protection of mig wire in your welder

[lamanated]

Well this started as a shopping for wire story, and morphed into this,,It took 7 yrs to blow through a 12lb spool. so I thought this time,Ill buy the premium stuff. so called the area rep for lincoln to pick his brain..He mentioned I should be storing the wire as it sits for months at a time in the garage so would rust,
I said someone should invent a sock for the roll and a tube to run it through to the roller to solve it, so throwing it out to see if anyone has read or has knowledge of keeping a spool clean .
the wire I thought of is the L56

 

[CNC Dan]

Zip-loc bag. One hole for the spindle, one for the wire. Tape to keep the bag from turning.

Or seal up the door with tape?...
And purge with shielding gas once in a while? Add a second solenoid valve and push button switch to make it easy?

Nor sure what might work.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Just remove it from the machine and put it in a plastic bag like one of those "space bags" suck out the air and store it inside your house under controlled temps. It will last a long time within the bag with little to no air inside it. There isn't much way to keep if on your machine to keep it from rusting. Even the copper coated MIG wire will rust over time in an open shop without controlled environment.
You could also look at using the little 1 pound spools and only open up one when needed. They cost more, but you are sure of fresh wire as long as they are stored without any tears in the package.

 

[Eyecatcher]

Been there - done that! This is N.Florida, and it's extremely humid, biggest problem in the winter time. It gets cold, the water drips off the underside of a tin roof, and any ground cast iron surface sweats like crazy. Bought a big spool of wire for the mig welder 3 years ago, and always took it out of the machine and brought it into the house when done with the job. This worked OK when a big job had been planned and executed, but when the little repair jobs popped up, it was a pain to go get the spool and install,use the welder for a few minutes, pull the wire and put it up. Leave the wire in the machine, and when time to use, had to discard many feet of wire to get rid of rust, and it still didn't feed good. I installed a new liner, clamped a scrap of denim to the wire before going into the guide rolls, and installed a small gun safe heater, left plugged in at all times. What a difference! That little bit of heat makes all the difference in the world.

 

[CNC Dan]

Been there - done that! This is N.Florida,....

.... and installed a small gun safe heater, left plugged in at all times. What a difference! That little bit of heat makes all the difference in the world.

That should come built into the machine. Just leave it plugged in and it puts out a little heat to keep the wire above the dew point.

Do you know how many watts the gun safe heater uses?

 

[Jim Timber]

The copper coating on the wire is meant to prevent it from rusting.

If you're concerned about it that much, the rest of the machine is in danger as well.

 

[mrmikey]

Get a low wattage 220V bulb and wire it into the welder so it's always live, the little bit of heat will keep the moisture at bay.....Mike

 

[RickB]

Exactly why I don't own a MIG. I don't have the proper environment to store one. I bought a stick machine. If I really need a MIG, I can use one at work, or borrow a little suitcase unit from a friend.