Did you clean the light oil off the material ?

 

Yes, with View attachment 20230603_174629.jpg acetone.

 

What wire and gas?

 

75/25 argon/CO2. Harris ER70S-6, .030

 

I'm looking at the drive rollers and it looks like the wire is being pinched on the flats of the rollers and not in the groove! Is there an adjustment that can be made to line up the wire to the rollers? That can't be good.

 

View attachment 20230603_183826.jpg

 

just pull the wire into the groove with your finger right before you close the top follower, or push the wire right before it enters the black plastic guide and you an make it fall into the groove right before you close the top roller.

 

Wrong approach Oscar that Miller wire drive assembly on the Ironman 240 and 230 has an adjustable lower drive roll for lining up the drive roll groove with the inlet and outlet wire guide. How to make this adjustment is included in the owners manual.

 

Are you getting gas flow from the nozzle? Is the polarity correct, it should be electrode positive.

 

Is that mild steel your welding?

 

https://weldingweb.com/vbb/threads/454711-Black-soot-around-MIG-tacks

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personally i wouldnt be to concearned with the black soot. ive had it before and didnt worry much about it. the welds turned out fine so i never tried to figure it out. maybe not enough pre or post flow (if your machine even has those adjustments). possibly the material isnt spotless clean (who has time to clean it spotless)

 

Welding mild steel tubing 16 ga. C25 gas. I gently tapped the liner over a bit and it helped line up the wire better. It seems like the longer welds dont have the soot, only the tacks. I have tried to purge the line a bit and trim off the wire, seems to help a little. On another note, how low of pressure do you lets your tanks get before swapping out with refill? Thanks.

 

Read your owners manual that came with the unit. The lower drive roll has an adjustment screw that allows you to move the drive roll in or out sideways to line the groove up with the inlet and outlet guides

 

For shops doing critical work where they can't have flaws they change out the tanks when they get to around 200 PSI. For general welding on your own stuff you can go down to about 50 PSI depending how much welding you need to do. You wouldn't want to be welding something with long welds and run out of gas part way through. Is it good to leave a little pressure in the cylinders because although they're supposed to, not all gas suppliers will purge the cylinders before filling them. That's why it's not uncommon to hear of bad gas, especially argon when welding aluminum.

 

Check owners manual on drive roll adjustment. If the wire hit the groove at an angle it will start shaving the coating off the wire. Then those shaving will clog up the liner and cause feeding problems. Drive roll is held on the drive shaft with one screw. There are a set of spring washers behind the carrier gear. if you loosen the screw the drive roll should move out and line up with the wire. unless it has become rusted to the shaft or some one put lock tite on it. Just for kicks check you gas hose and all connections from the regulator to the gas valve then to the drive housing.
look for any leaks. Then remove the miggun from drive housing and check the o-rings make sure the are whole, no chips or pieces missing. Any small leaks in the gas system do let gas out but they also let air in and it contaminates the gas.
If no leaks, try welding on some super clean metal. If still sooty try a different gas bottle. still sooty try a different regulator. Seen leeks in all the above parts.

 

Another thing I’ve heard is you can take your c25 bottle and roll it around on your lawn to mix the gas up good. Depends how old the gas in your tank is though as to how effective this can be.

Some other things to check is to make sure the O-Ring/s at the end of the gun where it slips into the female end on the machine is/are good and that the gun end is seated all the way into the machine so the gas flows as it should.

Also try welding on different material and thicknesses.

is it possible the gas is mislabeled?