Welder popping?

CThurmond

CThurmond

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Location
china grove nc
I have A clarke 180en i am using with 75/25 gas and hobart .30 wire and tips

Im welding 1/4 inch on high setting 8.2 wire speed. I have been working on my jeep for 4 months with these settings.

Now randomly the welder keeps popping and welding my wire to the end of the tip( inside the tip) ? Just a real loud pop and then wire feed stops.

Ruined 3 tips in less then 20 mins...

New tips ...spool is a few weeks old.

How can i stop this?

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Tips are same as wire .30
I used anti spatter after the first tip. Didnt seem to change for good or bad.

Going to try to get a few scrap welds tomorrow to see of its a wire feed problem.

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Try clipping the ball off the end if your wire before you start a weld. Also check spool tension and drivewheel tension to be sure it is feeding properly.
 
make sure your torch is laid out straight. sometimes they don't like pushing around tight turns
 
Chuckman said:
make sure your torch is laid out straight. sometimes they don't like pushing around tight turns
Click to expand...

I have this kind of issue with my Miller 252 sometimes when using a moderate to slow wire feed rate and trying to "kink" up the torch lead to get into a tight spot. The solution is always to straighten out the torch lead.
 
It turned out to be a kink in my wire. I hand pulled about 3 feet through and there was a real bad kink.
Not sure how it got bent up, but keeping my lead laid out seems to be kelping.

I use the welder about 2 times a week. Lately ive been running it 5 days a week though. I bought the welder a lil over a year ago and ive only ran through 25 lbs of wire and one #3 bottle of gas.

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Last edited:
Glad you found the issue!

I'll also second watching the routing of your torch lead. Just about every time I have a wire feed issue I'll look down and see that I've got a really tight curve in the lead! It drives me crazy sometimes when I am trying to get into oddly positioned welds!
 
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