Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys got a question. My buddy has a.syncrowave 200 with the digital display it is air cooled set up. So he called me up to help him weld up some racking he has. It would have been to.much of a pain to bring it to.my shop so I went over there and used his set up. The problem is you can't get the full 200 amps out of it. Sometimes I could get 180 sometimes only 130 kinda sucked having to weld up the 3/8 c channel his racks are made of. the welder is hooked up to 220. I am kinda lost what the cause is. I was thinking maybe foot pedal but I don't that's it cause we got 200 out of it the day before. not sure what the duty cycle is on the machine could that be the cause?

Looking at the manual, that machine has a 20% duty cycle at 200 amps, 40% at 150 amps. Technically speaking, you should be able to get 200 amps. You said he's got 220, but what is the amperage capacity for his welding circuit? The manual recommends a 60 amp breaker and 8 awg wire for 150 amp operation. Also, confirm that the unit is configured for 220 volts. There are two other higher voltage options that this unit can be configured to. Just saying...

Good evening.
I have a Miller Syncrowave 200 like the one your friend has with the digital meters. You said "The problem is you can't get the full 200 amps out of it. Sometimes I could get 180 sometimes only 130". I'm not quite clear what you mean. Are you saying that when you use the amperage control to set the level before welding that the meter will not indicate more than 180 or sometimes 130?

On my machine, it will indicate whatever value I set it to up to 200 amps. I believe that it will start lower and will only go to the full value when the foot pedal is pressed all of the way down. For the record I've almost never had to set my machine over 140 amps. It will easily weld 1/4" stock or larger with an extra pass at 140 amps.

Nils mentions above that the circuit may not have enough power available to operate the machine. This could be the problem. The manual shows that 208-230 VAC input will need at least a 54 amp input. This would be at least a 60 amp line for the next highest breaker. My machine is on a 70 amp line. If the machine is on a drier circuit, say 220 VAC at 30 amps, it won't have enough power available to operate at full amperage. The machine should still indicate 200 amps when set to full values, however since the settings are independent of the line to which the machine is attached.

One thing that can be done to make sure that the machine is OK is to reset the machine. I wasn't sure about the settings when I got my machine a few years ago. It was used but only had 8 hours and a few hundred arc starts on it. I decided to reset the machine to start fresh.

To reset the machine do the following:
Press and hold for five seconds the Output, Balance, Pulser and Main Amps Push buttons while turning on the power switch. This will restore the machine to factory settings as shown in the Owner's Manual.

This can be difficult to do if you are doing it alone. I held the Main Amps, Balance and Pulser Buttons down with my thumb and fingers of my right hand and I held the Output push button down with the thumb of me left hand while pulling the Power Switch on (up) with the fingers of the left hand.

This procedure is not in the manual. I could tell you how and where I found out how to do it, but I'd have to do something bad if I told you. LOL.

By the way, the Miller Syncrowave is a wonderful machine for a Hobby guy like me and even some professional welders. It's always got a nice arc and I've seldom had the demand fan come on. I'm running mine with a home built cooling unit that has a Procon pump.

Check your power circuit and let us know. Hope this is helpful.

Check your ground. Poor connections result in poor amps.

What I meant by not getting full amps was with the machine set to 200 I would only actually get 180 to 130 amps at full pedal. I will asIk about the breakers. syncrowaves are great machines I have a 300 in.net shop at home but mine is water cooled. The fan on his machine runs,almost constantly. Could this be a problem?I am not familiar with air cooled machines, I have always owned water cooled and used water cooled at work.

ajlskater1 wrote:What I meant by not getting full amps was with the machine set to 200 I would only actually get 180 to 130 amps at full pedal. I will asIk about the breakers. syncrowaves are great machines I have a 300 in.net shop at home but mine is water cooled. The fan on his machine runs,almost constantly. Could this be a problem?I am not familiar with air cooled machines, I have always owned water cooled and used water cooled at work.

Hi,
I understand that the Miller Syncrowave 200's used to have a fan that ran all of the time. After a certain S/N, they went to "fan on demand", that is to say the fan would ony come on at a temperature determined by an internal thermostat.

If the machine sets up OK on the digital meter, yet won't run to full current, I suspect that the line is too restrictive as mentioned first above by Nils. You should check to see that the line feeding the machine is set up with proper-sized cables and has a minimum 60 amp capability since the machine needs a minimum 54 amp power capability.

Also, as mentioned just above, check for grounding. Of course, there are only three wires, two hots and one ground.

ajlskater1 wrote:What I meant by not getting full amps was with the machine set to 200 I would only actually get 180 to 130 amps at full pedal. I will asIk about the breakers. syncrowaves are great machines I have a 300 in.net shop at home but mine is water cooled. The fan on his machine runs,almost constantly. Could this be a problem?I am not familiar with air cooled machines, I have always owned water cooled and used water cooled at work.

When the machine is watercooled, it's only the torch, not the electronics. So I guess there would be a fan in yours also.
Some machines display the avarage output amps, so pulse will show lower output then selected. My TIG-machine is designed that way. ie. 100 A on the dial, pulse 0,2 sec (on), 0,2 sec (off) 50%. When I start welding with a setting like that, the machine will show about 50 A on the display when welding.

The pulse was not on and I know all machines have a fan what I meant was it seems to run excessively. both my dynasty 300 and syncrowave 300 can weld for hour and it will come but shut off quickly. His machine the fan will run for about twenty minutes after done welding and it has shut off on me several times in the past I am wondering if it's over hearing. At work we have that issue sometimes with some our parts that have 60 inch continuous multi pass welds at 350 amps it will start dropping amps but usually that's after about a couple hours of use.