Over the past few years I have gleamed some very useful information from this forum and I thought that I would share this experience as it may be helpful to others.
About 3 years ago a mate of mine brought a Cobel DC tig welder from ebay, well it went bang almost immediately - when the replacement arrived he whipped the case off and checked the connections before powering it up. As expected a lot of loose connections and a couple of dry joints, 3 years later it is still working fine.
With this in mind and having a desire to learn to use a Tig, Also, being a typical male of the species, i.e. arrogant and conceited (that’s what my other half tells me) I ignored a lot of advice and spent a small amount of dosh on a Super 200P Tig welder.
On taking the case off the first thing I noticed that the main earth wire was not connected as the screw fastening it to the chassis had come out, all the other chassis earths were loose in fact almost every nut and bolt in it was loose.
The spade connectors to the main switch were very loose, considering the current going through that switch it’s scary.
Best of all is that this welder came with a 16amp plug fitted - well I think the photo says it all. Now, I am not sure if these things are polarity specific but why colour code the wires if they are not.
After all this with some trepidation I switched it on, it works - at least on DC tig I will let you know about the other functions when time allows.
For the record I am not an electrical expert but neither am I clueless but to my mind as it was delivered this welder was dangerous.
About 3 years ago a mate of mine brought a Cobel DC tig welder from ebay, well it went bang almost immediately - when the replacement arrived he whipped the case off and checked the connections before powering it up. As expected a lot of loose connections and a couple of dry joints, 3 years later it is still working fine.
With this in mind and having a desire to learn to use a Tig, Also, being a typical male of the species, i.e. arrogant and conceited (that’s what my other half tells me) I ignored a lot of advice and spent a small amount of dosh on a Super 200P Tig welder.
On taking the case off the first thing I noticed that the main earth wire was not connected as the screw fastening it to the chassis had come out, all the other chassis earths were loose in fact almost every nut and bolt in it was loose.
The spade connectors to the main switch were very loose, considering the current going through that switch it’s scary.
Best of all is that this welder came with a 16amp plug fitted - well I think the photo says it all. Now, I am not sure if these things are polarity specific but why colour code the wires if they are not.
After all this with some trepidation I switched it on, it works - at least on DC tig I will let you know about the other functions when time allows.
For the record I am not an electrical expert but neither am I clueless but to my mind as it was delivered this welder was dangerous.