Hello all, I need help.

[xspeed3]

I recently had a trip up to my head office in Chesterfield,Derbyshire (I'm based in Gravesend,Kent) I was up there doing a course and also to have a stock audit. I noticed in the warehouse a boxed Wolf 150 turbo mig welder.
I can see it isn't great quality but I asked if I could take it, as it would come in handy. Got home put on the wheels, plug and got it ready for feeding the wire through. It started off ok but as it got to the tip it jammed (I forgot to remove tip) so I removed the tip and started again. A horrible grinding noise appeared, coming from the wire feed. Took it apart and found one of the plastic pinion gears had stripped teeth. Now I know that this machine is, for want of a better word, crap. Still it would probably be ok for what I need if I could source a new pinion gear, or preferably a much sturdier wire feed.
Any Ideas welcome.

Regards

xspeed3

 

[weldequip]

You did used to be able to buy a replacement nylon gear set for Sealey & Clarke machines but I'm pretty sure you can't now & have to buy the full motor/gearbox assembly.
This is a good point to mention for users; if you ever weld the wire to the copper contact tip (which can be caused by getting too close to the job, not enough wire feed speed or a blocked torch lining) STOP! pressing the trigger & manually cut off the wire & replace the tip. If you keep pressing the torch trigger you will end up in a similar situation, stripping the teeth on the nylon gears inside the gearbox.
weldequip

 

[malcolm]

If you keep pressing the torch trigger you will end up in a similar situation, stripping the teeth on the nylon gears inside the gearbox.
weldequip

Isn't that a wire feed tension thing? Better to set the tension so the wire feeds, but not to set it so the motor stalls when the wire is gripped. Having said that, surely the motor should normally stall before the gearing breaks? Otherwise I should change the advice I'm giving out in the tutorial so people don't get anywhere near that point.

 

[weldequip]

Too much tension on the wire certainly won't help & you are quite correct Malcolm, setting the tension so it just picks up the wire to give a constant feed.
Stripping the nylon gears in the gearbox is pretty extreme, as the wire usually starts to bunch up at the feed rollers before this happens, but it can & does sometimes happen.
weldequip