Welding Machine Troubleshooting

Video Transcript

" Hello! My name is Mac and on behalf of expertvillage.com I am here to discuss MIG welding. Today we are going to talk about troubleshooting problems with the MIG welding machine. Now, unlike a stick welding machine that is really very simple to operate. MIG welding machines are very sophisticated and complicated. If any little thing goes wrong, it will drastically affect the operation of the machine. For instance, if you have badly worn drive rollers they will slip on the wire and not feed it properly to the MIG gun. If the liner carrying the wire down to the MIG gun, gets dirty and contaminated, it can begin to constrict the movement of the wire through it and that will affect the operation of the machine. It will work very hard to get very little done, you can have a badly worn tip inside of the gun where the wire exits the machine. This is where the electricity gets on the wire and if it is not in tip top condition it would not very well. This gas diffuser on the end here, this MIG welding cup can get plugged with spatter and if that happens you would not get the proper gas coverage. A bad ground clamp, a bad connection here can cause a lot of resistance and will badly affect the way that the electrical current travels back to the machine. If this gets arced-out and gets covered with oxides, this can be a problem because it can slow down the transfer of electrons and the electricity. A bad connection on the machine itself can cause problems, a badly worn welding cable. If your brake is set too tight on the wire spool, it can affect the way that the machine operates or inversely if it is set too light, it can cause problems. The gas regulator is necessary, the proper flow of gas, inside the machine there are all kinds of electronic parts and pieces, I do not recommend anybody open the machine up and try and service themselves. This is a work for a qualified electrician but there are all kinds of contactor switches etc. if they are not working properly the whole machine will not work. The little switch inside the gun here, the little micro switch, if it is not working properly and nothing but headaches. Like I say there is an awful lot of stuff on this machine and it all has to work properly or you are going to have a lot of trouble making a proper MIG weld. "