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Thread: changing mig wire roll
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12th Jun 2020, 11:10 AM #1Most Valued Member
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changing mig wire roll
is there a trick to changing the wire roll on a mig that prevents the wire from springing off...took forever to sort it out last time
must write the following on the welder for next time...after putting all coils back onto roll do not I repeat DO NOT push wire end out 3 or times and think all will be good...it only makes things worse lol.
any tricks so that coils dont spring off
was thinking a couple of rubber bands to hold all in place after cutting bent tab off?...install and then cut rubber band?
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12th Jun 2020, 11:22 AM #2Most Valued Member
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Don't cut the wire until you have the reel mounted on the reel carrier, don't tighten the retaining nut to far, just enough to hold the reel. Hold the end your going to cut with one hand, after cutting use other hand to keep load on reel, feed wire through guide and drive rollers with one hand whilst still keeping tension on reel, lock over wire tensioner then tighten reel securing nut.
If the cut wire slips through your fingers revert to your current method.
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12th Jun 2020, 11:35 AM #3Most Valued Member
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12th Jun 2020, 12:37 PM #4Most Valued Member
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At times it just happens.
Another thing you can try is to put a piece of soft rubber or similar over the reel, just cut the width to suit the reel width, the weight of the rubber or similar should hold the wire and stop it from undoing.
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12th Jun 2020, 07:49 PM #5
How I do it- works for all wire types and most wire feeders.
1) On the bench, Use mig pliers or long nose pliers to unbend the wire loop that is usually fed thru the hole in the sidewalls of the spool.
2) Get it loose, then hold the layers of wire down with a flat left hand, then grab now loose end with pliers and pull the loose end into the spool.
3) Maintain grip with pliers and follow the loose end enough to get a good hand grip on the wire, about 300mm, then use MIG pliers to snip a clean edge on the wire, removing the looped bit that went thru the sidewall.
Now This is the bit that takes some planning-
4) work out where your drive rolls are, and how much wire you need to get free from the spool before you start feeding it thru the guide tube, rollers and tensioners.
5) Set your nub on the spool shaft to a known position - I usually leave it at 12, 3, 6 or 9 o'clock.
6) Grab the loose wire end and pinch it between the inside of the spool sidewall, and move the spool (Like you would a steering wheel) so that the locating nub hole lines up with the position you had it in step 5 (eg 12 o'clock).
7) Slide spool onto spool shaft, still holding the wire end securely. Push it home, locating the spool nub correctly (important- this prevents spool inertia from overfeeding when the drive motor stops, eg at end of weld)
8) Depending on wire feeder design- either feed the loose 300mm wire end thru the guide tube, OR use mig pliers to help in tight quarters... THEN lock down your tensioner wheel. Do this 2x if you have a real welder with 4 drive rolls.
9) Tension everything accordingly*
If you've made it in life, just get your TA or Fitter to do it for you while you have smoko.
*tensioning everything accordingly is an additional 15 step post for another day.
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13th Jun 2020, 09:05 AM #6
I dunno yet still on me 1st spool about to find out soon though
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13th Jun 2020, 09:41 AM #7Member
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thats what the little holes in the spool wall is for, put your wire through the hole and bend it over.
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13th Jun 2020, 10:58 AM #8Diamond Member
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13th Jun 2020, 12:56 PM #9
On face value- if you have a machine with 4 drive rolls, you will need to clamp down the rollers in 2 locations, hence do it 2x.
Getting into it a bit deeper, Machines with 4 drive rolls are simply better. They provide better traction to the wire through multiple points of contact, and are geared together to work in unison. machines with a proper 4 drive roll feed system can feed wire better through longer torches (4-5m) and handle softer wires with less column strength like flux cored or aluminium much better without bird-nesting and giving you a bad day. Overall this type of wire feeder mech is way better than the cheap crap 2 drive plastic units that are sold on/in most low end machines. Which IMO are not a real welder. HTH.
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13th Jun 2020, 01:21 PM #10Diamond Member
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I think it is more of a marketing thing really, 4 is better than two etc.
A decent two roll drive will work without any issues. When I started my apprenticeship about 15 years or so back I was going through 3 x 15kg spools of 0.9 wire through a WIA feeder without any issues.
I've also ran aluminium through an old cigweld 2 roll drive unit without issues.
Still plenty of 2 Roll drive units used in industry today.
Comparing it to a plastic unit powered by a motor smaller then what's probably on an R/C car is hardly a fair comparison.
Sometimes depending on what wire i'm running i'll actually leave the back rollers disconnected on a 4 roll unit.
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