Welding Forum web site
 

The welding forum has proved to be very useful to me , see link.

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

My cheap SIP 170 mig welder has always been a problem, it suffers from a inconsistent wire feed. After reading all of the posts on the Sip sub-forum I can see why !

Mike

Welding forum
 

Hi Mike,
This welding forum I have found very useful over the years.
Graeme

http://weldingweb.com/

Thanks for the Welding Forums
 

Thanks for the two Welding Forums, very timely I'm hosting a welding seminar in my shop tomorrow, so I'll share the information source with those attending.

We're going to have 7 different welding machines of different types for a hands on welding experience for our local MV Club members. I've been doing this for the last 4 or 5 years. In the past we've just used my welding units, but tomorrow we have 4 different mig units to have a comparison welding demonstration. Argon-C02, straight C02, top end flux-wire, and low price flux-wire, should be interesting to see how they do on different thickness steel.

Cheers Phil

Snap
 

I love my little SIP Mig but I agree about the wire feed. I've been having a hard time with the repairs to my Dodge panel van, spending more time persuading the Mig to work than welding with it.

I was looking for a Lincoln 180 to replace it, but the latest retail price is ££££

Gordon

I transformed my old Clark machine by fitting a metal liner to the wire feed, never looked back feeds as smooth as can be. Here in the UK Machine Mart sell them for just a few pounds easy to fit and would recommend it.

The other little trick is to use two old cloths pegs and clip a wad of wire wool onto the wire and a small wad of rag after it just before the feed rollers, it cleans the wire up a treat. Also in colder wetter climes its a good idea to take the roll off and keep it in the airing cupboard in between jobs.

Pete

Rust on the wire
 

Peter- You are spot on with one of the major problems with wire feed that are not used all the time, rust on the wire.

The wire wipe idea is a real good one. The rust on the wire will ruin the wire tube as it accelerates wear cause uneven or jumpy feed, wears the tips etc. I remove my wire spools when not welding and store them in a good tight container with desiccant bags. Learn this hard way when I had to throw out a large spool of wire that had gotten rusty.

The other little kooky thing is if you use your mig to weld aluminum you have to have a separate wire liner (generally plastic I think) to use with the aluminum wire or else you get cross contamination and a lot of sputter and nasty looking welds.

Thanks for the reminder as I will remember now to include that in tomorrows class.

Cheers Phil

Sip
 

Gordon

If you read through the SIP sub-forum on that first web site, you will see many others had have similar problems. Some guys have come up with clever mods that result in a nice welder .

1. You can brace the feed rollers with a simple piece of metal, this simple mod reduces the rollers tendency to flex under load . The SIP wire feed mechanism is really a poor bit of design.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/sip-wirefeed.htm

2.The metal wire liner helps a lot apparently , they normally come standard with a plastic liner. For Aussies , the BOB the WELDER web site sells them.

http://www.bobthewelder.com.au/home....ction=0&page=2,

3.You can do the simple electronic mods. A capacitor across the wire feed motor helps to steady the voltage and smooth out the drive. And, there is a electronic switch mod. as well .

Mike

Mods
 

I like the little bracket across the rollers, and will go for a metal liner plus new swan neck spring, shield, and tip when I can get them.

The one time it always works is when I set if flat out, when it will happily weld 1/4" till it overheats and cuts out.

I think I killed the first SIP on Dusty DUKW, but this one has done everything since then, but with increasingly erratic wire feed since it has never had a new liner. I'm working on the rear doors of the WD21 van at the minute, where the repairs are actually quite simple if I could just get the MIG to run consistently.

Long tem the people on the fora always seem to head towards a Portamig so that might be worth a look too.

Gordon