im new to welding and i have a chichago electric wire feed welder. i am using it on a generator in my back yard, is that a bad thing? also i can feed the wire through the gun but i cannot get it to produce an arc. do you think that im not getting enough power or something. i have been reading all day and i cant come to any conclusions. any help will be appriciated. thanks

 

please tell me you have your work grounded?

 

yep it is definatly grounded

 

make sure the welding area is prepped, as in, your not welding ontop of paint etc.

 

ya it is raw metal and i hit it with a wire brush pretty good. my dad said i wasnt getting a good ground but i dont see how i would get any better. the ground clip is on there the best it can be.

 

the ground is through the paint on the bare metal?

 

ya there isnt any paint on the metal so that shouldnt be the problem. ill mess around with it a little bit today and tell yaul what happens

 

check your contact tip, make sure that it's fairly tight around the wire, make sure that you don't have any broken cables or wires inside the machine or the whip.
other than that i don't know what to tell you.

 

you need to open up the welder to see if the power cable is connected to your gun lead.

 

will do

 

my dad fixed it. something about the power lead or something. thanks for all the help. ill try to post some pics of some pipe i welded together. they came out pretty good imo.

 

like i said, wahoo