Welding off a thin extention lead

[terryscott]

Today I plugged my cobel mig tig mma welder in to do a small mig welding job, I was quite far from a power source so I used a long extention that the customer had and it was quite thin, the grinder worked fine but when I went to arc up as soon as the wire touched the steel it made a very small arc, not even enough to make a tack and now when I pull the trigger it just makes a single clicking sound and the wire feed motor does nothing, there is a button inside to feed the wire and this works as it should, I have taken off the gun (euro connector) and shorted out the two pin connections and it clicks the same as the trigger so I know it's not the gun.
What have I done ???

 

[daleyd]

What length was the extension, and how thin exactly?

I'd be surprised if it was that which caused your issue, given that you didn't actually weld anything by the sounds of it.

 

[daleyd]

Yes, that's a possibility but from his description it didn't sound like he managed to strike an arc in the first place.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Sounds like he did:

but when I went to arc up as soon as the wire touched the steel it made a very small arc, not even enough to make a tack

 

[daleyd]

Sounds like he did:

Yes, I meant a proper arc as in it started welding and then stopped. That sounds like it was faulty already, but perhaps not?

It's only a guess but I would have thought even on a fairly thin extension lead (depends how thin of course!!) it would work for a short while? I've run mine off fairly thin leads and not had any bother, so I guess it comes down to how thin and long it actually was? (Oooer!)

 

[dannyp]

running off a thin long extension lead nukes the small transformer on the pcb in the littel migs, replace it and odds on it'll go again

 

[normspanners]

Today I plugged my cobel mig tig mma welder in to do a small mig welding job, I was quite far from a power source so I used a long extention that the customer had and it was quite thin, the grinder worked fine but when I went to arc up as soon as the wire touched the steel it made a very small arc, not even enough to make a tack and now when I pull the trigger it just makes a single clicking sound and the wire feed motor does nothing, there is a button inside to feed the wire and this works as it should, I have taken off the gun (euro connector) and shorted out the two pin connections and it clicks the same as the trigger so I know it's not the gun.
What have I done ???

How is June ? BTW

 

[dannyp]

absolutly brilliant.