Welding Tips and Tricks

I hooked my Suitcase to my Bobcat 250. The Suitcase would not power on. It is new.

I got a 5 foot cable, to allow me room to sit the Suitcase down, after it is hooked to the Bobcat.

Any idea on why the thing will not turn on?

I have never used a Suitcase before. But I thought, you hook it up, it comes on. haha

Take a picture - it'll be easier to figure what you've done wrong.

But, it won't turn on unless the welding lead is hooked to it and the ground lead hooked to the same metal as the small wire from the suitcase.

I often just hook the small wire right to the ground clamp.

I will get a picture tomorrow.

I saw the setup, when using gas. I don't see a voltage sensing thing. haha Just the ground clamp and the other cable.

I am trying flux core. I put the gun into the outlet. Then, I hooked my ground thing into the ground part of the Bobcat.

I was not trying to weld. Just to turn the thing on. Nothing.

I tried negative and positive, on the mig part of the Bobcat. Nothing.

I set the amps at every setting there was. Nothing.

Did you read the manual? It's stupid easy to hook up.

haha, yes I did. Still, nothing. The thing just would not power on.

I got the parts in the manual, just for mig. I printed them out. I shall bring them out with me tomorrow.

I should not have tried today. Thursdays are my cooking day. I had no time.

I decided to pick a state or country, find the top restaurants there, get the menus, find the recipes and make one of everything on the menus.

I started in New York with a place called Victors Cafe. I made something called ropa vieja. haha Cuban restaurant from what I gather.

But, tomorrow is a new day.

So, I finally got it to come on. But, it didn't work that well. It kind of spattered. I read someone telling someone else, to change the connection and hook the ground to the positive. I mean, the electrode part. I am so worn out today. I wrote those down and drew this picture. No clue if it is correct. haha But, my tired self wrote it down.

Power to negative, then power through positive, given power from the negative from which the second negative is connected. Then, since the gun wire was coming from the second positive, once the second positive connected to something that was powered by the first positive, it would be active. The Suitcase would be negative. The electricity would come through the Bobcat, into the metal and through the gun wire.

Glowzinski wrote:So, I finally got it to come on. But, it didn't work that well. It kind of spattered. I read someone telling someone else, to change the connection and hook the ground to the positive. I mean, the electrode part. I am so worn out today. I wrote those down and drew this picture. No clue if it is correct. haha But, my tired self wrote it down.

Power to negative, then power through positive, given power from the negative from which the second negative is connected. Then, since the gun wire was coming from the second positive, once the second positive connected to something that was powered by the first positive, it would be active. The Suitcase would be negative. The electricity would come through the Bobcat, into the metal and through the gun wire.

From reading that description you should just buy a hot glue gun.

Seriously - your bobcat has wire+ and wire- selectable at the machine.

"it kind of spattered" just means you're doing it wrong.

Dave - I think he was told to switch the cables for Flux Core to DCEN, at least that’s what I interpret from his rambling post Your right, he doesn’t need to swap the cables, just flip the switch instead

K, you have some information mixed up. On older machines, like mine, you swap leads at the machine terminals to change polarity. On your bobcat you dont do that.
Always connect the work lead to the piece of metal you are welding. The post labeled electrode goes to your stinger if you are stick welding, or to the lead on the suitcase.
Now to change polarity you set the switch on the bobcat to + for DCEP, or - for DCEN.
Tho you didnt say, I gather you were trying to weld with flux core (gassless), not hard wire, or dual shield and you were reversing the DCEN (if you were - on the bobcat switch) to DCEP by switching the leads.
The small clamp from the front of the suitcase also always goes on the workpiece, regardless of the other cables.

haha, I thought that is what I posted. Upon looking, I have no clue what I put here. haha But, from reading the posts after, it's all good.

I found the reason I even had that idea in my head.

This is on a site I was looking at.

"Do you have the 12VS connected to the negative terminal (Ground) of the Bobcat? Your work clamp will come off the positive terminal. That's the way I use it on my Trailblazer."

It made no sense to me. But, it must have stuck in my mind.

At least I found what put the idea in there. haha

Thank you for the tips.