Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi, I just posted few weeks ago my first question here in the forum, well I'm working on the roof structure of a small work shop of mine, and today I started to have a very annoying problem with my Lincoln 180 MIG welder. I'm welding like 5' above where is stand my welder, and as soon as I turn on the welder it starts to feed wire (without pulling the trigger) . I guess its like a problem where the "hose" gun attaches to the welder, because when I rise the gun (without pulling the trigger) it starts feeding wire without stopping until I turn it off; and if I lower it it stops the feeding. It's very problematic because I'm loosing a lot of wire this way. Besides I can't weld.

Some tips or possible solutions?

Thanks in Advance

Esteban.

Esteban,
It sounds like there's a bare wire in the gun that completes the circuit to the wire feed motor when you raise the gun. Sometimes weld splatter will melt it's way into the coating and cause all kinds of weird things to happen.

The guns that come with that welder are fairly cheap and most welding supply stores would carry them. You could always have yours repaired for a spare to keep on hand if it ever fails again. If it's fairly new and shows no sign of abuse maybe they will replace it as defective.

Len

Agreed. It's a short circuit, and if gun position affects it, it's in the whip somewhere, probably near the machine where the trigger wires separate from the main whip.

Steve S

As for losing your wire, you can spool the wire back on if it hasnt been cut or kinked and hasnt been arced out on anything.

Thanks both of you for than fast response, is there some way to find the problem or correct/fix it? I'm not sure I can find near here a replacement for that gun in a short term (Baja, Mexico). And if I have to replace this one, can you recommend me a good quality gun please?

Thanks

Esteban.

Normally they are a gun of fair quality, and I would replace it with a in-kind replacement. I'm not an expert on mig welders but I too have the same welder and have great luck with it. But I don't have experience with a lot of other guns, as I've only ever welded with one other mig welder, which was a Miller 252.

Len

probusmex wrote:Hi, I just posted few weeks ago my first question here in the forum, well I'm working on the roof structure of a small work shop of mine, and today I started to have a very annoying problem with my Lincoln 180 MIG welder. I'm welding like 5' above where is stand my welder, and as soon as I turn on the welder it starts to feed wire (without pulling the trigger) . I guess its like a problem where the "hose" gun attaches to the welder, because when I rise the gun (without pulling the trigger) it starts feeding wire without stopping until I turn it off; and if I lower it it stops the feeding. It's very problematic because I'm loosing a lot of wire this way. Besides I can't weld.

Some tips or possible solutions?

Thanks in Advance

Esteban.

Call Lincoln in Baja.
664-686-1211

Thanks a lot all of you for your feeding, after reading the first two comments here, saying that may be a short circuit I decided that if I had to replace my gun, i will at least open it first and try to fix it, the problem was caused as you said, for a short circuit. Near the metal connector that attaches to the welder, are the 2 wire ends of the trigger, well, those were not good quality ended, they had a copper wire out (3 from one wire and 2 from the other one), they were really close one from the other so when I rise the gun they make contact closing the circuit (as if I were pulling the trigger) and making the welding wire comes out. I cut the copper wire that came out from the connector, isolate them with tape and problem solved!

Thanks all for your answers, and thanks Antorcha for the phone of Lincoln in baja, I will keep it for the future.!
Thanks Guys!

Esteban

Excellent.

Thanks to all the contributors of this thread: I suspect many of us learned from those who had experienced something like witchcraft in a welder. A good thinking model on display here, logical, calm, unphased by the curly.

Thank you.