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A friend of mine has devoted a good deal of time and money in helping to complete a project that has been on the back burner for several years. He offered to finish a set of steps that come off one side of our porch. They were constructed by a previous resident who for whatever reason abandoned the project before the home came into our possession. Here's the situation. . .The friend I mentioned brought his welder and some materials. All we really needed was a place to plug it in. We had a 220 outlet in our living room that powered an air conditioner way back in the dark ages, but had been unused for some time. We removed the outlet and pulled the wire back down into the basement. We spliced on a length of 8-3 wire and put a new outlet on the end. The welder was plugged in and found to function. We got everything set up and he commenced welding. After he had about a half-inch bead down, the breaker tripped. We were half expecting this, but tried to work around it. He tried a thinner rod and a lower amperage. Three small tack welds later, the breaker tripped again. We went to the hardware store and picked up a heavier breaker, (50 amp,) came home and wired it in. The welder was once again plugged in, but when he flipped the switch on it, nothing happened. We re-double checked our wiring and everything was as it should be. We brought out the voltmeter and tested at he outlet. It had power. The welder was opened up and tested at the top of the switch. It had power. We flipped the switch and tested below it. Once again, it had power. He said the transformer was probably shot. All attempts to bring the welder back to life (including a heavy cussing and a light kicking, ) failed. I'm kind of hoping that there's some completely obvious and simple solution to this problem. When we were rooting around, did we miss a button labeled "PUSH HERE TO FIX THE WELDER"? Does anyone know how it can be put back into service? Any ideas would be welcome; he's pretty put out about the situation.
Reply:proud, i feel for ya there bro. Reading this I thought of the dc rectifier possibly being the culprit. With it being an AC only machine, I cant say wiht any degree of accuracy at all. See I had an AC/DC machine. My rectifier went out. Get nothing. Power would turn on, but no weld power. AC worked though. I took it to a service shop and the guy told me these venerable old machines with the exception of rectifiers are very hard to break. With this info I would check all my connetions on the welder. Keep an open mind to something just coincedentaly coming loose or I dont know what else because as I said these machines are not common for having problems like your describing unless its actually an unrelated problem. I am keeping an open mind and know anything is possible, but I cant see it being other than a faulty connection. Id check my plug, and my input cable and its tie in. After that, possibly the on/off switch. After that if its the old lincoln AC 225 machine, you might be better off buying a new one at H.D. and selling the old one as is. Just my two cents. Hope it helps. Good luckCHRIS |
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