McKay and Norton. When you said Northern Tool I thought you meant a generic knockoff, but Hobart isnt bad.

Tex

 

The liner inside the gun is kinked. You need to replace it. Also, you have to stretch out the welding feed so it has no sharp bends when you weld. If it has too sharp of a bend, this damages the liner and causes the effect you are having.

 

I ran the Welding dept for 3 out of the 5 years I worked at masterflame INC. We used 120V Miller 135s for the entire dept. We had one full sized miller. I never had a problem using the little ones. I was able to weld 1/4"X 1/4" carbon steel stock (Like the stuff a Wroth Iron fence is made of) with no problem so long as I circled wide. I even burned right through the gray coating they have.

We used Argon, and an Argon mix with .023 wire.

I have to say, the very few times I used flux core wires, that they welded like crap. I am convinced they are for welding in outdoor, high wind environments. Only under those conditions will they out perform a shield gas. Even then, they still suck. They just suck less than having the wind blow all your shielding away.

I guarantee the OP's problem is a pinched liner, and probably bad tips as well.

Now that you point it out, my work piece was just a few feet away from
the welder, and the feed line to the gun was just casually wadded up
in assorted coils on the floor. Never thought to straighten that out to
make the wire feed easier. Amazing the number of creative ways a noob
can find to screw things up. : I'll add that tip to my growing list of
lessons learned so far on this thread. :thumb:

And maybe I just need to get off my rear and track down some new welding
gas bottles for the thing, instead of trying to frankenstein it into something
it wasn't design to do (i.e., run flux core wire instead of gas sheilded
solid wire.)

The tip did look a little worn. Like the wire had sort of worn the hole
into an oblong shape. I've got several spares, so I'll put a new tip in there
and try it again.

 

I always get my wire at home depot as it is the closest to me ! The wire is lincoln !
You may have to turn the heat up and the wire speed down to slow !
Another thing that is a big problem with these little welders is that the metal needs to be clean and no rust , paint or any crud ! Sand or grind were you are going to weld and it will make things easier !

 

Flux-cored wire needs the opposite polarity of solid wire.

Your machine may be 120v, but what is the amperage? I've read a ton of misinformation on this site concerning welding so try to find people who actually weld for a living and have gone to school for it to get your advice from. One of the big problems with .030 wire is that the wire is rolled around the flux agent and since the tube is so narrow in diameter there isn't sufficient flux to shield the arc. Again, depending on the amperage of your machine and who made it, you should run .035 wire. If you decide to run a solid wire you can run it on CO2 just fine. You'll need additional amperage to run it, but you should be fine with running .023-.025 70S-6 wire. You probably don't have much of a duty cycle to begin with, so the smaller wire will benefit you.

FWIW, I've been a certified welder for nearly 15 years and have taught welding part-time at a local vo-tech. I've built everything from wrought iron fence to skyscrapers to satellite launch vehicles.

And one more thing, a good looking weld is evidence of a properly performed weld.

 

I agree with MillerTyme on the good looking weld. If the weld looks like crap on the outside, you can bet that the inside will look as bad or worse. Dont fall into the "it's good enough" trap. Personally, I think you will have an easier time learning if you use a solid wire. I have always preferred a 75/25 gas. You gotta make sure everything is clean. It may be easier for you to practice a fillet weld to start off. This is just an "L" shape where you weld down in the corner.

Goodluck
Tex

 

Im a 20 yr journeyman welder/millwright/machinist/industrial mechanic and ive never been able to get a 120v ac mig to weld worth a ****.
Ive used Miller Hobart northern tool Lincoln etc.
In general 3 phase welders weld the best because they start smoother.. 220 single phase welds fine too. I think the one line voltage on 120v single phase makes them weld like ****.

Flux core is for no gas. Flux core is actually as strong as a 7018 weld when its welded hot. I welded a tractor bucket up with it and was impressed with flux core. It was as good as my 6010 root pass and 7018 top pass.

I also found that using 7018 ac rods on a dc welder make them start like butter.
I had to use some on a job site and they worked well other than they were full of flux.

 

I ran the Welding dept for 3 out of the 5 years I worked at masterflame INC. We used 120V Miller 135s for the entire dept. We had one full sized miller. I never had a problem using the little ones. I was able to weld 1/4"X 1/4" carbon steel stock (Like the stuff a Wroth Iron fence is made of) with no problem so long as I circled wide. I even burned right through the gray coating they have.

We used Argon, and an Argon mix with .023 wire.

I have to say, the very few times I used flux core wires, that they welded like crap. I am convinced they are for welding in outdoor, high wind environments. Only under those conditions will they out perform a shield gas. Even then, they still suck. They just suck less than having the wind blow all your shielding away.

I guarantee the OP's problem is a pinched liner, and probably bad tips as well.

 

irratic wire feed if the feeder wheels arent slipping the there is a problem between them and where it come out the end be it the tip the hand piece or the liner between the hand piece and the actual machine may greased up and need replaceing

 

That is right SS. Just because it is pretty on the outside doent mean the inside is. But ugly on the other hand usually goes to the bone.

The absolute best welding teaching tool is a grinder. Mine happened to be B&D 9" Wildcat. OP, you have had lots of good advice from several longtime welders. If you have any trouble Im sure none of us would mind if you sent a pm. I wish you luck and remember to just be patient. It will come.

Tex

 

My hands shake real bad too. Too many broken bones and arthritis I guess. People ask how I weld with my hands so shaky at times. And this is the honest truth. Most people try to oscillate their puddles. I just try to keep my hands steady and it seems to work.

Tex

 

Here is some good info:

http://www.bernardwelds.com/articles/Bernard-Top10mistakes.htm

 

http://www.hobartwelders.com/elearning/

http://www.welding.com/index.asp

http://weldingweb.com/

these are the sites i read when i am trying to figure something out.

 

I would take the 120v mig welder into a welding supply store, and ask the counter help to run you through the proper setup. I have had very good experience with this - the staff in the store are all good welders, and can probably show you where you are going wrong in just a few minutes. Someone there, even if it is the manager or owner, will be happy to help you during a slow period, to gain a new customer for supplies. I have had this work for me on a number of different situations. Most folks are happy to share their knowledge.

 

I see there are a lot of welders on here of various levels. Here is a website and you can sign up for the newsletter (free) on welding.

I don't care how long or what level of welding you do you will find this in-depth discussion of welding will be beneficial to you.

Enjoy: http://www.welding-advisers.com/

Subscribe to the free newsletter here: http://www.welding-advisers.com/subscription.html

 

I am not a pro just a self taught country that got tired of paying for work that broke after being welded by the local pro's. I think that your wire liner may be kinked, check and see. if bad replace and don't let it happen again. If you go on line to harbor freight and tell them what you have and that you need a manual they will e-mail you a link to get it. Something that I have not seen and that helped a lot for me was a lubricant for the wire. Your local welding store should have a lube fro the welder and the felt pads that goes after the feed wheels that does not make the weld any worse. My son says they do no good but he too will learn. If you can learn by reading check out the Lincoln Foundation for books on welding from start to exotic, they were the best for me. Some may seem dated but the info is good. last keep practicing.

R D
may God bless you and yours