draper mig weld 100 - gas leak

[tombardier]

Hi guys,

Bought a Draper MIG Weld 100 last week at an auction, after having been looking at getting a MIG welder for quite a while. Stroke of luck I thought. I have one problem though. There is shielding gas leaking from all around the torch as soon as you turn the gas tap on, and you can barely feel it coming out of the business end when you use the trigger. The screw heads are knackered on the torch unit itself, so I couldn't get two of them off. I'm wondering what I can do. Is it likely to be a leaky pipe or fitting, or should the torch unit itself be completely sealed properly? I can't test it now, as all my gas dissipated whilst I was testing, trying to seal it with tape just to see if I could get it coming out of the hood properly..

I get the feeling that a low end draper like this isn't really meant to be all that serviceable :/

Any tips welcome!

Cheers. Tom.

 

[madkayaker]

might be worth getting some screw extractors or even drilling the screws out (can be replace easily with something else) might just be a knacked o ring or simpler a new torch shouldn't be that much

 

[Omniata]

Might need a new torch valve, the replacements are fairly common. Post some pics of the torch and where it connects, I've got a Draper 150 myself and it's pretty easy to sort out.

I'll try and track some parts suppliers for Draper MIGs when I get 5 mins tomoz

 

[Omniata]

Can't find the draper stockist at the minute but this might do:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MB15-4MTR-MIG...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:4|65:1|39:1|240:1318

Or:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HOBBY-MIG-WEL...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:4|65:1|39:1|240:1318


If your not sure how it connects up speak to "weldequip" , he might be able to find you a cheap "hobby welder" replacement that's really good quality...

 

[tombardier]

Thanks for the replies!

I managed to get it open, and I'm not really too sure what's wrong still. I forgot to buy some welding gas today as well, so I can't test it until tomorrow... I plugged the gas wire back in to the trigger block, and made sure that the o-ring was in place (the o-ring is fine btw). Other than that, I'm guessing that the problem would be further down in the gas line. There is a big kink in the gas line quite close to the trigger block, but I don't think that's the problem. If I try and blow in to the tube, it does seem to be blocked, I can't really get any air to go in to it... God knows. I need to get some gas before going any further really. Can't believe I forgot to buy more!

Omniata, thanks for the links! I'm quite tempted. Do you think they would be easy enough to fit?

 

[Omniata]

Should be, weldequip's good with stuff like this he might have cheaper parts too!!!

Take some pics... A good blast of wd40 in the brass trigger valve helps too

 

[tombardier]

wd40 is brilliant at pretty much everything! (apart from cleaning rifles..)

I did actually take some pictures, but in this light at home, they came out terribly, so I didn't bother posting them. I'll try again in natural daylight.