esab/linde mig went boom! help

Jeff Cleveland 22 years ago

I'm the maintenance mechanic at central washington university here in ellensburg wa. Just today we had our mig welder scare the living crap out of a sculpture student. I guess she was welding along and BOOM!.... the prof tried it afterwards and was about an inch into her first weld when again BOOM! (she said she could feel the concrete floor in the foundery shake!) BTW she said it appeared to continue welding.

Is this something that sounds repairable? or is it mostlikely one of the coils on the powersupply shorting due to bad insulation?

The power supply is a linde vi-206. with a newer esab mig35 feeder. I'm still a bit of a welding novice (done lots of oxy/act and mig on steel but thats about all that is taught here) and have only a little experiance fixing large amperage equpment such as this.

Thanks in advance for any help

Jeff Cleveland

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Ernie Leimkuhler 22 years ago

That is a really old power supply. It sounds like the reactance coil is arcing. Very dangerous. I would retire the beast or at least take it to a repair shop. We have 2 repair shops here in Seattle.

You could try calling them if there isn't anything closer. They are both very good.

American Equipment Svcs.

22148 - 72nd S. Kent, WA (253) 395-9947 Ask for Paul or Tom.

Precision Welding Repair

4429 Airport Way So. Seattle 98108 (206) 382-6227 Ask for Mike

They can likely diagnose your problem better than most, and they will know how much it will cost to fix it.

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Walt Springs 22 years ago

Pull the cover off and look for blown capacitors. If they are faulted they will be bulged or burst , pretty common problem on old equipment. Pete

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Martin H. Eastburn 22 years ago

Hum -

I'm wondering if the arc points are not eaten back and the voltage climbs higher than it should and it then discharges through insulation or snaps to the cage.

Hope it is the points - that is easy to fix compared to insulation of the windings. Even that if all is well isn't to bad - a swimming pool of 'varnish' and a vacuum to draw out bubbles... Best find out before something other than the 'Spike Jones' sound occurs. Martin

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