Welding Tips and Tricks

Silly question I'm sure, gone thru a lot of spools and always wonder so here it is...

I have watched videos of people making sure not to waste their wire by spinning back the spool after running a new wire thru the gun, and getting the tension adjusted.

But when the spool runs out, there is about 6 feet of wire left in the lead to the gun (depending on your lead cable length). Is it just trash?

Can be trash, tie wire or what I do is double it over and spin it between a vice a battery drill to form excellent tig wire.

Technically, it is waste. Much like the last couple inches of TIG rod (depending on how brave your fingers are that day) is also waste. But 6 feet of MIG wire is really only worth $0.02 or so, depending on the spool size, so maybe don't add having to use it to your lean and mean management plan just yet.

But as Coldman mentioned, it does have other uses. I typically don't use it for TIG, but will often use MIG wire for make-shift tie downs and also to hang parts/anodes for any electro-chemical processes. It can also be useful for measuring curved/bent pipe or tubing, as can the thin TIG rods.