Mig .025 welding wire and .023 tips

chuckinnc · Aug 21, 2014

My used mig came with .030 and .025 wire but only
.030 tips, the local welding shops and online ones
sell only .023 tips, does anyone know if the wire will work with a .023 tip.

NCWayne · Aug 21, 2014

Depending on the tolerances you might get by with the .023 tip and the .025 wire, but don't count on it, and as far as the .030 wire and the smaller tips, forget about it.

For tips check places like Northern Tool, they sometimes have some of the more odd ball, small tips on their shelves for the smaller welders.

Greg_Ky · Aug 21, 2014

Why not just pick up a spool of ER70S6 .023 wire and be done with it.

chuckinnc · Aug 21, 2014

yep, good idea, I received several Lincoln .025 & .030 spools with the mig, but was setup with .035 flux wire.
I bought a gas tank, hooked it up but still need
.030 and .025 tips, the company sells a kit with
with extra gas nozzels, .023 and .030 tips, would like to buy the kit instead of pieces and parts here
and there. I do need extra nozzels and .030 tips(10)
and would be nice if the .023 (10( tips worked out also.

Greg_Ky · Aug 21, 2014

Don't forget to switch the polarity when switching from flux core to solid wire. .025 is an oddball, we only sold .023 where I worked years ago.

Johnski · Aug 21, 2014

If you run the .025 wire through the .030 tip you"ll never know the difference.
if you want to run .023 wire then use the .023 tip.
HTH Jf

chuckinnc · Aug 21, 2014

So the welder has a .035 tip for flux wire now, then it should work with .30 mg too?

Johnski · Aug 21, 2014

I don"t see why it wouldn't. If you think about it the .005 difference in diameter works out to .0025 additional clearance around the wire. I don"t run any .035 wire but I have used .023 in an .030 tip when I was out of small tips. I never noticed any problems with wire feeding or weld quality. Of course I"m just repairing stuff not doing X-ray welds in a nuclear power plant. Jf

TimV · Aug 21, 2014

Chuck: 0.025" is an oddball size, but do you have any small drill bits? Would seem a simple matter to drill the 0.023" tip out a couple thousandths if it was binding. Strictly a salvage operation, but might get you through until you burned up the wire you have. A #72 drill is 0.025", and a #71 is 0.026".

Mike(NEOhio) · Aug 21, 2014

Wire ODs tend to be a little under what the label says and tip IDs are already slightly larger than the wire. You should be OK with what you have. At least try it first.

Stan in Oly, WA · Aug 22, 2014

I don't know how much oversized a contact tip has to be before you can start having problems with it, but I know it can happen. A couple of years ago I kept having to help a student whose GMAW/MIG welder tangled up the wire inside the welder several times in a row. What I finally determined was that he was using a .045 tip with .030 wire. (There were a lot of .045 tips around because some of the machines were set up for teaching dual shield, which runs .045 wire.) With .015 total clearance, the wire would sometimes lose contact with the tip. When that would happen, the arc would stop but the wire wouldn't---the drive rollers would keep pushing wire, but with it stubbed out against the work there was nowhere for it to go, so it bunched up inside the welder. What convinced me that that was the cause of the problem was that when we put a .030 tip on, it didn't happen any more.

Stan

tiresntracks · Aug 22, 2014

Stan, I always try to set the tension on my drive rolls so that they are just tight enough to feed the wire, but they will slip if the wire hangs up. That way you don't have a rats nest inside the welder. Doesn't work if you're using knurled drive rolls, though.

Anonymous-0 · Aug 22, 2014

You drill out the 023 to 025
pin drill
or your gas welding tip cleaner for a few swipes

Mig .025 welding wire and .023 tips

chuckinnc

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NCWayne

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Greg_Ky

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chuckinnc

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Greg_Ky

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Johnski

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chuckinnc

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Johnski

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TimV

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Mike(NEOhio)

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Stan in Oly, WA

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tiresntracks

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Anonymous-0

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