lincoln sa200 in hot weather

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I'm useing a lincoln sa200 and as the day warms up I have to keep turning up the amperage. At noon I gave up and called it a day.Is this normal for these welders?On another note I went to an auction on Saturday saw a nice looking sa300 ? sell for $500.00. The young man had bid on serveral other  welders   and managed to get the last on of the sale.Lincoln 350mpmiller regencymiller syncro wave 300
Reply:That's somewhat normal for the octagon barrel machines with aluminum windings, I don't think I ever had to change my fine current control more than 20% though IIRC. It didn't seem to be a big thing if you could pick a coarse setting the let you run higher voltage on the fine control. But I haven't had one for 8 years now so that memory may have faded a bit.
Reply:By coarse setting do you mean turn the dial to the left?Lincoln 350mpmiller regencymiller syncro wave 300
Reply:The coarse/current control has 5 distinct settings, Fine/voltage is the one with a continuous adjustment.
Reply:How much welding are you doing and what size of rods are your burning? It was common to have to to turn up the octagon barrel machines when doing high production welding like pipelines but not so much for general welding. Lincoln brought back the round barrel machines with copper shunts because they kept the same heat all day. It doesn't sound normal from what you described. Maybe the fine adjustment rheostat is going South?
Reply:I wasn't  welding to steady. I'm putting a new floor in a end dump and was trying to get it tacked up.It seems like the It is down on amps when starting a bead.  It my be the welder rather than the welder.
Reply:Sounds like it could be an issue with the machine. Is the idle control working properly? Put it on high idle and see if it's consistent.
Reply:Check your leads check your ground clamp once they get hot it can be problems all day long
Reply:Check your leads check your ground clamp once they get hot it will do the same thing
Reply:Thanks guys.
Reply:It's cooler  today  and the lincoln is working better.  I checked  the ground  it seems good.The fine adjustment is a bit warm but definitely not hot.The high idle switch doesn't work  I'm assuming that it has been set to high idle
Reply:High idle is the same as full throttle (1550 RPM I believe). I'm wondering if the engine RPM's are staying consistent. If the high idle switch isn't working could be part of the problem. Does the engine rev up the same when you strike an arc or does it stay the same RPM welding or not?