SIP Weldmate 140 Arc

[steviec_lj]

Evening ladiemen and gentlewomen,

Got one of the above Arc Welders.

Massive transformer inside with a sliding shunt.

Got given it, so no real skin off my nose if I can't get it working 100%, but it's be nice. Also picked up a box of 1.6mm, 2.5mm and 3.2mm rods from my uncle, who got them from Stores on his last day *cough*, damp, but they dry out alright. Reminds me, need to build a rod warmer.

Anyway, back on topic. It'll weld alright, laid down some very wobbly slag lines a few weeks ago when I'd run out of gas, and encountered the following, potential, problem.

If I switch off the set on the front of the machine, no rod in the holder, earth clamp free and well away from anything that could conduct, it will every now and then trip the power out. I do actually suspect that it has something to do with the length of cable running from the CU in the house, down to my workshop/garage/**** tip. It the house end RCD that trips if I remember correctly, but I packed the machine up after finishing and haven't needed it since to be honest.

Now, there aren't a lot of things that could go wrong in one of these, they're litterally and big transformer. I had however, thought of putting a 240v fan in the back of it to pull some air through the unit, just to increase duty cycle a little if possible.

Other than that, could anything be causing this?

 

[the snooper]

dodgy switch, earth leakage have had that on a lighting controller a couple of times but works fine 99.9999% of the time

 

[BrokenBiker]

Open it up and check the connections on the switch,

 

[rtbcomp]

Can you try it on a different mains circuit?

 

[steviec_lj]

Yes, I'll be welding in the kitchen this evening, or using the socket on the cooker circuit anyway.

Back of the switch looks good, bit if grinding dust inside which I've cleaned out, but other than that, it *looks* alright.

 

[Jan]

Other than the ability to cope with relatively high amperages, the on/off switches are fairly simple ones and should be easy to acquire and fit. Since they're rarely sealed sufficiently to cope with very fine particulate/water ingress it's most likely that some of the grinding dust has got inside and only replacement will be the correct way to go.
In that vein; some years ago I had some fairly heavy grinding to do on a pair of brake discs. Unfortunately the SWR balancer for my CB rig was too close and a lot of grinding dust got inside it buggering it up completely.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Other than the ability to cope with relatively high amperages, the on/off switches are fairly simple ones and should be easy to acquire and fit. Since they're rarely sealed sufficiently to cope with very fine particulate/water ingress it's most likely that some of the grinding dust has got inside and only replacement will be the correct way to go.
In that vein; some years ago I had some fairly heavy grinding to do on a pair of brake discs. Unfortunately the SWR balancer for my CB rig was too close and a lot of grinding dust got inside it buggering it up completely.

unless the transformer is leaking to earth, in which case the switch is nothing to do with it.

plug it in to a separate circuit, i e if your upstairs and down stairs sockets are on separate rings try in both, or as you have suggested the cooker outlet. If it is still tripping then there a few tests to do but will get into that when you have determined if its the welder or the house mains

 

[octo0072000]

Evening ladiemen and gentlewomen,

Got one of the above Arc Welders.

Massive transformer inside with a sliding shunt.

Got given it, so no real skin off my nose if I can't get it working 100%, but it's be nice. Also picked up a box of 1.6mm, 2.5mm and 3.2mm rods from my uncle, who got them from Stores on his last day *cough*, damp, but they dry out alright. Reminds me, need to build a rod warmer.

Anyway, back on topic. It'll weld alright, laid down some very wobbly slag lines a few weeks ago when I'd run out of gas, and encountered the following, potential, problem.

If I switch off the set on the front of the machine, no rod in the holder, earth clamp free and well away from anything that could conduct, it will every now and then trip the power out. I do actually suspect that it has something to do with the length of cable running from the CU in the house, down to my workshop/garage/**** tip. It the house end RCD that trips if I remember correctly, but I packed the machine up after finishing and haven't needed it since to be honest.

Now, there aren't a lot of things that could go wrong in one of these, they're litterally and big transformer. I had however, thought of putting a 240v fan in the back of it to pull some air through the unit, just to increase duty cycle a little if possible.

Other than that, could anything be causing this?

can't work out the run out of gas bit on original post

 

[BrokenBiker]

he used arc welder because he ran out of gas for the mig

 

[GrahamGKD]

Some loads are just a bit leaky - what else is running or cutting in when it trips? When I first got my Hypertherm Plasma it would trip the house RCD when the compressor cut in - not very practical! Both the plasma and compressor were relatively new. I actually sent the plasma back to be tested but it came back 'no fault found'. In the end I got around the problem by splitting it all out to a dual RCD (17th edition) system in my workshop, bypassing the RCD in the house. I put the plasma on one RCD and the compressor on the other. All happy now - not a single problem since.

I had one of those SIP Weldmate machines for ages, by the way - did absolutely loads of projects with it. When I finally moved up to something a bit more sophisticated I couldn't even give it away - I took it to the tip in the end but at least it went in the re-use department.