Wire feeders having a wire spool brake release

Abstract

Disclosed example welding wire feeders include: a spool hub configured to hold a wire spool; a wire drive configured to feed wire from the wire spool; a spool brake configured to selectively resist rotation of the wire spool; and control circuitry configured to: control the spool brake to resist the rotation of the wire spool while the wire drive is not feeding the wire from the wire spool; and in response to an operator input, control the spool brake to reduce resistance to the rotation of the wire spool and control the wire drive to not feed the wire from the wire spool.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.