Thread: Problem With Mig Welder

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Need some advice on a problem with our mig welder. My Son has owned his Miller Mig for a couple of years now, and has run probably 30 bottles of gas through it. It has been flawless. Yesterday we were starting to put together the new frame for Project $ 3K, and were low on gas, so we went to Northern Tool and swapped out the bottle. When we hooked it up and turned the valve to open it, a high pitched whistle started to come from the pop off valve at the bottom of the regulator. Also, the gauge that reads flow pegged. Three days ago the welder worked perfectly with the almost empty tank.

After fooling around with the thing for a while, we decided the only different thing we had done was changed tanks, so maybe the tank was improperly marked and had pure argon in it rather than an argon/carbon mix, so we went back and they exchanged it, but new one did same thing. We disassembled the regulator, and everything seems to be ok, we did blow out some very small specks of dirt, but nothing seemed grossly wrong. Put it back together, and it still whistles, and pegs the gauge.

We think the regulator is just worn out, possibly, but are suspect of the 2 tanks we got from Northern, because I exhanged my acetyline tank also yesterday, and when we hooked it up it was empty, even though it had a filled sticker on it.

We fear that the people who filled it might have put pure argon in by mistake, but thought someone on here might know what is going on. We have always gone to a welding supply company before this time, but they were closed on Sunday.

Thanks,


Don