[shawn63]

Borrowed a friends lincoln 135 mig to weld up some holes in the firewall. It's basically a new machine, used very little.
My son in law is doing the welding, he's not exactly a pro but he does have some experience.
The problem we're having is it keeps jamming up after the feeder. It has a roll of .023" wire, is the thin wire the cause? .... is there some adjustment or are we doing something wrong. We're using the reccomended settings for this size of wire and the 22 gauge sheetmetal.
Any ideas.

 

[NovatoriusRex]

Are you using the right tip? They come in various sizes. If the one that is on there is too small, the wire could jam up. It's possible it could be a tension problem on the feed mechanism too.

I'll let the experts comment further.

 

[SparkysSS]

Wire Feed Problem

Are you using the right tip? They come in various sizes. If the one that is on there is too small, the wire could jam up. It's possible it could be a tension problem on the feed mechanism too.

I'll let the experts comment further.

Rex is right, check to make sure the tip is an .023 for the wire size, and double check the tension on the wire feed roller. The feed roller also has a groove for .023 wire, are you using the right groove? other thing to keep in mind, try not to kink or put extreme bends in the welding lead to the gun as that has a tendoncy to slow the wire feed through it causing it to jam up.
Is the machine setup for fluxcore or solid wire? The polarity for them is different, and solid wire you need shielding gas.

 

[shawn63]

Bought 2 new .023" tips. We're using solid wire with gas, checked for the correct groove and the polarity is correct I'm assuming the tension is controlled by the spring, should I try lessening or adding more tension?

 

[1fasbu]

Welder

The most important thing is to keep the whip straight.

The correct tension on the drive rolls is when you can just stop the wire spool with your hand while feeding wire(pull trigger).

Double check that the wire is indeed landing in the groove of the rollers(while clamped), this is very important.

There should also be a tension control on the spool holder, check this as well(loosen or tighten the nut).

The correct tension on the spool holder would stop the spool when the wire stops feeding. If it is too loose, inertia will allow the spool to unwind wire inside of the welder, not good.

Let us know how it works out.
Floyd.

 

[Schonyenko2]

Check the guide tubes(the tube that guides the wire into the roller, and the one on the other side of the roller). Sometimes these get constricted if the wire is dirty, or has a rust build up. Solid wire gets flash rust on it if it sets to long depending on where you buy the wire. Quality wire from a welding supply store seems to be more resistant to this than wire from a store like farm, and fleet. It's not a bad idea to have a wire cleaner on the wire before it goes into the guide tube. I run mine through a rolled up piece of scotchbrite.

 

[TechNova]

Also check that the guide tubes are in all the way. On our Miller the lead can get pulled out a little way allowing a larger gap between the roller and the guide tube. The outgoing guide tube should just about touch the roller.
It will bird's nest there every time otherwise.
keep the lead straight.
keep the lead straight.
keep the lead straight.

These are the two most common problems I've seen other than low grade wire.

 

[Nova_Guy]

On the feeder the wheels on my Miller have to be flipped over. The flux core wire uses little teeth to grip the wire, solid wire uses smooth wheels.

 

[shawn63]

Thanks for the help guys; my "hired hand" has been a no show so I decided to try welding myself. I won't give up my day job but after a bit of practice, I'm fairly happy with my sheet metal tacks.
I think the jamming problem was due to the fact that the spool wasn't installed on the spindle correctly; didn't have the dowel in the spool. I read Lincolns online manual and set things up accordingly.
It jammed up once after this so I put more load tension on the spool brake and a half turn more on the idler and it's been fine since.