Welding Tips and Tricks

Do the red and black mig wire cleaners and lubers really work to promote smooth wire flow?

I put one in my MIller 252 when I bought it new. Every so often I take the cabinet off of it and blow out the dust and inspect the felt. The felt always looks brand new so I never worry about it. The best advice I can offer is use quality wire because it's clean. On my old Millermatic 200, I had a spool of so so quality wire that rusted a little and filled the liner with rust and stopped welding. IMO the wire cleaners would be useful in a busy shop with lots of grinder dust in the air but not in a hobby shop.

I skip the lube pad, since clean wire in a clean liner shouldn't need any help. I suppose if I were pushing a heavier/stiffer wire like 1/16 it might show a difference, but I've never noticed any with .035 and .045. I do use the cleaner pads, as our machines are in a dusty environment. I consider them cheap insurance against dirt accumulating in the liner. Our machines don't see continuous use as in a production shop, but get far more hours than the average hobbyist or weekend warrior will put on one, and each pad easily lasts a year. I will occasionally flush one out with brake parts cleaner, and it's amazing the gunk that they've caught.

Steve S

I use them. Cheap insurance IMHO. I had an issue with one mig welder that wouldn't feed. Turned out there was rust dust build up in the liner from the wire getting rusting. I had to use compressed air to clean out the liner. I am not saying I've seen these work......but I figure why not.

Thank you for your input