Welder Problem

[Steve@Advance]

Had to load up the wire welder and take it to a job site today.

It's a 15 year old Millermatic 210 MIG welder running .035 steel wire.

Got to the site, unloaded, powered up, went to weld and all it would do was pile up red melted wire worms! Not enough power to strike an arc...

Checked the ground, moved it to a better place. Checked the incoming voltage, 230v. Looked over the obvious for loose connections, cycled the wire speed knob, ran the voltage selector switch through the range and made sure it was clicked in on a number, everything looked good.

Still nothing but red worms...

So I turned the voltage up a notch, same thing, another and another, ended up on 6, higher than I have ever had it. It finally started welding, 10 ga structural with .030 wire.

No way that's right...

It worked that way for a couple welds, then went hot. Turned it down to 3, red worms, back to 4, it worked. Then got too hot again, down to 3, where it has always worked for that material. It stayed on 3 the rest of the afternoon, worked as normal.

I think something may have shook loose inside riding in that rough trailer, drove some rough roads.

Any ideas? I haven't opened it up. I suspect it is filthy inside, it sits next to a band saw that commonly cuts cast iron, and then the grinding dust...

Thanks!

 

[el6147]

its good practice to periodically remove a side panel and blow the dust out of it.

that may be all that's wrong it, I've owned my wire welder since 1982 and have always blown out the dust and have had few problems with it

 

[504]

I would check the volts at the plug,I think you are not getting 115 and 115=230

 

[grizz02]

has to be a loose connection inside some where first try it in another shop plug if you can get it to repeat the problem feel around to see if there is a warm connection some where, is the gun tight in is holder in the machine?

 

[Tom in TN]

Steve,

I'm neither a welder nor an electrician, so my observations are immediately suspect. Having said that though, I have a little 115 volt welder. From the beginning, it was welding poorly in my barn. I checked the voltage on the outlet, it was 120 volts. I ran through all of the selections on the welder and it still didn't weld at all well regardless of the settings.

I eventually took the welder to the house, plugged it into a socket near the power distribution panel, and it worked. My theory is that although I had the full 120 volts at the outlet in the barn, there was enough resistance in the wire to drop the voltage, and subsequently the current when it was under a load. So now, when I want to use the welder, I take it to near the house and plug it in. I'm still no welder, but my "chicken dropping" look better than they did in the barn.

Tom in TN

 

[1948CaseVAI]

My small MIG will not weld well on a 15 amp socket but does fine on a 20 amp socket. I suspect the smaller wire feeding the 15 amp restricts the incoming power enough to matter. I know you are on 230 but check the amperage or wire size to the socket.

 

[john *.?-!.* cub owner]

Need to check the voltage with the3 circuit under load and see if it is still 220.

 

[Stephen Newell]

The only time I've had a similar problem is when the welding wire got a slight trace of rust on it. It just wouldn't feed right. Put a new roll wire on and it worked fine.

 

[jon f mn]

I doubt it's a problem in the welder. Sounds like a feed power issue, maybe a loose wire in the socket or at the breaker. Once it heated up it made good enough contact to work. Just because it shows 230 on a meter doesn't mean it can pull the amps.