wire spool arcing

[Tim135]

Say, I just bought a Handler 135 and was reading about your problem with the wire arcing and getting hot enough to melt a groove in the wire guide. My welder has a plastic adapter or holder for the spool that keeps the spool away from the metal inner cabinet of the welder. Did yours come with that ? I'm just curious as to how old your welder is. After reading your post I went and checked my welder and I have a metal washer, spring, and nut on the front but the plastic spacer or spool holder closest to the inside of the cabinet. Do you think I should make a thin plastic disc to put between the front side of the spool and the metal washer ? Or is the problem primarily in the back side of the spool where it's closest to the inner cabinet?
Thanks, Tim.

[grocery_getter]

I am using a 2lb wire spool on my HH135. The plastic spool adapter is only used with the big 10lb roll wire. You dont use the plastic spool adapter otherwise.

With the 2lb wire spool, the backside of the spool directly contact the round shiny disc on the back of the shaft. If you have a wire sticking out from the backside of the spool or you have the wire spool accidentally un-spooling itself and arcing on the backwall, it will become very hot. Hot enough to cut and groove the wire guide.

Andre

[Chris]

I was once using a Miller CST 300 set on mig and after I welded about an inch I heard a funny sound and at the same time the wire stopped coming out. I looked around and saw a big puff of smoke above the wire feeder. What happened was that the wire spool, which is made of metal, was tapping on the gas cylinder as it rotated. The wire going into the welder would turn red hot, sag and break. I just moved the wire feed sled forward and away from the cylinder and haven't had a problem since. Try using PVC or thick wall hard plastic as a wire guide or if you have an internal metal spool and it is touching the inside cabinet you might try separating it with a chunk of leather from an old worn out glove. Hope this helps.
Chris

[Tim135]

arcing problem

Andre, thanks for the reply. In my 135 owner's manual there is a illustration on page17 showing the installation proceedure for both the small 2 lb spool and the large 10 lb spool . There is a plastic piece (not the adapter shown below for the large spool ) that the small spool slides onto. That's what I was referring to. I guess I shouldn't have used to term adapter which may have led you to think I was using the adapter for the large spool. Anyway, I installed the small spool exactly as shown in the owner's manual and from the back side there isn't any way for wire to come in contact with the metal cabinet on my welder since the shaft has a plastic piece that the spool slides onto as shown in the illustration. That is, unless the tension was released in some way and the wire came off the spool and contacted the metal cabinet. Is your Handler different in some way? Just curious if yours is older and maybe they changed the design of the shaft and added the protective plastic part because of the problem you had.

[grocery_getter]

Go back to that original thread and look at the picture number 2 that I posted. It showed a piece of the tail end wire that was sticking out of the backside of the spool. That wire is what caused the arc in the first place. The pig tail wire was just laying there right behind the backside spool sticker and it arced thru the thin paper label to the back wall.

Tim, dont worry too much about your setup. This is not that big of a deal, I sense that you're pulling out your hair trying to solve a problem that might not happen to you. This was a freak thing that happened just with this particular spool. I've run many 2lbs spool thru the HH135 and it never had this problem happened before. I posted that question because I was baffled on why the wire grooved the inlet guide. Just put this matter to the back of your mind. If one day your wire doesnt roll out smoothly and you inpect the machine and find a grooved wire guide, then you'll know what caused it. So cool off for now, let your mind at ease, be safe and enjoy welding.

Andre

[Tim135]

wire spool arcing

Andre, thanks. I will take your advice and file that info in the memory bank. Like you say, if I ever see the problem I will know what to do about it. I am glad you posted it, Tim.

[Hobart Expert Rock]

TIM135 TAKE A LOOK AT MY REPLY TO GROCERY GETTER AND SEE IF THIS ISN'T YOU PROBLEM..............SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER THIS BUT I WAS ON VACATION..................ROCK
[email protected]

[Ed2]

I once had a similar problem. I was using a small spool of Lincoln flux core wire. Apparently the Lincoln wire feed mechanism is on the opposite side as compared to the Hobart. What this means is that the wire spools are wound in opposite directions. Therefore when using a Lincoln wire spool in a Hobart machine, the paper label will face towards the inside of the welder and is not visible. The particular spool of wire that I was using was originally wound with approximately one half inch of extra wire protruding through the spool and was covered by the label. Used in a Lincoln welder, this would probably not pose any problem; however, after using approximately one forth of this spool in a Hobart welder, the wire feed became very erratic and unpredictable. Investigation revealed that the paper label had worn through thus exposing the end of the wire. Continued operation caused the wire to dig into the wire spool tension plate causing excessive drag and erratic wire feed. With this condition, proper adjustment of the wire spool tension was nearly impossible.