This Christmas a guy I work with ( and have somewhat infected with the metal disease ) recieved a 220 V, Pit Bull brand Mig welder. His parents bought it for him, and since it has been sitting in the showroom long enough for the operators manual to disapear, they got a "good deal" on it. He went to WalMart and bought a spool of flux core wire,(about .03 size he thinks ) and brought it over to my house to play one Saturday. I do my welding with an old AC stick machine, but had played with a mig some in a couple welding classes, and was remembering how easy they were to use and get a very smooth bead. I couldn't get a decent bead to save my life ! I tried every wire speed and amp setting but kept getting little puddles, not the continuous arc I remembered. It looked like the wire was hitting the metal, starting the arc, then a short section of the wire would get red and melt off, breaking the arc until the wire fed out to start the arc again. Are we using too small a wire, too slow a wire speed, too high an amperage setting, all the above, or are we just too stupid to use a mig ? ( I actually got out my stick machine to prove I really could stick two pieces of metal together neatly ) I looked on the web for an operators manual, and while I found another welder for sale I couldn't find any information on this particular mig. Any thoughts, opinions, or solutions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ray

1. modern Mig welders are very touchy on voltage, there are 2 , 208 and 230, some machines you have to check the voltage and move a jumper inside the machine to the proper voltage.

2. sections of the wire burning off, suggests, too low an amperage, to slow a wire speed, or too large a wire.

3. take it back to where it was bought and ask them to demonstrate it for you.

4. you should be able to obtain an operaters, maintenance manual for it from the Company that made it.

Check the polarity, also. Where the ground cable goes into the machine, the ground should hook to the red lug for flux core. Opposite for solid wire with inert gas.

Well, my suggestion is to make sure you have either flux core wire, or that you are using the proper Argon gas. without one of these mig welding just doesnt work.

Yes, we did have flux core wire, and I have been unable to even find the company on the web, so I have been unable to get any manuals. I'm not sure what type store they bought it from, but it's worth a try for the demo. I hadn't even thought of the polarity or the incoming voltage setting. ( like I said, I'm used to an old 220 AC machine ! ) I'll have him check on those. Thanks for the advice !

Ray

Just some thoughts. The 2 settings you DO have to control with flux core are fire (either amperage or volts) and wire(speed). These must be in fair concert or you will get either lotta splatter or irregular wire flowing problems. The Good Lord only knows how old that wire was that you bought at Wally World. I have had bad wire ( Forney ) from a farm store ( myself and another fella I know ). this was solid wire but fact still remains. You need proper feed roller tension also and wire roll tension as well. Is this a 115VAC welder or
230VAC ? Is is capable of either voltage ( doubtful ) ? Is the contact tip screwed into the gun head snugly or is it loose ? I have seen a few problems with MIG and hope you can get this rig runnin'. Good luck. There are some here with a lot more experience than me.

to be sure, the fire/wire settings relate to solid or flux wire. Also, the tip size should be fitting to the wire size.