Welding Tips and Tricks

BEHOLD YE WELDING MENTORS !
I bought this WIA brand 140 amp DC inverter a couple of years back and now after some actual use, a few hours a day it is barely working. It's worked fine up to now.
just fired it up and can't scratch an arc. Just opened a new pack of rods,....nothing, checked the leads, nothing.
In Australia it is well known brand WIA but of course the welder is the bottom of the domestics. IT is priced today in OZ currency as 300 bucks.

Is this the lot for the fool that buys a toy welder ? I had a 15 amp power point installed for this very occasion when the toy 10 amp junk got old but it has had so little use. Nobody in this region can service or repair a welder that has had an axe driven into the bowels of its workings and the leads are too short to tie a suitable hangman's noose! so I will survive this dilemma

SO, do I gotta buy a LINC OR A HOBART ?? I don't think anything in OZ is not Chinese junk. Man I expected a kindergarten duty cycle to be lame not dead!
ANYHOW MY MAIN QUESTION IS:
DO ANY OF YOU KNOW HOW TO REMOVE AN AXE BLADE FROM A WELDER ???
.

is that similar to repair shotgun holes in welders?

i don't know the brand but they look ok. not all Chinese made stuff is rubbish.
get someone to check it out before biffing it.

if you want a good small stick welder then check out the EWM pico 160 puls. by mem its 6010 mode and pulse stick welding.
tho the price is way up there but they are top end euro welders.

Wia are very good quality machines. Not as good these days as when they were Australian made, but still. Hopefully it's just a blown something inside the machine. Unfortunately, just because it's a good brand doesn't mean that it's not going to worth repaing. Firstly, go to http://www.welding.com.au and contact wia for their advice. May even be able to claim a warranty. 5 years is a common one these days.

All the best, mick

tweake wrote:is that similar to repair shotgun holes in welders?

i don't know the brand but they look ok. not all Chinese made stuff is rubbish.
get someone to check it out before biffing it.

if you want a good small stick welder then check out the EWM pico 160 puls. by mem its 6010 mode and pulse stick welding.
tho the price is way up there but they are top end euro welders.

Thanks for the reply. A shot gun attack would be more fun, with an axe you have to turn the power off to avoid electrocution but shooting it you can leave the power on and watch it spark, smoke,......and probably short out the house lights.

IT turned out to be some idiot about my size had it switched to TIG !

weldin mike 27 wrote:Wia are very good quality machines. Not as good these days as when they were Australian made, but still. Hopefully it's just a blown something inside the machine. Unfortunately, just because it's a good brand doesn't mean that it's not going to worth repaing. Firstly, go to http://www.welding.com.au and contact wia for their advice. May even be able to claim a warranty. 5 years is a common one these days.

All the best, mick

Thanks Mick for the reply,
But it turns out I somehow flicked the switch over to TIG . I only just checked that half an hour ago and its too late for welding but I assume that is why the thing wouldn't light up.
I knew WIA were a good mob but I figured they sourced their toy models from the $2 shop.
I never filled in any warranty paperwork when I bought it and I don't remember when I bought it.
SO THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION IS THE LATTER- IT IS ME.

The switch changes it to lift arc, never investigated it, although I thought you'd still get an arc. Hope it is okay, if not, I'd still contact the company. Never hurts to ask.

weldin mike 27 wrote:The switch changes it to lift arc, never investigated it, although I thought you'd still get an arc. Hope it is okay, if not, I'd still contact the company. Never hurts to ask.

When switching a stick/TIG inverter to TIG the OCV remains the same, but the welding voltage drops about 10V and i think the hotstart and antistick functions get switched of as well because you don't need those with TIG.
All that makes it a challenge to light up a rod, especially low hydrogen rods.
It happened to me a couple of times doing jobs on location. It's easy to accidentally flick the switch on my Kemppi while transporting it. After this has happened a few time you get in the habit of checking the TIG switch before switching the inverter on.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully that's his issue.