110v welder problems

[brans72]

I have a 110v welder with gas and seems from what I can tell at times it dropping amperage and not melting wire fast enough leaveing crappy welds. Also when welder is messing up it trips breaker (tried 2 different breakers circuits). So when seems to do amperage drop wire starts to skip/jump/pop. So anyone wanna help? Yes ground was good in my book,new metal was raw unfinished 18 gauge to old metal on truck bed that was cleaned very good before welding. Can say ground wire is wire from like car quest and is thick, just does not bend easy and sucks to try to roll up. Thanks in advance Brandon

[grenade inspector]

whats the duty cycle on the welder? most of those little welders are not meant for continuous welding, you have to lay a little bead and then take a break and lay a little more. Otherwise you'll ruin the welder.

[HI!]

If your outlet in the wall/ wiring is not big enough youll have a brown out on your welder. Also your wire size you should be welding with is .023 . If its bigger you might not be getting the right amount of heat to the work and will cause you weird issues. Check your grounds to the material/machine.
Id like to add if your using a extention cord, it better be a 20amp cord or you will have problems too.

[John Wright]

need a 20amp breaker for most of those lil 110v wire welders

Keep the ESO(stick out) fairly short 5/8 - 3/4" so that the machine doesn't have to ramp way up to maintain a constant voltage while welding. These machines are constant voltage machines(CV) and they will regulate the amperage up and down to maintain a constant voltage across the arc.

Also trim the flux ball off the end of the wire before you strike an arc...sometimes this can cause the wire to perform like you described.

[John Wright]

whats the duty cycle on the welder? most of those little welders are not meant for continuous welding, you have to lay a little bead and then take a break and lay a little more. Otherwise you'll ruin the welder.

some of the lil welders have internal trips so when the fan cuts on and it still can't keep up with cooling, it will cut out and trip the lil bi-metal switch to keep from cooking the windings. If this happens you'll have to wait until it cools off to reset the switch before it will strike an arc again.

[grenade inspector]

^ hopefully they do, but thermal overload protection costs money and companies love to cost cut on the low budget stuff...

[brans72]

ok so took a break and tried it today with weather alot cooler with strom over most of NC. The welder worked very good today and started thinking that maybe the welder needs it own 20 amp breaker (only thing I could think of due to weather). What do you guys think?

[Kamikaze Sy]

Another thing to look at is if your wire has been sitting unused for some time. Filler wire can get deposits and dirty from sitting. Especially in high humidity areas.

This is why I like to have the cleaning / treatment pads wrapped around the wire before it meets the feed / roller mechanisms. This helps wipe off any dust and deposits and helps to keep the liner and contact tip cleaner on the inside.