Whilst having a crafty fag at work I noticed the bodyshop had dumped its old mig welder in the skip. After a bit of negotiating ('Take it if you want!') its back here.
Its a Sealey supermig 150/5. Not the biggest welder ever but its bigger than my current box of sparks (a FERM 90amp thingy) Here it is...
From what I can gather, the wire would not feed. I got it back and plugged it in. Nothing! A loud click but that was it.
I knew it wasn't anything to do with the wire because...
The cheap gits took the roll out before chucking it out!
I powered up the motor from a car battery charger and it worked fine...
When switched on the voltage didnt seem to be reaching the motor. The switch in the trigger seemed to work fine.
So I turned to www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum (highly recommended!)
The 2 likely causes were poor soldering on the PCB or a faulty relay.
Then I clocked the relay...
Quick search on ebay revealed replacements at £1! My favourite price! At the time of typing there is one on its way.
Other modifications I intend doing are...
Replacing the torch with a nice long eurotorch. Ive fitted one before, the ones on ebay are pretty decent. In my experience the Euro kits on ebay are usually cheaper than replacing the torch and liner with OE ones. If I do that I can have a couple of torches ready with new liners. I'll be changing the eartyh and power cables for something a bit more substantial too.
Another worthwhile upgrade is these...
A couple of spare PC case fans (left over from last time the MRS. fixed my PC, that I had broke!) They should run off the existing fan circuit and allow me to direct cooling around the case a bit better.
Its a Sealey supermig 150/5. Not the biggest welder ever but its bigger than my current box of sparks (a FERM 90amp thingy) Here it is...
From what I can gather, the wire would not feed. I got it back and plugged it in. Nothing! A loud click but that was it.
I knew it wasn't anything to do with the wire because...
The cheap gits took the roll out before chucking it out!
I powered up the motor from a car battery charger and it worked fine...
When switched on the voltage didnt seem to be reaching the motor. The switch in the trigger seemed to work fine.
So I turned to www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum (highly recommended!)
The 2 likely causes were poor soldering on the PCB or a faulty relay.
Then I clocked the relay...
Quick search on ebay revealed replacements at £1! My favourite price! At the time of typing there is one on its way.
Other modifications I intend doing are...
Replacing the torch with a nice long eurotorch. Ive fitted one before, the ones on ebay are pretty decent. In my experience the Euro kits on ebay are usually cheaper than replacing the torch and liner with OE ones. If I do that I can have a couple of torches ready with new liners. I'll be changing the eartyh and power cables for something a bit more substantial too.
Another worthwhile upgrade is these...
A couple of spare PC case fans (left over from last time the MRS. fixed my PC, that I had broke!) They should run off the existing fan circuit and allow me to direct cooling around the case a bit better.