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Video! Straightening Wire Trick for Tig Welding

Good trick, I wish I had a pair of safety wire pliers.

You can however just pull till the wire stretches just a bit, rather than twist though.
 
My preferred way is similar, But i clamp one end in the vice, out the shop door and down the length of the garden, Cut it off, chuck it in the cordless drill, Pull then give it a good long wind :-) Then cut it into sticks circa 24" long, I find much longer a pain in the butt - too floppy with thinner than 40 thou wires. Old thicker wire tig filler box is then the ideal place to store it too :-) Way easier to make a few hundred feet once a month than keep making 4' lengths every few days :-)

Code wise its also worth adding, that some of the std mild steel mig wires are the same stuff - composition as tig fillers, hence theres no issues with resulting weld strengths! Generally if your around mig welders every so oftern you can get a part spool - damaged or tangled spool for the right price :-) Certainly way cheaper than bought filler, because at least over here for sum 1mm they really pile the cost on!!
 
As to just pulling it, yeah in theory, in practice i could not get it to go, Any way i found that clamped it hard enough to pull hard enough to get it into yeild, just caused it to snap at the gripping point. Gripping it in a chuck, pull taught and a few twists per inch is easy, even if its then technically not straight, but a very very slight helix. Worth adding i used MIG wire off a full 15KG size real, so its a lot straighter than throes little mini spools to start with!
 
My preferred way is similar, But i clamp one end in the vice, out the shop door and down the length of the garden, Cut it off, chuck it in the cordless drill, Pull then give it a good long wind :-) Then cut it into sticks circa 24" long, I find much longer a pain in the butt - too floppy with thinner than 40 thou wires. Old thicker wire tig filler box is then the ideal place to store it too :-) Way easier to make a few hundred feet once a month than keep making 4' lengths every few days :-)

Code wise its also worth adding, that some of the std mild steel mig wires are the same stuff - composition as tig fillers, hence theres no issues with resulting weld strengths! Generally if your around mig welders every so oftern you can get a part spool - damaged or tangled spool for the right price :-) Certainly way cheaper than bought filler, because at least over here for sum 1mm they really pile the cost on!!

This is awesome, Thanks guys!
I just tried this with some .093 wire we had extra. been using it for non-critical mild steel tig filler but trying to get it straight was a pain.
I put one end of a 20' piece in the bench vise, the other end in the cordless drill... 30 seconds later all but a couple 6" strips were very straight. (the .093 does take some pulling...)
:cheers:
 
Its a great way to use up ends of mig reels too. FYI, 93 thou must be a real bear to do, thats what 2.4mm is? FYI thats a size i always buy as rods, no one around here i know uses that kinda size with a mig (sub arc though yeah!!)
 
I have been tig welding for 20 years. I have unwound many of mig wire to use as filler. Never once was it "Not being straight" an issue. I guess if you are not very good at it you need some type of excuse lol
 
I have been tig welding for 20 years. I have unwound many of mig wire to use as filler. Never once was it "Not being straight" an issue. I guess if you are not very good at it you need some type of excuse lol

Silly me. I thought you were asking a legitimate question.
 








 
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