Automig 181 overheating?

[SandyM]

Hello. I have just bought a second hand Automig 181 to replace my trusty little Clarke 151EN Turbo.
Whilst doing some research on the Migatronic I spent a little time lurking on here and recall someone mentioned that their 181 was overheating, and that they had obtained/made a fan kit to help keep it cool.

I spent about 15 minutes in the garage today playing around with the new toy, fiddling with the settings etc, etc generally trying to get a feel for the new machine.

Feeling slightly confident, I then set to fabricating a small stand from 5mm angle with the new welder running at full volume for about 15 minutes when it shut down with the overheat light illuminated .
After about 15 minutes or so the light went out and welding resumed for about 5 minutes, then it shut down again .

I honestly thought that it would outperfom the Clarke, but any difference at full power is, in my limited, DIY experience marginal.

My question is, am I expecting too much from the machine, to expect it to weld more than 6 inches without pausing for breath? or am I doing something wrong?

Is a cooling fan kit available, and is it worth it?

 

[NotANormalCoder]

Migatronic state that the duty cycle for this machine is 60A @ 35% (assuming I'm reading the right literature). So thats 60Amps welding for 3.1/2 minutes then 6.1/2 mins for cooling. No real surprise then that it cuts out so quickly at max output.
Grab yerself a 120mm square, 240V cooling fan and arrange is so it blows air out the back (sucks air through the whole machine).
In my opinion, smaller Migatronic machines are rather poor on the duty cycle front - nice weld condition though.
Dave

 

[SandyM]

Dave, many thanks for the prompt reply. As I suspected the problem is me being impatient, rather than the welder not being up for the job .