Mig welder problems

Slowpoke

Since you say you bought the wire feed welder recently after having done all your welding with stick, maybe you aren't aware of some of the fundamentals of wire feed yet. Do you know that whenever you change either the volts or the wire speed you have to change the other to match? Stuttering arc and terrible looking welds are characteristic of unbalanced power and wire feed settings. Also, every time the wire sticks on the work it's a dead short. In most cases, apparently, the wire burns off and keeps welding, but maybe it's the gradual buildup of heat in the breaker from those multiple brief shorts which finally trips it.

If this might be the problem, what you have to do is guess at the settings that should work together (set each up 1/4 of its full range from its zero point, for instance) then leave one alone while you adjust the other over a range above, then below, its starting point. If this is the problem, somewhere in there you'll hit the point where it welds right. At less than 21.5 volts, metal is deposited by short circuit transfer. This mode makes the familiar frying bacon sound when it's dialed in, so you can use the sound to help you find the right setting.

One other thing to check is your gas flow (unless you're using flux core, obviously.) You need somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 cu. ft/min in most cases. Pull the cup off the nozzle and make sure you've got gas coming out the ports. Too little or no gas can mess up your weld, and so can excessive gas flow.

Good luck, Stan

So make sure your weld wire is clean, make sure your tip and roller size match the wire you're using...and if all that checks out, change the liner.

I checked everything over.
The welder ran good from the start on the same 15 amp breaker.That is what my manual recommends. I am only 10 feet from the breakerbox with the plugin. the problems started recently.
I put in a new tip , the liner is clean. the roll of wire rolls good with no binding, the wire feeds out smootly when pulling the trigger out in the open, but when trying to weld it starts stuttering. The welds look like I never welded before

Hell I am still using the same little roll of wire the that came with the welder when new. that is how much i used it till now.I mayby ran it for two hours tops, but the warranty is expired now.

I mostly use the stick welder anyway.I bought this thing to weld some sheet metal, I used to run a migwelder for years before i started farming so I know how to use them.
I am stumped.