mig wire drivewheel tension

[alan waters]

Wire burnback can be caused by a number of problems. Friction between the wire and the liner may be the biggest. So what do we do? Crank in a little more tension on the drivewheel,right? This was my fix it untill I stopped long enough to analyze the birdsnest my wirefeeder was building far to ofen. When a burnback occures we bump the trigger, twist the gun, dig around with mig pliers, bump the trigger some more,think or say bad things about this machine, and then we finally take the tip out and install a new one. Well, all that bumping the trigger ain't the hot tip cause with the wire welded to the tip and all that tension on the drivewheel the wire is guna go somewhere. And that it does, all around every thing it can find inside your wirefeeder.I now run just enough drivewheel tension to make the wire feed through the gun. If the burnback strikes the wheels just spin on the wire.