Full marks to Technical Arc

[Carl Wilson]

Hi all,

About three years ago now I gave my brother my old Sealey 170 amp AC/DC tig unit. He has kept it stored until recently, being too busy with his house renovation to use it.

Finally getting some workshop time, he went to fire the beast up, only to find that the HF start didn't.

We live at opposite ends of the country, so by the medium of WhatsApp we tried to fault find it. In the end my brother decided to send it for repair, not having enough time to devote to it due to pressures of work.

He initially sent it to Sealey, who basically said no parts where available for it and offered to sell him a new one. We both knew that was nonsense.

He then sent it to Technical Arc. They repair welding kit and have a dedicated electronics workshop. They found the fault, a shorted diode on the HF board. They are charging my brother £160 for repairing the machine, all in.

I think that is really good, so much so that I felt it deserved a bit of publicity here. Technical Arc are in York I believe, and I think they make the Oxford branded welding machines.

 

[Munkul]

nice going... I hadn't realised that they fix other brands too.

 

[mechman]

Wonder if that's a standard charge. They quoted me £160 to fix my cap bank on my Migatronic 180.

 

[gaz1]

for a small part seems dear but does that include sending the item back to you and a warranty

id expect that sort of price for a tv as theres more electronics in them than there is in the welding machine to find a fault

 

[Wozzaaah]

I think a recent repair to an AC/DC tig was also £160 so maybe that’s their standard charge for a minor test and repair. Would be good if we had an active member who worked for Technical Arc. We had one years ago but he’s not been on here for a very long time now so he may no longer work for them.

 

[500e]

You could give him a prod Wozz something like "your mates are missing you"

 

[ukracer]

Wonder if that's a standard charge. They quoted me £160 to fix my cap bank on my Migatronic 180.

for a small part seems dear but does that include sending the item back to you and a warranty

id expect that sort of price for a tv as theres more electronics in them than there is in the welding machine to find a fault

TV's are not fixed though. They are fitted. ...with a new part.

 

[Agroshield]

for a small part seems dear...

There's an old story about a manufacturing plant that had some problem. The only one who could fix it was a retired maintenance man. He walked in and hit the machine with a hammer. They asked him for his bill: £1000. For such a small part, that also seemed dear, so they asked him for an itemised invoice. It came in the post and had two lines: 1. hammer tap £0.50 2. Knowing where to tap it £999.50.

 

[Carl Wilson]

I think £160 for the time it took to isolate the fault to the diode, obtaining and fitting the diode, testing the unit and postage etc is pretty good.

 

[mechman]

Arc masters Hull also repair welding machines, my cap bank is there at the mo cos it's closest.

 

[Bullet2012]

Nice to hear someone praising what to them is a good service On a forum.

 

[nicko868]

Im glad your brother had good service with them! I however am having quite the opposite they have had my thermal arc fabricator since before Christmas and they have finally managed to quote me on fixing it. I get firms are busy but when you chase a repair up and they cannot even find your machine or the paperwork week on week or even know anything about it I just get the cowboy feeling from them. even up to last week trying to arrange the repair with them I had to ring them every day to try and get hold of the one receptionist who seems to know about my machine and she only seems to work a couple of hours a day. and this last week the factory had to shut down for 7 days for covid reasons yet another set back. Im glad others have had good experience and I hope mine is a one off but I certainly wont be using them any more.

 

[vbottles]

That sounds like my experience with tech arc. Took an old tig welder in as HF and gas had stopped working. I live near by and stood in there loading bay for a long half hour trying to find my welder after being called with quote for repair(£350+). As I bought it for £150 a few years earlier didn't think it was worth the cost. Ask for a price on there tig welder. NEVER could get anyone to give me a price. Receptionist was helpful but sales wouldn't bother.
Recently had to order a tig welder for work. As I only have 3ph tech arc and oxford welders fit my budget and needs.
Could never get a price. Ordered else where. Supposed to be three week turn around. Took three months to arrive. Happy with my oxford welder now it here.
Andrew

 

[mechman]

Think there social skills need a slight tweak, that's why I took my cap bank to Arc master Hull.

 

[Carl Wilson]

All pretty odd as my brother has had good prompt service thus far.