MIG cleaning

[jroes86]

I've got a Hobart Handler 150 MIG (120vac) that is roughly 10 years old. It was originally my great uncle's welder (he was a welder by profession) that he bought for doing some small jobs around the house. When he passed I inherited it (he spent a lot of time teaching me to weld). That was ~4 years ago, I have used it once 2 years ago before I moved across country. I finally equipped my garage with the necessary electrical to run it and tried it out last night.

Enough background, on to the issue! The wire feed does not feed the wire without assistance. The feeder mechanism runs but unless I lightly pull the wire with some pliers the wire will not feed correctly, as soon as i take the pressure off the feed stops. I opened the case and found my wire spool is full of rust, so that will be getting replaced, and the feed wheel is just spinning and not pushing the wire through the gun. I checked the feed mechanism and its got a bunch of rust build up on it, mostly surface rust that I was able to brush away with my fingers but there is still some remaining. I removed the tip with the same result. I increased the clamping pressure with the same result. So I cut the wire and released the clamp pressure on the feed and tried to pull the wire out of the gun but it wont budge.

So i'm assuming that the rusty wire has clogged things up. My question is what should I be replacing and how can I clean the rest of the components? This machine has not been serviced since it was purchased (that I know of, it hasn't seen much use...maybe 50 hours of weld time?). Right now I'm thinking of replacing the wire, liner, and tip. The feeder wheel with the wire grooves needs some clean up but I don't know if I can use any kind of oil on the components or if I should just use a wire brush with no oil.

Also does anyone know a good place to buy these components online or does a welding supply store typically carry machine specific liners, tips, etc?

 

[sberry]

Open the manual, take the liner out and blow slowly to start with to clear any rust before it clogs. You can clean them but rusty wire wont push. Pull some off till its clean or replace the roll. 023 solid for that machine.

 

[1950mercury]

I'd start with the liner. Go to your local welding store they should be able to help you

 

[Superbec]

and get teflon liner if you're at it ... not going to rust...


as for the spools.. it may happen that only the wire at the top of the spool is rusted , just unspool it by hand see if there's fresh wire underneath .

 

[MoonRise]

Toss the old rusty spool of wire (well, you can rededicate it to things where you need a piece of 'baling wire', but that rusty spool of wire is really no good for welding anymore).

If you snipped the wire coming off the spool and still can't remove the wire that is in the liner, that means (to me) that the wire is rusted to the liner. Don't bother attempting to blow out the liner, that only works if you can get the wire out of the liner and you are just blowing out some 'crud'. Replace the liner. Just go with the 'standard' coiled steel liner, which is just fine for use with steel wire electrode for welding steel. The Teflon/plastic liner is needed if attempting to run aluminum filler through the torch for attempting to weld aluminum.

If the drive rolls just have surface rust, remove by whatever non-destructive means you want (evaporust, brass bristle brush with some oil and then clean off the oil when done, etc) . Don't media blast them, that is a 'destructive' method of removing rust from steel. If the rolls have pits or are otherwise NG, just replace them.

Get some new contact tips in the correct size for the wire diameter you will be using.

LWS should have or be able to get what you need (liner and drive rolls and contact tips). Spool of wire you can get there too, or believe it or not, around me Lowes and HomeDepot usually have the best price for a 12.5 lb spool (8" diameter spool) of solid wire Lincoln L-56 wire for GMAW/MIG. YMMV.

On-line? Try Cyberweld of WeldingSuppliesFromIOC or USA-Weld or use some google-fu.

If you are mostly going to weld automotive thickness sheetmetal, then go for the 0.023/0.025 solid wire. If you will be doing more things like 1/8" thick workpieces, then go for a spool of 0.030 solid wire. Some 0.035 FCAW wire might or might not be useful. Do NOT go for a spool of 0.035 solid wire, that machine really doesn't have the snot to run that diameter wire (most 120V machines don't really have the snot to run 0.035 solid wire IMHO).

Ahhh, you made me look up the manual. The HH150 is a 240V machine, the HH120 is the 120V version. RTFM if you haven't already done so. Are you sure you have the right model number and voltage that you said in your first post above?

Need a manual? Go to the Hobart website, or google turns up

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...04.pdf&usg=AFQjCNG7CtrTnCorAIO2sHcdNr8_RFyldw

 

[jroes86]

Thanks guys.

The label on the machine says its the handler 150, but it is most definitely wired for 120.