MIG wire feed - continuous or limited?

[Millalien]

New to MIG welding - setting up new machine - ran wire through to nozzle using cold wire feed button with no problem, but at trigger pull only 5-6" of wire is fed out per pull. I would have thought that the feed would be continuous, but I've no experience with MIG machines at all, I've never even seen one used. Other than that, I was able to adjust the wire tension just fine. So is ~6" of wire feed per trigger pull the way it works? The manual is silent on this point and I'm pretty sure this is a newbie-dumb question.

 

[4570Man]

It's supposed to be continuous assuming you're holding the trigger down.

 

[Shield Arc]

Seems like several years ago I read where some Mig welders will only feed so much wire. If the welder doesn't get a voltage reading. Or something like that.
How does it weld?

 

[frugalangler]

could it be set to 'spot weld' and only feeding that much to make a small weld?

What make/model of welder?

 

[Industrial Toys]

That would be a pretty BIG SPOT! Something I might do. And then grind it off.

 

[LD1]

Seems like several years ago I read where some Mig welders will only feed so much wire. If the welder doesn't get a voltage reading. Or something like that.
How does it weld?

I think this is the answer

 

[timswi]

I think this is the answer

I would agree--If you feed 10 feet of wire, chances are you're gonna get zapped. My old one will dump a full spool if I let it..Bet there's safetys for that now

 

[Millalien]

Seems like several years ago I read where some Mig welders will only feed so much wire. If the welder doesn't get a voltage reading. Or something like that.
How does it weld?

That makes sense...haven't gotten to welding yet -- the machine's got to be moved down into the garage where we do our mechanical work and out of the wood shop where we work hard to avoid igniting sawdust before I can fire it up, and the garage is blocked by construction. Anyway, I'm hoping to give it a go within a day or two.

 

[Millalien]

What make/model of welder?

I took the bait from Harbor Freight and picked up their Vulcan MigMax 215 - we've been wanting/needing a welding machine for very occasional bracket fab for a while and the Vulcan series reviews have been consistently good; the price is obviously attractive. Both the Vulcan and their cheapo Chicago Electric Flux 125 were on Black Friday sale and it was kind of a 2-fer-1 deal - my kid walked off with the Flux 125 for Xmas so he and his buddies can mod their trucks and the shop seems to have gotten a decent MIG welder. We'll see ...

 

[triptester]

On the weldingweb forum there was a manual for the new HF welders .This note was in the manual.

Note: After pressing Trigger, wire will stop feeding after 3 seconds if there is no arc. Check tension for less than 3 seconds.