bucky wire feed

I was having trouble with my Lincoln that sounded like that. It was the crappy little contacts in the handle. I still have to replace it, but it's working now, sooooooooo ..............

Steve

Replace the contact tip.

Does the drive motor that feeds the wire have brushes? If so, check them.

Wes

It's not something silly like the other end of the wire sticking out of the side of the reel catching on something sometimes, is it?

Mark Rand RTFM

Mark Rand fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Yeah, Karl. Replace the damned worn-out (or wrong-sized) tip. Once a tip gets severely over-sized, it tends to allow the wire to wobble around instead of staying in constant contact with some part of the bore. When it does, the wire "spot welds" itself to some part of the bore of the tip.

The wire must always contact the bore _firmly_, but not tight, or this will happen every time.

LLoyd

It can't be both a Century and a Lincoln, they're competitors.

Check the condition of the wire. My little Lincoln SP125+ exhibits the behaviour you describe with wire that is dirty or even mildly rusty as in corroded or tarnished. I never leave wire in that machine, always bag it after use and backfill the baggie with dry argon from the TIG. No problems since I adopted that practice.

Mr. Miller (Millermatic 210) does not require such TLC. The little Linc works superbly with thin metal like autobody so I tolerate its fussiness about wire condition.

LIncoln bought out Century a few years ago.