Mig Welding Basics: Mig Wire Installation

Installing a spool of MIG wire onto your welding machine is part of the mig welding basics series about how to mig weld.

First make sure that you have purchase a quality MIG welding wire. You want to run with a high quality "precision" MIG welding wire. You want a mig welding wire that will not give you feedability problems or cause too much spatter.

STEP 1. Open box of mig wire, and check visually for rust.

Make sure you give the spool of welding wire a glance over and check to make sure that there is no rust on the surface of the wire.

Why?

If there is rust on the surface of the wire, it will fall off inside the welding torch liner and it will give you feedability problems.

Yes even brand new boxes of MIG welding wire do get sold with rust all over the wire.

This is why it is very crucial to choose a quality MIG welding wire, one from a manufacturer that can guarantee you quality and consistency spool after spool, time after time.

STEP 2. Lift and place mig wire onto axle/spindle/hub.

Take note of where the start of the new MIG wire is on the spool.

If there is a cover on your welding machine or wire feeding unit you will have to take it off or open it up.

Put the spool onto the axle/spindle/hub of the welding machine, this will be next to or back from the wire feed(drive) rollers.

On this particular MIG welder I have to remove this large cotter pin that secures the spool on the spindle. Some machines will have a large nut.

Install the MIG wire so that when the wire unspools, it unwinds feeding into the drive rollers from a level horizontal position. As in, do not install the spool upside down.

Make sure to replace the cotter pin.

STEP 3. Align spool with pin.

On the spindle that you just placed the wire onto, there will be a pin on the back side. This pin needs to line up with the hole in the spool of wire.

STEP 4. Release tensioning mechanism

You will now have to fully release the tensioning mechanism that pushes the feed/drive rollers together. With this particular MIG welder all I have to do is push down on the lever, then swing it away out from the feed rollers and lift it up.

See the welding video below for instructions

STEP 5. Trim off bent bit of wire.

At the start of the mig wire spool, the first inch or so of wire will be bent through a hole in the side of the spool. This wire will need to be trimmed so that the kink in the wire is removed. Like so.

STEP 6. By hand feed wire in.

Using your hands, feed the wire through the guide tube then over the drive rolls and into the start of the welding torch liner.

Once the wire is inside the liner and past the feed rollers by a few inches. Stop and tension down the feed roller mechanism onto the wire.

STEP 7. Remove contact tip from end of gun.

Take the contact tip and nozzle / shroud off of the end of the welding torch. Do this, as sometimes the wire can get stuck when feeding through.

STEP 8. Feed wire through welding torch.

Turn the MIG welding machine on and lay your welding torch out as straight as possible by taking a few steps backwards walking away from the machine.

Pull the trigger on the welding gun and the drive rolls will spin and push the wire through the torch.

You may want to turn the wire feed speed adjustment all the way up so that it comes out quicker.

Make sure that if you are using a bottle of gas it is turned off, as there is no need to waste expensive shielding gas when you are setting your machine up.

STEP 9. Reinstall contact tip and nozzle, trim wire.

Now that the wire is out the other end, replace the contact tip. Trim off the excessive wire, leaving about half an inch sticking out of the contact tip.

Replace the nozzle / shroud and put the machine cover back on.