Welding Tips and Tricks

A man gave my friend that lives on my property one of these welders in exchange for some work. He uses my Miller here in my shop but needs a portable one sometimes.

He wanted to test it and it had flux core wire installed. We plugged it in and all he got was a small spark even to the ground clamp no matter what he tried.

Have any of you had a problem like this? Wire feed works great. I am good at troubleshooting electrical problems if someone can advise me where to start. He said he was just going to give it back to the guy but heck it is worth a try and it looks to have been setting around for a while and might be a simple fix but I need a place to start and I have downloaded the manual.

Thanks

Welcome to the forum duke1946.

Thanks for the welcome and hope someone can advise me on what to check.

OK - I don't know your welder - but the basics hold true for a quick test on almost any machine ( assuming it's transformer based ( ? )) I find it difficult to get down on paper what is instinctive if I were testing the machine - but I'll try & give you somewhere to start.

Warning - you need the covers off with mains connected - so do this at your own risk & take all sensible precautions !

1 - locate mains contactor in machine - operate torch switch - does contactor operate ( you will hear it clearly )
2 - if it operates check mains is live when contactor is energized ( high mileage units can have the contacts burned away or contaminated )
3 - now check live is going up to the voltage selector switch
4 - is live now present on one tapping connected to the transformer
5 - check in sequence live is being switched one tapping at a time for all switch positions
6 - does main transformer sound like its got power - carefully feel it - you can usually feel when it's on
7 - if you have mains on the primary now check secondary winding ( expect around 15 > 25 volts depending on voltage switch position )
8 - it sometimes happens one primary winding dies - so check secondary on each position of voltage selector switch
9 - if you have power up to now check connections to the rectifier pack - from here on all the connections see some heat so over time may burn or come loose - check tightness & condition of everything
10 - do you have DC in the 15 > 25 volt range coming out of the rectifier ?
11 - if yes trace the large 2 power leads to the machine connections ( maybe dinse connector for earth ) - are they tight / clean / not burned - make sure you have one connection to the earth clamp & the other to the wire feeder assembly -if the machine has an easy polarity change over ( for flux core ) check you have this connected right
12 - check where torch is connected that a good electrical connection is made - can't go wrong with Euro style - but the weird US connection methods can have the torch in the machine - but not lined up correctly so the clamp / screw that carries power is on an insulated part of the hose assembly
13 - check earth lead for condition

Sorry if that went on a bit - but if you follow through the logical path of where power should be - by rights you will find the problem - good luck.

Thanks, I will give that try as soon as someone can lift it up on a table for me. At 2:00 am Friday morning I got out of bed and the door bounced back and my toes and our chest of drawers connected. Well toes no broke but blue and swollen and me walking very show and for sure can't pick up anything heavy and have both feet on the floor to stabilize me. OUCH PAIN PAIN is about the size of this BOO BOO for dag sure.

" had flux core installed". Was it running solid wire and gas before ?
If so, reverse the polarity(directions are in the door of the machine)