COMMON MIG WELDER FAULTS AND HOW TO FIX THEM

Here's a few tips on how to troubleshoot any problems your having with your mig welder. Give it a wathch and you will be back up and running in no time.

My names Matt Urch and I own and run Urchfab welding and fabrication.
I specialise in custom automotive fabrication from building roll cages to complete one off builds.
I built the worlds most unique and oldest drift car known as the drift rod which can be found on my channel.
So if your into grinding, welding, fabricating, drifting, going fast etc, your in the right place!

[melaniewmsn]

Great video this is super well put together with a ton of useful advice. This will help a lot of people to get that old MIG running great again. I am a bit picky and put these parts on and in every year or so. I like to solve the problem before it is a problem, that is what you do also and that is one reason your work is clean and neat. I run a metal to dirt hard face that is hard on the welder. I bought a broken miller for 200$ and fixed that welder and use it for hard face and inershield wire only. I must say that I love the original content of this video. Thank you for posting this. I expect a lot of views and likes for this.

[Finne]

I had this moment today, welding on VW T4 Bus, it was actually the wire feed that had a problem, always look after your workshop equipment, thx for another good video Matt.

[stephenjohnston]

Thank-you for taking the time to share your knowledge and tips to newbies like me (and the greater Youtube audience). The way you present and package your tips is fist-rate. Great Mate!

[julias-shed]

Hi Matt, great video. I have an ancient Cebora 180 Turbo MIG (don't laugh!) I found changing the liner from a plastic tube to the coiled wire type made a huge difference, it just works now. Keeping wire in a ziplock bag or cling film helps keep the wire usable too. Cheers Julia.

[awtistiaeth]

Thanks/Diolch. Very well explained, and confirmed what I thought is likely wrong with my Eland 160. it has played up for ages despite new liners, wire etc but I've just discovered the dinse plug is loose in the socket so it'll be easy to fix. Thanks again/Diolch eto.

[Nextbgg]

nice videos. i was stuck at work having problem with my mig welder. but thanx as this video solved my problem

[regsparkes]

Thank you for this video with al those tips on what to look for and how to correct any faults..
Nice to see clear easy to follow along video instructions like this. Thumbs Up!

[ldnwholesale]

As someone who does not use their mig for months I find putting the whole machine in a plastic bag helps, And if the wire is rusty you can usually feed 20-30 ft out.
I use CRC teflon spray down the liner. Works well.
As for the rest you are 100% spot on. Though too many migs have bad rollers from new!

[fred]

Thank you what you said all makes sense. I will be willing to bet that a lot of perfectly good welders have been tipped in the bin.

[terencehawkes]

These are really good tips. I have never had such well presented practical explanations.

[leedickenson]

Thank you for the extremely useful video!

[bernardwarr]

Great information, thanks for sharing your knowledge. My welder is similar to yours, but much older and only 180 amps. I have never serviced it, and I particularly like your earth clamp mod, bolted inside. My welder has a 6 position switch, but now only works on the high setting! I suspect the rotary switch, are this easy to get and change?

[SimonHollandfilms]

Good stuff...thanks...my mig welder feeds badly but I am afraid to do your wire pinch test with my finger....I’ll weld my finger.

[jaquesdaniels]

Good one, another thing to check is the polarity change, some machine;s have tabs to swap over held in place by nuts, if the nuts get loose, the tabs arc when the trigger is pulled, can drive you nuts (geddit) trying to fault find. Also, for anyone new to MIG welding, check the shroud for spatter build up, (you get arcing in the shroud) and wire burn back on the tip-wire wont feed. Good point on the rusty wire, I've heard it said that running flux core wire, then changing to gas shielded can sometimes cause problems as the fluxcore can contaminate the liner, but I've never had that problem myself.

[robkovacs]

Hi, I am looking to buy one of these. I noticed that the chart on the inside cover (of the photos of the one I am looking at) mentions welding aluminium, but I don't see any connections on your machine for a spool gun or whatever. How do you set this machine up to weld aluminium? What torch and controls are there to do this? Cheers, Rob

[wurzle]

Helpful video again keep em coming mate 👍

[Mrdubomb]

I would add, you should blow out the whip occasionally, i was having a lot of intemittant problems with my welds with the welder i use at work, (TA-190) it would feel like wire slipping, then no gas, etc, etc, just doing bizzare things. By accident I found the issue, it was dust build-up in the whip.
This thing welds great now.

[stevegreenwood]

Thanks man whatever your name is ! its good to remember this stuff, l was having problems with my old mig so replaced the earth lead as you mentioned and bingo !!!! works great !! now !! (little handy info maybe ...l had some old jump start leads so l used one of these for the new earth wire and the clamp that was already on it is perfect ...easypeasy :-)

[good-boy-ringo]

Teeth on a roller is for flex core wire . At time 7:07

[williamangel]

I bought a cheap Harbor Freight wire welder Chicago Welder Flux 125 a couple years ago. I was moving so didn't get a chance to use it back them. Setup was ok and tried it. Just got a good spark then nothing. Wire comes through still but no weld spark. I've tried the ground, checked inside the 2 glass fuses on board. All seem ok. Since I didn't use it for so long it's well out of warranty and still brand new. Any advice would be appreciated. TYIA