hello all. The welders playing up.

The wire keeps sticking to the tip, which then causes the next attempt to push the swan neck out of the metal block in the handle. I think in the beginning the rubber cover used to clamp it into the plastic handle, however its worn loose with age. I keep taking it apart and pushing it back together, however i want to fix it perminantly cos it holds up progress. Question is, does this joint have to conduct electricity? i cant remember if the current joins the wire in the large block in the handle or if the magic happens at the tip. The alternatives are simply glue it, or strip it and solder it in perminant.

Also, the spring that runs inside the swan neck, is this needed? It has been melted onto the wire in the past as it all fell apart in my hand, still useable but id rather have rid if its not needed.

As every your collective knowledge is appreciated

I was advised by welduk.com to ditch the steel spiral inside the swan neck as it causes more trouble than it is worth.

My mate's had a plastic one in there and it melted, I had to blowlamp it to get the rest out. It's easier to get the wire through now. I put a piece of airline round the swan neck up to the gas shroud, it looks and works like a new one now.

Joel, how often do you change your tip? They do wear at an amazing rate. They should be replaced at least for every 5kgs of wire, more if using 0.6mm wire

Buy yourself a can of anti-spatter and spray it in the shroud and tip before you start welding and again periodicaly...it forms a kind of waxy mambrane which will stop the weld adhering to it. It will also stop you from welding onto the tip and make your welds look nicer! It really does work very well.....I'm runing mine with nothing in the swan neck at the moment though I'm about to extend my teflon liner up into it for ali welding....The tip conducts the electricity to the filler wire but obviously it needs to get the current from somewhere - the swan neck so make sure what ever you do doesn't insulate the two bits from each other.....best way of doing it is anything that involves bare metal touching bare metal put it back together so that the end result is the same - eg no glue! Oli.

cheers chaps. Ive put it back together temporarily again, with a new tip (the old one was only about 2 weeks old, but my first one lasted 2 years!) and it has started sticking immediately. So i conclude my settings are wrong. Would having the wire feed too low cause this? the rate seems fine from the welds it does though. Its 0.8mm wire by the way, latterly being used on full power for tack welds.

As for the swan neck, im thinking soldering it in might be best.

well, its gone from bad to worse! Just finished welding two 3x25mm flat bars together, and it melted the entire tip! Literally, had the full thing in the sheath glowing red and drooping to one side.

Heres a picture of the results. It appears to have poor penentration at first, with far too much filler piled on top, but at the end its a melted valley with far too little in it.

Any thoughts?
Rescued attachment weld.JPG

Sounds like the rollers are skidding and you have compensated by increasing the wire feed.

High initial build, followed by undercut and hollow weld and the wire balling back and fusing with the tip.

Joel, your first tip did not last for 2 years, it just didn't get changed for 2 years

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Originally posted by Mark Allanson
Joel, your first tip did not last for 2 years, it just didn't get changed for 2 years

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Swan neck on SIP welders is held in by small allen screw that works loose as you clean shrouds and tips. I have to constantly tighten mine
Alex

A friend of mine has fitted a euro conversion to his 150 amp welder and now uses a proper Binzl torch. You can buy the torch complete with cable and liner for £35 from the same place and for less at places like John Davies . These use real tips and shrouds and are ten times better than sip or clarke and usually better price.