Sinking Creek 4WD Association

I have a hobart 175 mig welder and it started recently having problems. It will only weld well for the first second or two then starts acting like it is not getting good contact with the metal and it welds come out like I am welding on dirty steel. It seems to be getting worse every time I use it even though I have made sure to clean the steel very well and have plenty of gas flow.

Any thoughts?

Ive had a similar problem before, my wire was corroded...

Also maybe you have a bad connection in the welder.

Bad ground would be my guess

I had harbor freight wire in it and switched to hobart wire but no improvement.

It was grounded to a clean area on the steel but the ground clamp is the original so I might need to replace it

Check and see if your stinger is fully seated in the machine. I had the gun pull out a bit on my Miller and it caused really shitty welds intermittently.

Don't mean to sound like a jerk here, but is the gas turned on?

Arya Ebrahimi wrote:Check and see if your stinger is fully seated in the machine. I had the gun pull out a bit on my Miller and it caused really shitty welds intermittently.

Will check the next time I am in the warehouse

Fonger wrote:Don't mean to sound like a jerk here, but is the gas turned on?

Yep it was and I could feel it flowing

Check the trigger contacts inside the gun. They may be either burned/pitted, or corroded. I had to replace the contacts in the gun on my Lincoln SP-175 after a few years. It would weld sometimes, then just cut out, or go intermittently.

The new ground clamp fixed it up

Thanks everyone for all the ideas