OK, I've just got myself a Sealey Supermig 185 and having just read something elsewhere I have a question regarding the tip bits (tech term!)

The welder came with a diddy reel of 0.6mm wire. A mate of mine advised getting 0.8mm wire in a large size i.e. 15kg although I'm not sure if that would fit in the welder (differing info on that one). So do I also need a different sized tip for the two sizes of wire? I'd like to test weld with the 0.6mm stuff just really to use it up as it was "free" kind of.

The instructions for the Sealey are absolute pants! Hence why I'm not sure if this particular model will take a 15kg reel or not.

Any help muchly welcomed.

you will need a different tip for 0.8mm. I have welded my entire chassis with 0.6mm wire (on mark allanson's reccomendation) and it was fine.

Another bit of advice I've had from here is; don't use 15kg reels, the inertia tends to be too much for the feed mechanism and results in erratic welding. stick to 5kg.

Those cheap reels of wire are the major cause of erractic welding as they are not wound too clever.....15kg reel from a real welding suppliers will be better wound and better quality......Murex etc

If you use "search", or go back in this section, you will find a lot of posts with usefull advice on welding. My top tip - "push", don't "pull"

Cheers

Fred WB

15kg reels are bloody huge for a hobby mig, ive had a 5kg reel in mine for ages, doubt youd use more than a 5kg to weld up a chassis.
also, the welder probably wont take a 15kg reel, and i wouldnt recoment it anyway. at a company i worked for a while ago they had the same welder as me but mounted on a stand with a roller bearing unerneath to mount a 15kg reel on it and the machine blew 3 relays in as many weeks, and never produced half decent welds.

The 185 is a pro machine so it should take a 5kg reel. 5kg reels will last ages unless you go into production on a big scale. If you want to move the welder round the extra weight is a consideration as well. Tips are 3 for £1 where I get mine so .8mm tip isn't going to break the bank. Dump the .6 as you have loads of power to go to the bigger wire and will get better results with it.

I have a Cebora pocket MIG turbo. Have welded all chassis with 0.6 wire and CO2. I like the 0.6 but on some welders it causes problems with kinking after the feed rollers (I havn't had this problem). I use 5kg reels but a word of warning, don't keep wire in a cold damp garage over winter as it will rust even though it is copper coated and even a bit of rust causes problem due to bad contact.

If I had to do it all again I would use 0.6 wire but would use argon/CO2 mix gas as it gives a better finish and less spatter, however CO2 does give good penetration. As mentioned above you do need the correct sized tips when using different sized wire although you can sometimes get away with using a 0.8 mm tip with 0.6mm wire but I wouldn't recommend it.

Cool advice guys, thanks.

I've fed the 0.6mm wire through as far as the torch connector but the instructions say remove the gas cup + tip before feeding through the torch. I've removed the cup but haven't got many tools to hand (messing about in the dining room! ) so do the tips unscrew or just pull out? I did say the Sealey instructions were poo did I not?

the gas shroud is usually screw type on hobby welders and on pro welders they are usually a wound spring, but you do need to turn it the right way and pull or it will effectivly tighten the spring aganst the shroud, the tips are screw out usually no matter what type of welder

Tips unscrew with pliers. Feed some wire through then thread it back on with about 10mm sticking out the shroud. Don't go mad tightening it.

also, a quick tip- if you fuse the wire to the end of the tip (very easily done when learning) wait for the tip to cool down cos it will expand into the swan neck and you might remove half the tip and leave the threaded half behind which is a bugger when you are trying to progress.

Cheers guys. Just need to find the damn pliers now! New house = no idea where anything is.