Technical Trouble with welder or me?

Weld not sticking, and balling on the end isn't your classic liner problem.
When a liner acts up its presents as erratic feed speeds or rats nest or other feed problems.
The wire welds to the tip because the feed is slower than the setting.
The wire speed changes up and down while welding.

Double check your polarity just for grins.
Usually connected right near the feed rollers.

 

Awhile back my miller 180 did the same type of thing, Good then not ,gas then none. Turned out the clamp was loose where the cable system went in, letting the cable and liner move in and out enough to block gas flow. pushed it in and tightened the clamp. All is good now. Jack

 

load up the machine and take it to the place you purchased wire and explain your new problem maybe they can help. they surely want to keep customers coming back and if they have bad lot of wire they don't want it going to their customers.

 

Hard time starting to weld and balling. If it started good, it would continue to weld fine. The contacts weren't allowing good conduction and not enough amperage at the gun and the wire would burn back and ball.

 

When mine acted up, I found a loose connection inside the machine. Not knowing anything about the magic of capaciters, diodes and transformers, all I can say it was a big wire that was loose connected to some windings.

 

This most likely does not apply to your problem, but I bought a larger wire welder from a body shop that had a real long power cord on it. It worked great except when I welded something heavier (like a frame ) sheet metal worked fine.After a lot of head scratching with multiple people, we installed a much heavier power cord and CURED IT.Gary

 

Did you replace the bottle of gas and the wire at the same time? If you replaced them at different times, go back and change the last item that you replaced

 

Mine does the same thing. I am putting in a new liner and one of those wiping pads for the wire!

 

FOUND THE PROBLEM.
Those of you who suspected wire speed are correct. On my way to purchase a liner I decided to give the welder the once over, Tightened all connections, none loose, and noticed that the wire speed was set for .030 wire instead of .024 wire.(its an automatic machine) I could tell the difference right away when I advanced some wire to cut of the end and it welds perfect. So there ya go operator error.

 

Of course it welds fine 25% of the time with the welder set incorrectly

 

Thanks for getting back to us and glad it was such a simple fix. I guess we've all done stuff like that and if you haven't, then you're not doing much !

 

Automatic wire speed? Never seen that, so it increases with current setting?

 

For cleaner welds and smoother welding, add a chemical impregnated felt "bobber" to the wire just before the cable feed. It floats on the wire, cleaning it and adding lubrication. Your welding supply store has them and they're inexpensive.

 

great thread, I just bought a Miller 211 I was told it was idiot proof. I think I may be the exception but not ready to admit it yet. 50 years old and just firing up a welder for the first time having some of the same issues the op is having. gotta believe operator error also.

 

That's what I was gonna suggest but don't have to now.

 

It's part of the "autoset" feature. You set it to Autoset, adjust the material thickness knob, and the machine does the rest.

 

that does not sound like an option I would want on my welder.

 

Even a blind Squirrel gets an occasional acorn.
Break my balls if you must but I am welding again, with out holes.

 

There is a manual mode as well for those that know what they are doing.

 

I'll bet it costs a lot more than a clothes pin and a bit of rag though.

Doesn't every MIG have a clothes pin on it by now?