Firewood processor build thread

[kiotiken]

You're doing an awesome job. Enjoying following the build.

I can't tell for sure from the the photo, but it looks like the splitter blades might not be angled. You may have some problems with the wood wedging in the splitter blades if the blades are squared rather than angled. They should be angled so that the opening between two blades is narrower at the cutting edge and then get's wider at the exit point on the opposite side.

Thanks. Well, when I went to pick up the piece from the welding shop, the shop foreman said his machinist told him the same thing. I'm adding it to the list of wait and see!

 

[kiotiken]

OK, I need help. I'm now welding everything together and I'm having issues. I've been battling porosity issues. I've checked the gas and was running at about 25 cfh(?) so I bumped it up to about 30. I keep the nozzle fairly clean and my stick out should be pretty constant at 1/2". I'm not sure what's going on, it seems to come and go.

My big issue right now is my wire refuses to feed, the drive wheel isn't able to push/pull the wire. It seemed to get worse gradually. At first, I increased the tension on the wire clamp and that seemed to work. I made sure the hose was as straight as possible and I've loosened off the lock nut holding the wire spool to the point that it actually fell off while I was welding! (not nice by the way). Now, I'm not able to weld at all, wire speed is way to low. My only thought that I haven't tried is the tip needs to be replaced, I've never replaced one for that reason, but I've tried everything else. Ideas?

 

[aczlan]

Clean the tip and make sure that the feed isnt getting kinked (kinks or sharp bends can cause the wire to jam in the liner).

Aaron Z

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I've experienced some of the same problems as you are with the welder. Try changing the tip, its easy enough to do. I had one spool that 1/2 way into it, it hadn't been wound properly at the factory and was all criss-crossed resulting in kinking right on the spool itself. Ended up tossing it in the trash as I'd had it for too long to bother trying to return it. Possibly the liner is worn enough that it needs replacing but I haven't got a clue how to tell or how long one should last to begin with. The drive wheels also wear over time -- at least I'm guessing so since they sell replacements.

What's your definition of gradually?
What welder is it?
How old/how much use?
Have you changed spools and still experiencing the problem?

 

[kiotiken]

I've experienced some of the same problems as you are with the welder. Try changing the tip, its easy enough to do. I had one spool that 1/2 way into it, it hadn't been wound properly at the factory and was all criss-crossed resulting in kinking right on the spool itself. Ended up tossing it in the trash as I'd had it for too long to bother trying to return it. Possibly the liner is worn enough that it needs replacing but I haven't got a clue how to tell or how long one should last to begin with. The drive wheels also wear over time -- at least I'm guessing so since they sell replacements.

What's your definition of gradually?
What welder is it?
How old/how much use?
Have you changed spools and still experiencing the problem?

aczlan, CDN, I'll replace the tip tonight and see if that could be causing the issue. I've never had that problem and never really thought about a tip stopping the wire from feeding properly.

What's your definition of gradually? What I mean by gradually is I had a few issues Saturday afternoon, but keeping the hose a little straighter was all it took. Sunday night when I went back out, I welded for 20 minutes or so and it started again. I increased the tension on the wire clamp and welded for another 10 minutes, then more tension, straight hose a little more welding... after a little longer, I lost the battle.

What welder is it? It is a Millermatic 180 with auto set. I've been using 2lbs spools of .30 wire because that's what you need for the auto set (2 # or 10/12.5# spools work, but .23 or .30 only). Auto set is OK, but I generally turn it off if I'm doing more welding and set it manually, I generally like the results better when I tweak it myself. So I went and bought a 12.5 lbs spool of .35 wire to do all the finish welding. My .30 tips were branded Lincoln Electric, the .35 tips are branded Hobart but say Hobart/Miller. There's a lot more thread on the tips, but they seem to screw in to the gun far enough, although, it takes some force (I'm sure I'm not cross threading). Both the 2 lbs .30 wire and 12.5 lbs .35 wire are branded Lincoln Electric.

How old/how much use? The Welder is about 8 years old. Before this project, I'd only gone through 2 bottles of gas if that gives you a sense of how much it's used, not a whole lot.

