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Lincoln Power Mig 250ish Wire feed issues - please help

snowman

Diamond
Joined
Jul 31, 2004
Location
Southeast Michigan
I'm getting a lot of wire stalls. I've replaced the tips, I've replaced the liner. I have not replaced the feed roller.

It welds ok if I keep the stinger perfectly straight, but if I have any curvature to it, it tends to stall, causing the wire to fuse itself to the inside of the tip, then I'm replacing the tip while burning my finger tips because I can never find a pair of pliers when I'm welding, and they take forever anyway. Anti splatter goop is in use, but only helps so much.

Normally I'd replace the liner...see above, I already did. This is still the stock whip/gun, and it is so thin compared to a proper gun, so I know that contributes.

So is my next ruleout replacing the feed roller? Or did I screw up replacing the liner somehow?

I don't know what size wire I'm shooting right now, but I know I have everything matched (wire, tips, liner size, roller size).
 
Have you cleaned/replaced the gas diffuser (part that the tips screw into), had lots of problems on my Lincoln mig a few years ago, that piece was the problem, ports were gunked with anti spatter.

Was having some issues with my super cheapo HF mig recently (only used when I need portable and flux core) , replacing the cheapo alligator tooth ground clamp with diy copper strip clamp did wonders for arc stabilization and smoother wire feed. Picked up a used real mig gun this morning, going to try to adapt it to that machine.
 
I'll second the checking the ground. Grounding issues can seem a lot like feed issues. If its a spring clamp kinda ground make sure it has tension. I solved a bunch of issues at work by replacing spring clamp grounds with heavy duty screw type clamps.
Also check the pressure on the feed rolls. Back it off until you can stall the wire with finger pressure, then tighten until you cant hold it anymore. Be careful not to stab your fingers when doing this.... :o
 
In addition to the other comments about checking the gas diffusor and the ground clamp, check your drive roll tension and your spool hub tension. It sounds an awful lot like the spool hub tension is too tight or drive roll tension is too light (since you've already replaced the liner and contact tip with the appropriate size). When the mig gun get flexed, the friction increases and wire speed slows leading to burn back.
 
If your shop is bad about keeping rolls of wire clean you can get debris clogging the bushings where the wire enters and exits the feed rollers. This is common on our aluminum push pull welder.
 
Thanks everyone...I’ll check a few things out today. Spoil tension is high on my list as I somewhat remember this starting around the time I replaced the spool.


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When I first got my Miller 252 MiG welder a few years ago, I was plagued with burn backs into the copper tip. Some research showed me that the center copper tip was protruding too far from the outer copper shell. It stuck out about 1/8". I looked at the alternative outer shells that are available and found a longer one. The copper tip is now shielded by about 1/8" inside of the copper shell and I've had no further problems.
 
Well...after all that, I finally dug in to it. Meaning dug it out of the corner. Seems the first layer of wire had rusted, and that had loaded up the wire feed roller with nasty rusty dirt which killed it's ability to feed.

So, a good cleaning and it's working again.
 








 
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