Topic: Issues with my welder

[FourbangerYJ]

My welder seems to be acting up. It's a Lincoln 135. I am running .035 flux. I have it on the hottest setting but it does not seem to be as hot as it was. The weld starts out good then the wire seems to not come out right, and the weld seems to get cold. The power seems to surge. You can hear it go up and down. I moved the plug to a shorter X cord and it didn't do anything different. It was working fine yesterday 
I think I'll swap tips and see if that makes any changes. Any other ideas?

[oldjeep]

Pull the cover off and clean up all the contacts.  Welders get pretty full of crap over the years.

[FourbangerYJ]

I took a closer look at the symptoms. It's not feeding wire correctly. I got some tips. I looked at the rollers that feed the wire. There is some metal chips under them. I have a feeling new rollers are in my future. I think the feed wheels are letting the wire slip. I would guess I have run about 20# of wire through so I would imagine the wheels get wore out after a while.

I'll look at the contacts too. Thanks for the tip.

[melbill]

This may be too obvious but have you changed wire size and not roller size?
I know I usually make sure to do the complex stuff and forget the easy stuff.

[FourbangerYJ]

I found that the drive roller had slid off a bit. It would feed then stop, then feed, then stop. Power was down, it was pretty weak. Once I figured it out it's back to normal. Seems to feed fine and the sound is much better and the power is back! 
Lets see how long it lasts 

[FourbangerYJ]

Problem came back. I went to the local airgas store. I thought it was the drive roller. The guy said it was the gun liner. So I bought it and upon swapping it out I found the original liner was kinked. So it seems it's back to normal.