I've been practicing my welding in advance of building my chassis and have picked up a SIP Migmate turbo. I amhaving a problem with the wire jamming and snagging just after the feed wheel, before it enters the tube. its doing this with different sizes of wire. i can get the wire all the way to the gun but a few seconds in to welding it jams. very frustrating as the wire needs cutting and re-feeding the whole length of its tube and out of the gun again. 2 simple welds that would normally take 2 minutes took 2 hours!! dont want to shell out too much but could dtretch to a new gun and tubes. any other suggestions?

could be that i just have a crap machine? that being the case, any suggestions for a budget mig?

Have a look on here...

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/index.php

You'll find everything you need to know there...

Sadly you have a crap machine (imho)
How much space is there between the feed roller's and the liner ? You could try pulling the liner right up to the rollers , and cutting chamfers on the liner , to eliminate any gap .

quote:

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Originally posted by clairetoo
Sadly you have a crap machine (imho)

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Perhaps your feeding wheel doesn't allow some slip ? Normally you should set the feeding wheel so it starts to slip if you block the wire between your two fingers at the gun side.

Go on the Mig Welding forum as stated above. There are loads of Mods you can do to the SIP to improve it.

I had a SIP 150 turbo and the wire feed drove me insane. I eventually sold it on Ebay for £130 and in the same week bought a Snap-on Mig 2nd hand for £230. I have never looked back!

Clarke welders are also supposed to be very good and parts are cheap and easy to get hold of.

is it new spool of wire, as if its got surface rust on wire can increase sticking, tried keeping the run of the tube as straight as possible when welding? and what are the tips like if you been welding to close can melt at the end and reduce the hole diameter, just ideas to think of

My first welder was an SIP - the wire feed drove me mad allso....................it would either slip , or bundle up , then the fan wouldnt keep it cool enough so on the odd occasion that it would weld , it would cut out after a couple of minutes
I allso had an SIP compressor , till the tank cracked , and then the motor burned out.........these days I wont touch SIP stuff with a very long stick
I bought a Clarke 160 turbo , and it's been totally reliable for the last five years........

I had the same problem with my Cebora, which is a high end machine.

I changed the liner which solved the problem. It was that long ago I'm about to change it again now.

do you know what is causing it to stick?

you need to keep the long snake like thing as stright as posisble, not sharp curves.

also is the tip in good nick?

is the wire melting back and wleding itself to the tip?

I had the latter on clarke MIG - turned out the monkeys put on wrong connectors for hte feed motor so that it wouldn't start on occasision.

if it is a new mechine, it may well be faulty - best get a mate ywho knows about using MIG to come and play to determine if is the tool or the workman!!

I agree the SIP is crap, but I put a steel liner in mine (cheapo from Machine Mart) and it works fine now.

I had a 130 Autoplus for years and with a coiled liner it never had problems. Check the feed roller is not too tight on the wire and the liner extends as near to the rolls as possible.

Check the torch liner, over time the wire picks up bits of nylon from the nylon liner, and deposits it in the torch liner, this being a tightly wound spring. As the torch liner gets hot and melts the bits of nylon deposited, it creates drag on the welding wire. A soak in cellulose thinners and poke out with welding rod sorted mine.

As already mentioned, change your liner,
swapped mine over on my clarke welder from plastic to steel after having similar problems , been great since. - got it off e-bay.

Is the roller wheels the right ones for the size of wire?
Are the feed rollers to tight ?
is the tip the right size for the wire
Is the tip tight nip with pliers
Dose the wire have rust on it [ renew if so ]
is the liner the right length if not it will move back and forth if not renew
Jacko

I've three sip welders and they all have a common problem...

You need to make a support bracket to secure the two wire wheels.

I bought the last one from welduk.com buy all my sip welders now work without fault.

quote:

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Originally posted by joolsmi16
I've three sip welders and they all have a common problem...

You need to make a support bracket to secure the two wire wheels.

I bought the last one from welduk.com buy all my sip welders now work without fault.

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HERE

Cheers chap

Thamks for the tips fellas, the machine is practically new, the guy i got it from only tried to use it one before he gave up and got a pro welder to do the job for him. no rust on wire but the tension in the wheels is really high, otherwise they arent strong enough to push the wire through so probably a tube issue going by your comments. I have in desperation completely nackered the torch now so its off to ebay for me.

this is the fourth tool from sip that has been crap.

Thanks again.

BTW how does TIG compare when welding a chassis? similar to mig but you have to feed the filler rods yourself?

Oh Dear....

I have a SIP 150 Turbo and it has done my head in with feed problems. I have welded my Lada a lot as you can imagine !

It prefers 0.6 wire, and dont tighten the thumbwheel tensioner joke wheel too much.

I stupidly thought I was buying a decent "cheap" mig with the SIP.

Ive just swapped for for Clarke195 and it just works.

I did have a Clarke 120amp years ago and that always worked well.


Sell it and save on frustration, I even rang SIP UK and told them what a pile of poo it was after a wasted morning in the garage !

Get rid

I got rid of my SIP 150. I just couldnt get on with it. Simmilar wire feed problems.

Got a DC TIG off Ebay £192 delivered for a 200A machine.
That works a treat, although the wire slips through my fingers these days
Downside is the expensive Gas.