welder performance ? any help me out here..........

[brans72]

I was given a firepower fp120 mig welder with the bottle/regulator but have a few problems with it performance. Short story welder was in fire at one time and got water in it from the sprinklers and then was told didn't work, I got it free took it home clean up connections with wire brush and got it working. I am wondering if I sholud put new liner in it maybe new gun cause trigger sucks compare to hobart 140 and trying to figure out best way to clean pulleys and keep the rust build up off, and could I use a electrical contact clean then use die electrial grease on all connections? welder seems to need some TLC and hey it was free and works ok but not like it fully should. Aslo little popping going on while welding but believe that might be adjustments not set right or surface not being perfectly clean for it. Any help guys? Brandon

[Kamikaze Sy]

Brandon,

What may have been a great deal financially for you, sounds like it will be a bit of labor and time for you.

The Firepower welders are decent inexpensive units. I've seen and used a few and noticed that NAPA carries parts and replacements for them.

I would definitely advise you to replace the liner as any deposits or crud from the fire / extenguishing / water will have an impact on the conductivity to the wire.

You may be able to disassemble the gun, clean the contacts and lube the trigger.

As for the wire feed rollers / pulleys and any other metal parts that can be removed, get yourself some Evapo-Rust from a hardware, or Farm supply and soak the parts to clean off the deposits then remove them and clean them with contact cleaner before installing. The shielding nozzle should be cleaned up separately and the contact tips could just be replaced.

You might need to replace the regulator for the shielding gas. I wouldn't mess with cleaning it unless your LWS can do it as a service for you. Also, trade in the cylinder and get a fresh one with clean gas. The valve on the existing cylinder could have problems as well.

Once you get the internals cleaned up, make sure your filler wire is clean, if it was in the fire, get rid of the spool and start with a fresh spool.

After this "mini-rebuild" you should be able to work with the unit to get more accustomed to the settings and performance.