Need Some Welder Troubleshooting Help

[mwarner]

I have a 115 VAC Lincoln Weld-Pak 100 wire-feed welder that I've owned for a few years but use pretty infrequently. Recently I've needed to weld some equipment, but have been having some trouble with the wire feed mechanism. The Lincoln manual and their web page have been pretty useless in fixing the problem. Ergo, I'm here to ask the guys who weld a lot what you suggest I try next.

The wire feed mechanism is basically a motorized 1-inch diameter hardened wheel with a small groove in it for the wird to lay on top of. There is another, non-powered wheel that sits on top of the first wheel, trapping the wire between the two wheels. A spring loaded clamp squeezed the two wheels together.

The sympton I'm having is that when the drive wheel is powered (i.e., when I pull the gun trigger) the drive wheel turns properly, but the wire comes out in fits and starts. Sometimes it drives fine for five or six inches of weld rod wire, but much of the rest of the time the wheel just spins along and the wire sits there not feeding. The Lincoln advice in the manual is that I tighten down the spring clamp that squeeze the two wheels together. I've tried tightening it (almost to the point of absurdity) but it doesn't help.

Any other suggestions? Do I need a new drive wheel? The wheel seems to be simply grinding off the outer layer of the wire now. I've played with the tension on the spool of wire, but that doesn't seem to help. It also seems like the wire is coming out of the gun end fine when it does work, so it doesn't seem like I've got an obstruction downstream of the feed mechanisms.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Mark

[EMT]

did u recently change wire diamater?the wheel (i think)has to be turned over if u change from .30 to .35. u also need to look at the tip and make sure it doesnt have any slag in it.ok that was the good news ,now for the bad news, when mine did that i had to get a new liner for it,if it gets a kink in it it will keep it from feeding properly.they arent that expensive to change but they are kind of bitch to change.

[mwarner]

No, I haven't changed wire diameter. In fact, it's the original spool of wire and the original wheel setup. I've welded with it in this configuration a couple of dozen times. The last two times I've tried to weld, however, the thing has started balking. Today it was bad enough that I had to give up welding the bracket I was making. Spent an hour trying to trouble shoot it, but couldn't get it to work.

I'll check the end tip again to see if there's a problem there, but it works fine some of the time, but not others.

Any other ideas?

[EMT]

a new liner

[MT4Runner]

Look at your wire spool. Anything inside the case snagging the spool? Are you starting to get down to the bottom of the spool? Is the wire unwrapping/wrapping so the wire that's coming off the spool is trapped under wraps that are still on the spool (kind of like a snake's nest on your winch drum or a tangled fishing reel spool)?

[roverjohn]

My first guess would be that your drive wheel has too large a groove for whatever wire you're trying to feed. It may have worked just fine when it was new and the slightest amount of wear could be causing it to slip. Try flipping the drive spool to the small wire side and see what it does. Also, remove the contact tip just to clear that out of the equation.
John..

[lcruzrlvr]

I was using the larger wire spool on my Hobart 135 and having the same problems. My issue was the lack of use was causing the wire to corrode and stick together just enough to cause start/stops. Went to a smaller spool (new) seemed to resolve the issue.

Good luck.

Troy



I have a 115 VAC Lincoln Weld-Pak 100 wire-feed welder that I've owned for a few years but use pretty infrequently. Recently I've needed to weld some equipment, but have been having some trouble with the wire feed mechanism. The Lincoln manual and their web page have been pretty useless in fixing the problem. Ergo, I'm here to ask the guys who weld a lot what you suggest I try next.

The wire feed mechanism is basically a motorized 1-inch diameter hardened wheel with a small groove in it for the wird to lay on top of. There is another, non-powered wheel that sits on top of the first wheel, trapping the wire between the two wheels. A spring loaded clamp squeezed the two wheels together.

The sympton I'm having is that when the drive wheel is powered (i.e., when I pull the gun trigger) the drive wheel turns properly, but the wire comes out in fits and starts. Sometimes it drives fine for five or six inches of weld rod wire, but much of the rest of the time the wheel just spins along and the wire sits there not feeding. The Lincoln advice in the manual is that I tighten down the spring clamp that squeeze the two wheels together. I've tried tightening it (almost to the point of absurdity) but it doesn't help.

Any other suggestions? Do I need a new drive wheel? The wheel seems to be simply grinding off the outer layer of the wire now. I've played with the tension on the spool of wire, but that doesn't seem to help. It also seems like the wire is coming out of the gun end fine when it does work, so it doesn't seem like I've got an obstruction downstream of the feed mechanisms.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Mark

[featherflicker]

sounds like either a bad tip or bad liner. The liner realy isent that hard to change,if it is not kinked you could try taking the tip off and blowing it out with compresed air from the back end. Most welders also have a bolt or screw to adjust tension on the post where the spool mounts.