Porn! , well sort of!

[SiPMerlin150]

Glad the title grabbed your attention! It is porn... 'our' type at least

Inherited a old Lincoln compact 185 that isn't working and needs some TLC
Have investigated and found it to be a contacter relay coil that energises the main breaker to initiate the welding current. The coil is showing signs of scorching and my multimeter is showing only 2.65 volts is passing through the coil, when its fed the usual 240v (massive resistance!, open circuit).

That coil will be no more than £20, on top of that a nice new contact tip, new earth clamp and a new roller as some doofus has chipped the one fitted!

Problem is, the roller is seized onto the motor shaft, it will move so far but becomes reluctant to move even with persuasive actions of levering with a screw driver. I will buy a new one, but I dont want to damage the feed motor. I've juiced up the shaft with WD40 and will let it soak, then degrease with some alcohol once done.

Heres some internal shots of the components for people to see. The transformers and the inductor choke all work fine.

Look out powercraft MIG of mine, theres some new MIG in town!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Nice one!
So....spill the beans...how much did you manage to get it for in the end?

 

[gordon stephenson]

Make a little puller from a cut washer, piece of tubing with a section cut out and a nut to take a jacking bolt, That is if there enough room to slip the washer behind the roller, Then you are just pulling the roller off the shaft and not putting any strain on the motor itself,

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Nice one!
So....spill the beans...how much did you manage to get it for in the end?

For nothing! They said just take it!

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Make a little puller from a cut washer, piece of tubing with a section cut out and a nut to take a jacking bolt, That is if there enough room to slip the washer behind the roller, Then you are just pulling the roller off the shaft and not putting any strain on the motor itself,

Thank you for that idea, will grab a few washers tommorow and give it a whirl!

 

[Wozzaaah]

For nothing! They said just take it!

Result!!

 

[Exuptoy]

If replacing the contactor, make sure of the voltage. The last one I had to change on the Elektra Bekum (Taskmaster) was suppose to be 24v DC but some nugget had fitted an AC one. Worked ok until the heat caused the coil to swell and seize, which burned up the tracks on the PCB and wiped out 2 transistors!!!!!

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Yes, it says on top '230-240v AC' on the coil set, Danfoss sells 'em and one is on ebay a day left 0 bids at £18 free P&P

 

[pedrobedro]

A windscreen wiper arm puller might get the feed roller off for you, only a few quid on ebay or Halfords.

 

[Seano]

Just had to run to workshop to make sure mine was still there, where you can see the end of the keyway on the roller drive shaft, squirt some wd down it an let it soak for a while, usually works, nice pick up by the way, mine cost me 400 and welds like a demon, get it on a 32a supply, if you wind it up it will keep blowing 13a breakers

 

[SiPMerlin150]

In a response to Gordan with the washer tricks, it didnt want to budge still!
Rather than force it, Ive left it on for now. I swapped round the polarity to
suit the small amount of gasless wire i had lying around. To test its performance
I had my brother don the gloves and mask whilst I manually pushed in the contactor
to start welding. It ran beautifully and put down more wire in a few minutes than
my little powercraft mig. Contactor bought from ebay, £18 .

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Update, contactor arrived today, fitted, all wire up,nice new 5kg roll of 0.8mm wire runs perfect! This was the first MIG that I'd learned to MIG weld on...its like greeting an old friend after a long time. Put down some long beads of weld across a 3mm plate on setting 2, the bead can be seen sinking into the plate nicely!

 

[DrNik]

how did you manage to get it for free then ????

 

[SiPMerlin150]

He eventually just gave in to me keeping on asking him! I told him that it could be anything between a new rectifier or even a transformer short due to the case being filled with like 10 years of iron filings, grinding dust etc. Besides, he bought a brand spanking new powertec MIG for a little over a grand, and shoved the duffer in the scrap pile corner. I'm not prepared for the gypos to take it!

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Heres a few more photos after some playing around with settings on this welder some are a little cold, one has a little porosity at the stop start, the two runs with a gap between them was a vertical up lap joint, and a few others were with the welder on settings 3/6 others were done 2/6.