A floating liner for a container of welding wire which floating liner includes a tube having two ends and a passageway extending between the two ends. The floating liner is unsupported between the top of the container and the retaining ring. The floating liner is designed to provide structural support to the wire and added stiffness or rigidity to the wire to inhibit buckling of the wire, knot formation in the wire that can form between the retaining ring and the top of the container. The floating liner has a weight profile that causes one end of the tube to at least partially float above the top surface of a layer of welding wire or retaining ring in the container as the welding wire is paid out of the container.