Noob with a problem

[TedDanson]

Hi chaps,
At the end of may i bought a wolf turbo100 off fleabay to learn some welding basics and do some small repairs to a car i'm doing up - basically a repair to a floorpan and sill but - with all the poor weather we've had, this week is the first chance i've had to use it on the repairs.
The guy i bought it off reckoned it worked fine but "spattered" a little and indeed it looks brand new.
Switched it on today and it's dead as a dodo!
No wire feed, no light on the on/off button - absolutely nothing.
I've done a search on the forum and it looks like wolf welders are a pile of poo, but as a noob to this is there something i've done wrong setting it up that would give the impression the unit is dead?
Plug fuse is ok and the fuse on the circuit board inside the wire feed (2A?) appears ok.

 

[irondarren]

Ok are you confident enough to open up the case and get out a multimeter, because i believe thats what needs to be done. Somewhere there is likely to be a circuit break, but its finding where.
Being a turbo that means it has a fan, which runs all the time? or just when the trigger is pulled.

 

[TedDanson]

Thanks for the reply irondarren.
My mates got a multimeter which i could use.
There's no fan working - absolutely nothing, bugger all when the trigger's pulled too.

 

[irondarren]

So no power light etc, means power isnt getting through. Just a matter of tracing the broken part of the curcuit. Just be careful you dont give yourself electric shock when testing

 

[TedDanson]

Does the earth clamp need connecting up to metal before the unit is switched on?

 

[irondarren]

No the earth clamp is only required to weld with. so if no earth clamp is connected the unit should still work, but when the wire feeds out of the torch there would be no complete curcuit so if you touched the torch on a piece of metal it just wont arc up, but the wire will continue to feed

 

[Mr_Caine]

Send it back to the bloke and get your money back all try calling wolf direct to arrange a warranty repair.

 

[TedDanson]

Thanks for the info guys - looks like i've bought a ****ter then.
Just one other question -if the small fuse on the circuit board behind the wire speed switch was knackered would that that take out the power to the whole unit or just the wire feed unit in the welder?

 

[malcolm]

I'd say the fuse is worth a try - the circuit board is involved in both providing power to the torch and wire feed. Don't spend too much time on it though - it'll mess up your Porsche if you get it working.

 

[TedDanson]

Fixed it!

Well thought i'de have a look at the welder again this morning as i haven't had chance over the last couple of weeks.
Anyway, already changed fuses so i new they were ok, checked all connections inside, then thought i'de start with the rocker switches and as you can see from the pic all 3 contained very fine wood shaving dust - the main on/off switch full of the stuff!
Cleaned them all out and the unit started up fine, feeding wire etc.
Obviously the previous owner stored it by some woodworking gear - and probably new it wouldn't start up so sold it to me knowing the fact.
At least it's working now so i can get some practice in.
Thanks to all for advice.