Have you changed spools and still experiencing the problem? I currently only have the 12.5 spool of .35 wire. I would have tried changing it if I had something else to try. I'll try a new tip tonight and if that's not it, I'll buy a 2 lbs spool of .35 with some Lincoln tips and give that a shot.

 

[muddstopper]

I have had similar problems with my miller 175. You can try removing the liner and giving it a good cleaning and that might help. If the wire is old and maybe a little rusty, it will gumb up a liner pretty quick. Changing the tip will probably help. One other thing you can do is get some of the wire lubricant spray it on a rag and use a clothespin to hold it around the wire before it goes in the feed roll. If the machine is 8 years old and hasnt had a liner change, it most likey is experiencing some rust issues of its own, cleaning and lubricating will help, but I got tired of it and just changed the liner. All feeding problems went away.

 

[kiotiken]

I have had similar problems with my miller 175. You can try removing the liner and giving it a good cleaning and that might help. If the wire is old and maybe a little rusty, it will gumb up a liner pretty quick. Changing the tip will probably help. One other thing you can do is get some of the wire lubricant spray it on a rag and use a clothespin to hold it around the wire before it goes in the feed roll. If the machine is 8 years old and hasnt had a liner change, it most likey is experiencing some rust issues of its own, cleaning and lubricating will help, but I got tired of it and just changed the liner. All feeding problems went away.

hmmm, thanks. Guess I'll have to dust off the user guide and figure out how to change the liner. I need another bottle of gas really soon, so at least the timing is good.

 

[kiotiken]

$20 for a new liner and they'll install it for me and show me how to do it for next time. Now if I can just resit temptation and not walk out with an aluminum spool gun, plasma cutter and a bunch of accessories, this will be a cheap fix. I'm going to sacrifice the last couple PSI in the bottle and get a gas re-fill while I'm there. I'll still give a new tip a try tonight, maybe that'll buy me enough time to use up the rest of my gas, but I think I'm out of business till I can replace the liner tomorrow. Guess I'll get a couple extra hours of sleep tonight!

Not much point posting pictures of my welding progress but the update is I'm about half done the final welding. A few more key welds and I'm going to try and pick it all up with the tractor and move it out of the garage. I want to try and get the splitter head back out and go at it with a grinder to try and get it to fit a little better. If my Kioti'll pick it up, that'll be a Kodak moment and I may have to revive the old "what's the biggest thing you've lifted with your FEL" thread in the Kioti section. I definitely have a plan B to get it out of the garage.

 

[muddstopper]

Resist the temptation to buy a spare liner, if it just hangs on the wall in a damp shop, it might not be worth putting in when you finally do need it.

 

[kiotiken]

Tried a new tip, still no glow. Just put a new liner in, I'll try it tonight.

 

[Winmac]

Earlier you mentioned that you had some Lincoln brand mig tips, this seemed odd as Lincoln tips are not comparable with miller guns.
May not have any bearing on your current issues but figured I'd mention it.

 

[kiotiken]

Earlier you mentioned that you had some Lincoln brand mig tips, this seemed odd as Lincoln tips are not comparable with miller guns.
May not have any bearing on your current issues but figured I'd mention it.

I've always used Lincoln branded .30 tips, they're just a lot easier to come across. They screw in properly and I've never had an issue with them, never would have dawned on me they weren't compatible with my gun. My trouble only started when I switched to the .35 Hobart tips. Those tips say Miller on them, but they're tough to screw in, you need to use pliers. I'm thinking it's just the larger wire in a old liner and not the tips, that's my hope anyway. I'll be checking those Lincoln tips out more closely though, thanks.

 

[mx842]

I developed the same problem with my Millermatic 252. I bought the machine thinking I could weld just about anything I ever wanted to weld and for awhile it did. I noticed from the start that when I did small jobs it welded like a dream. But then while I was welding two large I-beams together to go into my shop for an overhead rail for a 1 ton chain fall I found that the more I welded the more hang ups I would have. Backlashes, wire burning up into the tip and just basically all around crappy welds.

