Using MIG wire for TIG filler.

Have you ever been trying to TIG weld together really thin metal, sheet metal for instance, and you needed really thin filler wire? So you run and grab your spool of 0.035" ER70-S6 MIG wire and decide to use it. Upon trying it you realize that it is a super pain in the ### to use because all it want's to do is coil up and it's next to impossible to straighten out. Well I found a tip on how to get it stiffer and straight as an arrow on another site and I wanted to share it here. Unwind about 5-6 feet of MIG wire and cut it. Clamp one and of the cut off piece in your vise then chuck the other end into your cordless drill. Stand back and pull the wire tight, then pull the trigger on the drill while pulling on the wire. A 5-foot length will take quite a bit of spinning but the more you spin it you'll notice the less it wobbles in the air. When it quits wobbling all together(or very minimally), unchuck it, remove it from the vice and cut into whatever lengths you want. And there you go, custom length, perfectly straight, small size filler wire. As another note, this also works on thicker diameter wire as well. I have a spool of 0.060" Stainless tie-down wire I was using for filler just to practice stacking beads with and I used this same trick on that wire to get it perfectly straight as well. Enjoy my tip.

Good tip. I need to get some mig wire for some small part tig welding.

When I get a Tig welder I will try that tip.

It works really well. I've done it with .035" and .060" wire and it comes out straight as an arrow and very stiff. Another thing is that if your MIG wire is too thin but your regular filler is too thick you can double up the MIG wire and spin it together nice and tight and you can use it that way as well.

good tip! I use(d*) .030" mig wire fairly often in 'curly' form welding thin rust-pitted sheetmetal at my dad's shop. I bought some .035 70s2 for new 22/24ga. I wonder if it works for alu?

on a somewhat related note, I bought one of the wirefeeders someone posted about the last time this topic came up (using MIG wire for TIG). I still haven't turned it into a cold wire feeder, but someday! hopefully I'll have a TIG again at that point :)

*no TIG at the moment :(

I did the same thing until i finally bought some 1/16 inch rods. I have tried to do it with 308L and have had no luck though. The wire would just fatigue and break.

I'm just practicing with a weldernator TIG for now. Once I get saved up and get my hands on a 250EX I'll go out and buy some real filler rods. =)