Mig Welding Wire

Why has my MIG wire gone bad all of a sudden?

"I've been using this MIG wire for the last six months without a problem". "Now after having used many spools the wire its gone bad". "What's happened?

Sound familiar? The trouble here is that the person or company that you bought your MIG wire from cannot guarantee you quality.

Did you buy the cheapest stuff you could find? Ha-ha...As the saying goes, "he who buys on price, and price only, gets what he paid for".

Sounds harsh but that's the truth. Quite often you find end users happily welding away with their current brand of MIG wire. When all of a sudden they go and open up the next new pallet of wire that just arrived, slap it on the machine and the welds are all over the place.

Spatter, burn backs wire not feeding properly and so. What's going on, they think to themselves. "Ahh, I know, it must be a worn contact tip". So off they go and replace the contact tip with a new one. But no, sure enough same problem. "Well, it's been a while since I change the liner". So off they go and do that. Yet sure enough the same problem is still there.

They think to themselves, "well I've changes everything else, it can't be the wire. It's brand new and I've been using it for over six months without any trouble".

This is such a common thing to come across in the welding industry, and it affects everyone throughout the world. Whether you're in the USA, Australia, New Zealand...anywhere.

So what is it, what's the problem?

The problem is quality.

The person who is supplying your wire can not guarantee you quality. But you think to yourself, it can't be the wire, no way. I've been using this (xxxx) brand wire for ages. They are a huge massive company, they sell MIG's, TIG's all sorts of welding gear no way can it be the wire that's giving me problems....can it?

The trouble is that unless you are guaranteed the quality of you welding wire your "up a creek without a paddle", so to speak.

With so many people selling welding wire these days it is extremely hard to come by a quality wire. The majority of goods made in the world today come from China or India. With huge populations and low wages, they are the cheapest places to buy things from.

There are over three hundred manufacturers of welding wire in China alone. What does this mean to the quality of your MIG wire?

This means that if the brand of wire on the box is (xxxx) they are not the manufacture of it. You need to ask the sales person....ARE YOU THE MANUFACTURER OF THIS WIRE?

Because what happens behind the scenes is the company you bought the wire from has a big argument with their supplier in China or where ever. And they say stuff ya....well go next door and buy from them. Hey with over 300 manufacturers in China alone they can pick and choose who they like.

So they change their manufacturing supplier, and this happens all the time. But when they change manufacturer the quality also changes. That's why your wire has gone bad. And that's why they can't guarantee you the quality.

Simple as that.

Each time they change their manufacturing supplier the quality changes as well. There is a huge difference in quality of wires.

Okay so what do I do now, which wire do I buy?

The secret is to buy a wire that is supported by the manufacturer. You need a manufacturer that has been producing quality welding wires for years and years so that they have the art perfected.

Did you know that there are general "quality" MIG wires and precision MIG wires? Which type of wire do you think that the big boys use? When I say that I mean vehicle manufacturers, earthmoving manufacturers and so on, company's that use it by the tonne. What do you think they are after in a welding wire?

They are after:

• Precision

• Reliability

• Repeatability

• Consistency

• Quality

• Accuracy

How much money would Toyota or Mitsubishi or Caterpillar lose per minute if a welding machine was down? I sure bet it would be an awful, awful lot of money. These manufactures don't want a single welding machine in an assembly line to break down. Cause if one thing stops, the whole show stops.

http://www.learn-how-to-weld.com/mig-welding-wire.html

Cheers,

Peter Apalais