<VV> Mig welder

[corvairduval at cox.net]

In the shop we used the 120V Solar mig welder as the second shop welder. At
one point, it had wire feed problems. Very frustrating. We tried the usual,
adjust tension, replace tips, etc. Still weld for a while and then
birdsnest. The Miller ran out of wire one day, so I was taking the small
spool out of the Solar to use, when I noticed the wire did not come off the
reel easily. Yes, the reel was wound improperly!

A new reel of wire and the Solar continued to weld just fine.

Frank DuVal

Original email:
-----------------
From: Bryan Blackwell via VirtualVairs virtualvairs at corvair.org
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 14:15:05 -0500
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> Mig welder


On Feb 4, 2015, at 6:10 PM, Rnojunkmail at aol.com via VirtualVairs
<virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:
> 
> I know it sounds amateurish, but for the money, if you don't use it too
often, HARBOR FREIGHT is the way to go. I bought a 65 fred flinstone monza
and mig welded 4 clarks floors, trunk holes, and quarter panels. With a 20%
off coupon it cost 185. Six months later I'm still using it. It's a good
store to patronize, but you have to live nearby in order to keep returniing
the tools that break. They're good about exchanges

Sometimes it takes a little prodding to get the light bulb to come on in my
head :-)

So the unit I'm using now I got from HF many moons ago.  I did a fair
amount of "ok" level welding with it.  After reflecting on my recent
issues, it dawned on me that it used to work pretty well, and that's the
frustration - I do kinda suck as a weldor, but not *this* badly.

In particular, the wire drive doesn't quite seem to work as it should,
needless to say you get nasty welds when that happens.  What I finally
realized is I've reached the "chuck it and buy a new one" part of the
cycle.  I'd care to bet that the quality of even the HF stuff has gone up
considerably, but of course there is the parts issue - I'm going to toss
this one where I could likely fix a better unit.

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