Miller XR control wire feeder compatibility with other miller guns?
Hey guys, I'm new to owning Miller stuff, so I'm trying to research as much as I can before blindly spending money on more things. I have a Miller XR wire feeder, originally set up to feed aluminum wire. It did NOT have the expensive pull gun included. What I want to do is set it up with a standard MIG gun for regular steel wire. I have an ESAB CCCV power source for it.
Does anyone here own one and could you check to see if it accepts "normal" Miller guns? I'm pretty sure that it's a standard Miller hookup, but since I don't have a gun I can't check. Also don't want to spend money on a gun only to find out it won't fit/work.
If it does fit, could you include the model number of your gun? I appreciate your time and interest in helping out a noob!
Re: Miller XR control wire feeder compatibility with other miller guns?
Originally Posted by andremajic
Hey guys, I'm new to owning Miller stuff, so I'm trying to research as much as I can before blindly spending money on more things. I have a Miller XR wire feeder, originally set up to feed aluminum wire. It did NOT have the expensive pull gun included. What I want to do is set it up with a standard MIG gun for regular steel wire. I have an ESAB CCCV power source for it.
Does anyone here own one and could you check to see if it accepts "normal" Miller guns? I'm pretty sure that it's a standard Miller hookup, but since I don't have a gun I can't check. Also don't want to spend money on a gun only to find out it won't fit/work.
If it does fit, could you include the model number of your gun? I appreciate your time and interest in helping out a noob!
Thanks in advance!
Welcome!
I don't have any experience with the XR feeder, but I do know that the back end for the current XR Aluma-Pro gun is the same as any other Miller back end...I can put a generic Miller gun on my 350P as well as the XR. I'm sure one of the experts here will be able to help more.
Just to be safe...there are a couple of different XR variations, so if you know which you have it might be helpful.
Miller Syncrowave 250DX
Millermatic 350P with XR AlumaPro
Miller Regency 200 with 22A feeder and Spoolmatic 3
Hobart Champion Elite
Everlast PowerTig 210EXT
I found a local guy that I can take it to who is willing to let me hook it up to his Miller power source, just to check if it works and powers up. I'm 99 percent sure it will, but it'll be good to make sure.
From what I'm finding online, the regular MIG guns have a 4 pin amphenol plug and the alumapro guns have a 10 pin amphenol plug. I found some military surplus 10 pin plugs that match the dimensions on ebay for 20.00
Page 50, which I've attached as a pdf shows the pinout for the alumapro guns. Pull motor is the red and black cords on pins B+C. Pin A goes to "gun assembly" (Not sure what that symbol is or what it does, maybe a ground?) Brown and green cords Pin D+G go to the trigger. Red,White,Black wires with Pins E,F,H go to the variable resistor Potentiometer? Says R4 and CW with an arrow pointing to the left. (Not sure what that means) Looks like pins J+H have a jumper. I looked up the electrical symbol for a potentiometer and it doesn't match what I'm seeing in the diagram.
I'm thinking that I can make it work, but I might need to wire in a potentiometer to "trick" the feeder into speeding up or slowing down the feed, although there is a potentiometer on the case its self, so that might not be needed. I'm not too savvy with electronics, but maybe someone else can read and spot any errors in my thinking or what I've read?
I called miller tech support and left a message and they haven't called me back yet. Because of the hours at my new job, the only time I get time to make phone calls is on my lunch break and I haven't been too successful getting a live person on the phone. When I get off work, Miller is closed. Thanks to those who are reading and helping me out!
Re: Miller XR control wire feeder compatibility with other miller guns?
Another idea I had would be to just sell the feeder and buy what I want with the proceeds. Or trade with the right person? Anyone got an ESAB wire feeder they want to trade?
Re: Miller XR control wire feeder compatibility with other miller guns?
Just to let you guys know this feeder will only use XR guns. Miller's answer to the
cobramatic. Drive motor in the box only runs at one speed and is barely strong enough to pull the wire off the spool and push it into the gun conduit.
Speed control is on the gun and the gun motor does all the work and controls the wire speed. Hooking up a pot will not change the speed on the push motor.
It will run any Miller spoolgun or alumapro style gun with the standard 10 pin plug.
There is a spoolgun style gun that has a conduit to it, instead of a wire spool box.