Best wire for 187 Hobart 25/87 mix

Jeep_parts

Jeep_parts

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2005
Location
Kernersville, North Carolina
I recently bought a 10 lb spool of Hobart brand .035 wire for my 187 Hobart 25/75 mix welder. Ever since then I have had zero luck with the welder feeding good with this wire. I have tried everything possible to fix the problem besides replacing the liner and trying small wire like I ran last time.
On that not what are suggestion that I should do?? Return the .035 and get smaller wire like .023 or .030??

I bought the wire from Northern tool but some people stat that buying from Lowes maybe a better choice because it has Lincoln brand wire.

Here are the options of places I can go:

Home depot
Lowes
Tractor supply
Northern supply
Or a local welder supply shop

What size wire are you guys running in you 187 Hobarts??? And are you using another brand wire besides Hobart??
 
First, go to Airgas in Colfax for your wire. I bought a 2lb spool of flux core there, and the sticker price was less than half what it would have cost at TSC or Northern or Horrible Fright. Second, Lincoln makes good wires, but it's not the ones they sell at Lowe's. That's going to be pretty much the same as anything else you can get commercially. And even if you did get ahold of the good stuff, you probably couldn't tell a difference. It's subtle. And third, I highly doubt it's the wire causing the problem. I saw the other thread, and I'm not sure exactly what it's doing for you, but have you checked your liner size? Look to see if it's got a number stamped at the bottom, on a brass piece. Often, there will be two liners available. One for .023-.030 and another for .035-.045. If that's not the problem, isolate the wire. Put on a roll of smaller stuff and see if it still feeds OK.
 
Look at your drive rollers and see what size they are for. Some of the drive rollers can be turned around to fit a diff. size wire. Did you change the tip to match the wire size?
 
Airgas....

2# of .024" = $2.99

at TSC.... $12.xx



also, wire gauge is going to be related to what you are welding; I've found on both hobarts that I've used constantly (140 & 187), having the wire speed in the 30-65% range worked well... welding thin stuff go with .024, thicker .030. I accidentally bought (2) 10# spools of .035 for SPence's welder, and while it works well for welding link brackets/braces/etc, I'd rather have .030 for all around good welding (187 hobart)
 
catfishblues said:
First, go to Airgas in Colfax for your wire. I bought a 2lb spool of flux core there, and the sticker price was less than half what it would have cost at TSC or Northern or Horrible Fright. Second, Lincoln makes good wires, but it's not the ones they sell at Lowe's. That's going to be pretty much the same as anything else you can get commercially. And even if you did get ahold of the good stuff, you probably couldn't tell a difference. It's subtle. And third, I highly doubt it's the wire causing the problem. I saw the other thread, and I'm not sure exactly what it's doing for you, but have you checked your liner size? Look to see if it's got a number stamped at the bottom, on a brass piece. Often, there will be two liners available. One for .023-.030 and another for .035-.045. If that's not the problem, isolate the wire. Put on a roll of smaller stuff and see if it still feeds OK.
Click to expand...

thank you for the good info
 
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