Welding Wire Drum/Barrel Issues?

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    I just unscrewed my mig welding torch "end affector," with wire burnt to the contact tip, and the whole torch started spinning pretty good, indicating that the wire is getting wound up as it comes through the feeder tube from the 250lb wire drum. Anyone else ever deal with this issue? The wire winding up as it comes through the feeder tube? Or is it due to the way it is wound in the barrel from the factory? Anyways, the reason I had to unscrew the torch, was to fix a burnt back wire to the contact tip. I now suspect the wire slowly winding up, eventually causes these burnbacks. Although I do hear the arc pop a lot throughout the day, so maybe it is causing all of the holes in my welds. Never knew the wire was getting wound up this whole time. And maybe my feeder tube is way too long/too many bends in it. Who knows

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    I'm not sure I understand what you mean by removing the end effector. Why didn't you just change the melted tip?

    Usually the wire uncoils itself between the wire feeder and the tip as it feeds through the tip. That can cause some issues because of the wire spinning around between the welding tip and the weldment, in other words, in the stickout distance. We changed from barrel wire to drum wire because the barrel wire had too much cast in it and caused feeding issues. Now we unroll from off the outside of a drum and it's better but the issues were between the barrel and the wire feeder and not between the wire feeder and the welding tip, as I recall, that's been quite awhile ago.

    I don't know if the length of the feeder tube makes any difference or not. Mine's pretty long. How old is the feeder tube, is it getting rough inside?

    I also don't think this would cause welding problems unless the wire is getting so bound up it can't pull it smoothly from the barrel. The popping is probably due to surface contamination such as dirt or heavy mill scale. You could also have a bad ground/positive connection.

    The porosity probably is the same or poor gas coverage or too long stickout or dirty wire. Do you use copper free wire?

    I wish I knew all the reasons for burnback. I'd be rich. :ts:It's probably a combination of feeder problems, rough spots inside the whip, spatter getting in the tip, and poor electrical connections.

    • New

    lol are you sure you're not winding it up unscrewing the tip? The wire is melted to the tip so it winds when you unscrew the tip and it snaps back when you let go.

    If you have long liners running from the barrel to the robot, its good to check and replace if needed. Id undo the drive wheels and try to pull the wire through. Then cut the wire at the back of the feeder and pull the wire through the whip. Then try to pull through the liner from the barrel. If its tight, change it. I had to change one the other day. I could see and hear the arc length jumping as it welded and when i checked the barrel, it wasn't pulling smoothy at all. The wire will create a groove inside the liner over time that it will get caught in. Blowing it out will give you an idea if it needs changed aswell. The more crap that comes out, the more likely it needs changed

    The tension in the wire behind the feeder will pull back on the drive wheels causing the wire to pull back through the whip creating the burnback. If you're burning alot of wire, it's good to make liner changes part of a regular maintenance schedule instead of waiting for issues to pop up.

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    My job bought one of these outdated these outdated models, do you happen to have any manuals or other instructions, please and thank you. #saveagenxjoblol

    • New
    Quote from JQueen79

    My job bought one of these outdated these outdated models, do you happen to have any manuals or other instructions, please and thank you. #saveagenxjoblol

    your hijacking a thread. I see its your first post but could you please place your question in the proper forum and maybe include the robot make and controller version. You gave absolutely no information in your question for anyone to be able to answer.

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