Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello,

Posting this for Dad. He has small 10A inverter and transformer welders. This is what is going on.

10 year old inverter welder suddenly stopped striking arc part way through welding.

Dad thought it's dead, buys a new inverter welder - it stops striking arc part way through welding

Dad returns new inverter, swaps for transformer welder - it stops striking arc part way through welding

Dad hooks up MIG - OK no problems.

Next day, MMA welders still refuse to strike arc. Dad tries both inverter and transformer welder in a generator. Both strike arc and work perfectly. Dad puts them back into the mains supply, they work for a while then stop again!

Any ideas what is going on? This is the really odd one.

Thanks.

Is the power to the welders cutting out? You say the arc quits, but is the machine still powered on? If so, what is the voltage and frequency of the incoming main power while welding? If you are capable of working with electricity, have you checked your breaker and conductors going to the outlet of your welder? Excessive copper oxidation is not good, and aging breakers can also wreak havoc. In short you have some trouble-shooting of some kind

Jimbobtx3 wrote:Hello,

Posting this for Dad. He has small 10A inverter and transformer welders. This is what is going on.

10 year old inverter welder suddenly stopped striking arc part way through welding.

Dad thought it's dead, buys a new inverter welder - it stops striking arc part way through welding

Dad returns new inverter, swaps for transformer welder - it stops striking arc part way through welding

Dad hooks up MIG - OK no problems.

Next day, MMA welders still refuse to strike arc. Dad tries both inverter and transformer welder in a generator. Both strike arc and work perfectly. Dad puts them back into the mains supply, they work for a while then stop again!

Any ideas what is going on? This is the really odd one.

Thanks.

first thing is to put your location details in your profile so we know your from aussie.
most of these usa guys won't know what a 10a welder is.

was the mig connected to the same power outlet with the same leads?
i suspect you have burnt a power point or lead, or partly broken cable. extensions leads are bad for that.
a lot of the cheap 10a sockets are fairly crap.

I had to Google the 10A thing. Didnt know 10 amp outlets were a thing. It's basically the same as a 20 amp 120V outlet in the US.... Anyway, get a multimeter. Start at the welder and work your way back. Follow the electricity. We can be pretty sure it isn't the welder, since you said tall tried others. if your using an extension cord, try a different one, the wires can break internally from metal fatigue or come loose from the end connectors. If that isn't it, pull the outlet and check the wiring. They can work loose from hot/cold cycles from electrical loading. After that, I'd check the breaker. I'm assuming it's a faulty extension cord, personally. Try welding at high amps, then when it starts acting up, feel the extension cord for hot spots. Itll be warm or hot where the area of high resistance is.

I should add that the last post I made what a few weeks ago and my posts just now got approved by the Admin (I'm new here)