Welding Tips and Tricks

Have a Airco 300 AC/DC Heliwelder V, worked great until flooded by Sandy, got 80 volts out of transformer, 40 ocv, ,gets barely any HF spark in DC. and not Voltage or spark in AC. Anyone got any ideals where to look. I replaced all the small 24v dc relays, have 110 volts at outlet. Thanks

Was your flooding (I assume) all fresh-water, or salt-water?

If your machine was salt-water flooded, it should have been flushed, even pressure-washed with clean fresh water and dried before you fired it up.

The salt-water solution in the windings of the main transformer is likely screwing with you, and I can't promise it's fixable.

Either way, the machine must be dried completely before you write it off. This could take days with the (unplugged) machine being heated to 175 degrees or better to drive off moisture from the paper in the windings of the transformer.

Best of luck!

Steve S

thanks for the reply Steve,done all that, I believe that i'm losing power at The SCR's , still working on it when I get time, not giving up, but the new Miller Syncro 250 Dx is looking good.

I weld with a SW 250 DX much of the time, and find it an excellent machine. At the low end, I prefer it to the Lincoln PrecisionTig 325. Above 30 A, they are equal machines (when similarly equipped). For heavier sections, particularly aluminum, I prefer the Lincoln.

I hope you get the Airco sorted out, though. That's a fine machine, too, and insurance won't pay near what it costs to replace it, if they'll even touch it now.

Steve S