irondarren
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Having a little trouble with my thermal arc 250, its about 10 yrs old (Australian built). Its not putting out the power it should do, i guess its been getting worse over the last year or so, i just havent noticed it until now. I have messed around with the earth cable connection, and replaced the cables and connectors, with a bit of improvement.
On the inside of the machine is a power setting verses wire speed setting for different thickness of material. To be honest i havent looked at that for years, i just set the voltage and turn the wire speed and weld, adjusting the wire speed if need be. Having used the setting chart and set it to 24-29volt course and setting 2 on fine, it should run at a wire speed of 12.5mtrs per minute. Now this just produces massive amounts of cold edges, reduce the wire speed to 10mtrs per min and its fine, no cold edges on the weld bead. But 10mtrs per min wire speed should be 19-23volts course setting and 2 on the fine.
I have been having a little trouble with the wire remain live after the wire feed has stopped. run out about 6 inches of wire without actually welding, then earth it out without touching the trigger and there is enough power in the wire, to produce a heavy spark. (weldequip tells me this is possibly the contactor at fault). I have noticed tonight a slight buzzing sound (only because i decided to give the inners a real good clean out) which seems to be comming from the contactor, its a little difficult to tell because of the fan, but im 90% sure its the contactor buzzing. What i really need to know is can the contactor be responsible for the powerloss in welding output.
If i can restore it to 95% of output again i would be quite happy but if not then it looks like a new welding machine, with a portamig 350amp with swfu looking favourable, but at the moment im trying to save a few quid so don't really want to spend out if can help it.
any ideas?
On the inside of the machine is a power setting verses wire speed setting for different thickness of material. To be honest i havent looked at that for years, i just set the voltage and turn the wire speed and weld, adjusting the wire speed if need be. Having used the setting chart and set it to 24-29volt course and setting 2 on fine, it should run at a wire speed of 12.5mtrs per minute. Now this just produces massive amounts of cold edges, reduce the wire speed to 10mtrs per min and its fine, no cold edges on the weld bead. But 10mtrs per min wire speed should be 19-23volts course setting and 2 on the fine.
I have been having a little trouble with the wire remain live after the wire feed has stopped. run out about 6 inches of wire without actually welding, then earth it out without touching the trigger and there is enough power in the wire, to produce a heavy spark. (weldequip tells me this is possibly the contactor at fault). I have noticed tonight a slight buzzing sound (only because i decided to give the inners a real good clean out) which seems to be comming from the contactor, its a little difficult to tell because of the fan, but im 90% sure its the contactor buzzing. What i really need to know is can the contactor be responsible for the powerloss in welding output.
If i can restore it to 95% of output again i would be quite happy but if not then it looks like a new welding machine, with a portamig 350amp with swfu looking favourable, but at the moment im trying to save a few quid so don't really want to spend out if can help it.
any ideas?