I asked everyone I knew what could be wrong and all I got was change the tip, change the liner, welding with the wrong settings, the welder doesn't know what he's doing. I got that last one over on the Miller site from a couple of the know it all's over there. It was so frustrating....I mean to spend all that money for more machine that I thought I would ever need and then have problems like that was heart breaking.

I had an older Miller transformer machine that I welded with for years and in all that time I don't think I ever replaced the liner in it and to burn up a tip was a very rare thing and I welded with it for days and it never missed a beat. The reason I mention this is that it had the very same torch on it that was supposed to be on this new machine so when I bought it I didn't see the need to upgrade it to something larger.

Well, the M 25 torches today are not the same torches that were on the older machines. I guess to stay competitive Miller did what everyone else does and gets cheap on stuff where ever they can to keep their prices down. It's like buying a bag of potato chips......you used to get a a smaller bag but it was full of chips for like .20 cents. Now you get a great big ol bag with nothing but air in it for a buck forty nine.

Anyway, after being called too dumb to even own a welder by the welding legions over on the miller site, replacing drive rollers several times, replacing liner after liner, after burning up hundreds of tips, throwing away several rolls of wire thinking it was rolled wrong, I even took it to one of millers repair centers where it stayed for 2 long months and all I got was a new liner...(even after I had already told them it was a new one in the torch that had never had an inch of wire run through it) and a $250 bill even through it was still under warranty, I finally realized that the m-25 torch was just not the same as the torch on my older machine.

What was happening was.....and this is my own judgment on this, was that after you weld for awhile especially if you are welding long runs the whole assembly heats up and especially where the light weight aluminum angled piece at the end is. Where the aluminum and the copper pieces connect at the tip it gets so hot that it actually caused the steel liner that the wire runs through to expand enough that it will twist or unwind causing the hole in the liner to become smaller which pinches the wire and well you know what happens next. You can replace all the pieces at the end of the torch and weld for awhile but if you are welding long and hard you will end up upgrading to a heavier torch if you ever want to get anything done. I might say that I came to this conclusion on my own because no one over at Miller or the miller forum will admit it and still want to blame it on the operator.


Let me say this......I am not bashing Miller.....well maybe a little but I love my 252 I just wish when I bought the machine they had told me to upgrade the torch if I really wanted to use it.:laughing:

 

[kiotiken]

Ouch, that sounds like it sucks. Very frustrating, glad you got it sorted out. Thankfully, my issue turned out to simply be the liner, it welded like a dream last night.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Good to hear you are back in business. Gives me some incentive to change my own that has been giveing me grief

 

[kiotiken]

Good to hear you are back in business. Gives me some incentive to change my own that has been giveing me grief

I'm just a weekend hack so the thought of having to change the liner struck a little fear in me at first. It's probably the easiest, cheapest, quickest fixes you can make.

 

[kiotiken]

Well, I tried to pick up the processor and move it out of the garage. It's currently pretty stripped down with only the cutting head installed out of all the removable pieces. The tractor picked it up with no effort, but I couldn't figure out a way to position the chains to keep it stable and finally gave up before destroying something. I wanted to remove the splitting head and clean it up to make it fit a little better. I ended up removing it with jacks and saw horses and got it ground down and cleaned up. It fits much better now. I've also finished most of the welding on the main processor, now I need to finish all the removable pieces like the pusher plate assembly, log stands and the arm. That's tonight, tomorrow I'll clean it up and hopefully I'll put a little paint on it this weekend. If I can get it assembled and working sometime next week, I'll be happy.



Cleaned up and ready to paint. I'm not going to put much effort into cleaning the inside of the frame, I don't expect paint to last in there anyway.

 

[kiotiken]

Wow, am I an idiot... I took a little break from welding and looked down at my welding helmet after I took it off. On the inside lens you could see the protective film that they put on it to keep it from scratching before you buy it was starting to peel in one corner. All this time I've been struggling to see, I compulsively clean the outside lens but never noticed I forgot to remove the packing film from the inside! I took it off and it was like the lights were turned on for the first time. My welds improved drastically after that.

Not a word of this RT and Jon, if you come over to check it out this weekend, no laughing at me!

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

LOL! Can we laugh now from behind the safety of a keyboard instead?

 

[BukitCase]

Join the club - but you're a bit too late to be president