jiinxy

you undo the screws holding the gun to the feeder. Then undo the nozzle, tip, and diffuser from the gun. Then there should be a hex on the gun where the diffuser screws in. If you undo that then you will pull the liner out. You might get lucky and be able to fish the wire out. If not you can get a replacement liner for about $20 at the local welding store

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

It's quite possible these is unused wire stuck in the liner. I'm hoping this isn't the case as well but I will need to troubleshoot this next actually. Currently within that brass fitting, I believe there's wire tangled up in it. I currently don't have the gun and it's hose plugged into the machine.

jiinxy

If it's stuck inside the liner then you're best just replacing the liner.

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

Sorry, I re-read my message and I wasn't clear at all. The liner/mig gun isn't plugged into the machine currently. Where the wire is stuck is within that yellow outlined square in the picture above.

jiinxy

You have the gun pulled out of that copper hex then? And the liner backed out of everything? So nothing is plugged in to the hex on the outlet sure?

should be pretty easy to pull that hex off as the only thing holding it on is that nut pointing towards the rollers. There shouldn't be anything inside that to obstruct the wire.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

God damn that sucks... sorry man. Probably from the previous person either not snipping off the end so they had a clean straight piece of wire to feed into it, or they just got it up to the drive wheel and pulled the trigger instead of hand feeding it like a foot into the whip. You got seriously unlucky on that one... I'd definitely be calling up whoever sold that just to let them know they're a shitty person...

I thought that whole area you're trying to see inside could be accessed from the front when the whip is pulled out?

jiinxy

Yeah that's what I'm confused about? That block is just a power and gas interface from the welder to the whip. There's nothing inside it to get jammed up and the wire should directly feed from the rollers in to the liner? Something's not adding up

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

I jumped the gun on this one. Should've slept through the problem and troubleshooted in the morning. I figured out what was happening. I guess the PO didn't think to check if he could remove the blockage prior to selling it to me.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Glad it was a zero cost fix it seems like. I always hand feed the wire about a foot into the whip before I'll go turn it on and pull the trigger to run it out to the tip. Just don't forget to take the contact tip off first, I think the manual for that machine is available on their website.

You get to try that thing out yet?

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

Advice duly noted. I haven't done any real welding. As a test, I welded some bird doodoo looking welds to make sure the machine functioned but nothing proper. I don't have any flux core wire yet, the seller only had mig wire and I don't plan on buying gas just yet.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

I would just do yourself a favor and get gas. I avoid flux core at all cost lol.

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

I'm aiming to purchase a gas tank sometime January. My argon tank cost me ~$400 and I don't have the funds to outright purchase a tank for the mig welder yet. I know I can rent a tank of CO2 but they charge an arm and a leg. I'd rather save and purchase the tank and then get cheap refills.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Holy **** dude... you can get tanks all day for like 50 to 150 dollar range in all sorts of sizes. You got ripped off big time if you paid 400 for one.

Just get on OfferUp and look for customer owned tanks for sale. The smaller ones that have no metal valve cover that screws on the top are almost all customer owned. The larger ones (80+ CF) need to have a blank collar ring on the top and that means that it's also customer owned, if it has a company name stamped into it then don't buy it because it's stolen and used to be a rental tank.

I got my little 60CF tank full of mig gas already for 100 bucks, and my empty 280CF monster tank for 80 dollars but it was out of date, the hydro test fee was only like 20 dollars though.

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

The tank was brand new (I didn't know any better at the time) and I didn't want to risk buying an old tank that i'd have to get tested. I don't know the exact size but it's roughly 6" in diameter and like 5 feet tall. It's a pretty large tank that I purchased. I'll look for used tanks this time around.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like maybe a 125 or 150cf. That's a pretty standard "home gamer" size. The next step up is 280-ish and those are larger diameter like you see in my picture of my Primeweld Tig225x. Still though most welding shops around here would have sold me a tank outright that size for like 200 maybe? Crazy.

One thing that will help with your search on OfferUp is to also include searches for helium or nitrogen tanks, or broad terms like "welding tank" or "welding cylinder" or "gas cylinder" etc etc. They use the same valves and most local welding supply (LWS) will exchange them for full tanks of whatever else you want like argon or A75/C25 mig gas. Just call ahead to be sure. The most important thing is to not to get one with a company name cast into the collar near the top or they will just confiscate it when you bring it in. I almost learned the hard way on that one.

Erat

iTrader: (5)

I'm confused. Why would you buy a tank instead of just renting it?

I think the tank rental fee is only a one time $50 payment. Then you never have to worry about replacing it, getting it tested or wait to get it filled. Just exchange it. I think I pay $25 for a 40cu/ft bottle refill.

Perhaps this is all geography based. It may just be far cheaper around here because the industry is much larger.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Usually this stuff differs from state to state but regionally it can be pretty close. There are some states where you can't even "own" the 125cf and larger tanks and basically have to rent, all sorts of weird ****. There's not really any hard laws it's just an unspoken code of the trade or something. So AZ and Texas might be kind of similar but I'm not 100% sure.

For example I've never heard of a one time rental fee. All the places around here you have to put a deposit down and then you pay a recurring fee either monthly, every 6 months, a year etc.

My pricing on my account is around 55 bucks to swap a 125cf tank with 75/25 mig gas, or 30 bucks to swap my 60cf with mig gas, and 65 bucks to swap a 280cf tank with pure argon. The bigger the tank, the better the per unit pricing is. I just roll up, unload the tanks and they give me different smooth collar "owner" tanks that are already full. I've never gotten one that had less than 5 years left on the hydro cert either.

Roda

You guys are reminding me I need to get my MIG tank refilled...

Like Aaron, I "bought" my tanks and pay about the same as he does to swap them out. IIRC, my big TIG tank was ~$160 or so... don't remember the MIG, that was 20+ years ago.

skylinecalvin

iTrader: (2)

For whatever my tank size is, it costs ~$75 to rent the bottle each time i need a refill/replacement or $25 for me to refill a bottle that I own (argon for tig). I figured i'd break even eventually.

LukeG

My 2018 AlphaTig machine just took a **** on me. Looking to buy a new 250 amp tig welder (no mig). Budget of $2k to get the best machine I can. What do you guys recommend?

Was looking at the MT200, but it is just a cheap rebranded chinesium machine marked up.

I'm eyeing the Everlast machines right now. Any other recommendations?