When I research the overall cost of owning a welder (new or used), one of the areas where there seems to be almost no information is when one asks the question "How much would it cost to fix it?"
I would be interested in hearing of any repair stories (successful or otherwise) and what it cost you in dollars to fix that welder of yours, whether it was new (and under warranty) or old (and of questionable lineage).
I also have noticed that parts for older welders are becoming extraordinary expensive (that is if they are still even available) so if one does find a nice older welder, it is often unrepairable because of the cost of the component.
Well, much to my dismay this is something I can chime in on with some variables to add. I have a heavy production machine I use for fabrication of mostly alum. and sheetmetal intake manifolds for race engines and that machine- a Miller Aerowave has been in the shop a few times for a few different and unrelated problems (I must have a odd one as I hear this is the most reliable box on the market). One, the sequencer board went out and no power to the meters. Repair bill- $1530.97 but- Miller repaired the original boards to me as "spares" upon my request at NO additional cost. Then one of the AC balance caps or something died a few months later- $431.88 The unit is out of warranty, I am the only user. I bought it "as new, never used" on the pallet at an auction and given as much work the unit has produced, the cost of repairs and my real happiness with the Miller line you sort of have to bite the bullet. Top end gear is like taking a Benz in for work Vs. a Yugo. I also want to mention that while the Aerowave was in for P/M and replacing the caps I had the chance to try a Dynasty 200DX and I bought it after finding it was really a "scaled down full featured box" Less duty cycle but It's great. I noticed in a post from Mr. Spencer his DX conked out. I'd be interested in that repair as my warranty has just over two years and I use the DX a lot- I mean a LOT I have not fired up my SD180 that has never given me a problem ever. It was the first machine I took to TIG with and it suffered through my mistakes that should have BBQ'd something but it keeps on chugging.(Just no real use now that the DX is so portable) Conversely, My Miller 210 and the 3035 spoolgun have never had a problem. I had a cheapo Harbor Freight "Chicago Electric" wire feed MIG I lent out to friends for odd jobs and it had very, very low use and I got stuck holding the bag after it failed. (We took it to the rifle range and got payback) What I'm getting at is buying a welder in my opinion is something you should factor in to how much TCO you want to have and what maint. budget you have to invest in. (I learned this equation the hard way of trial and error and I really think outside of a solid warranty it's a crap-shoot). Even if you pick up a Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, - anything top-end get it new or caveat-emptor applies in full. You get what you pay for. I had a old Lincoln tombstone arc welder I don't think I could break if I had even really tried. Best $200.00 I bet I ever spent.
Respects,
Rob
Fraser Competition Engines Chicago, IL
"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
I can't really add anything about welders in particular other than to say that like every other device the fancy features are going to cost you more when it breaks because there is a good chance they are integrated on the part that failed. My advice is not to buy anything that has features your don't really need if you are concerned about repair costs. Same applies to home electronics and appliances. billh
I bought an EconoTIG at an auction once that looked like new and was supposed to have only about 50 hours on it. I got it home and found that the arc start circuit didn't work.
Unlike most TIGs it doesn't use HF but instead uses pulsed high voltage. I found a repair manual online and after a bit of troubleshooting found that the high voltage transformer was burned up and the capacitor that couples the HV to the output was shorted.
The transformer is about the size of the typical 12.6V center tapped you might find at Radio Shack (or might have when they actually sold a fair amount of electronic parts) but was of course available only from Miller for $110. The cap could probably have been found elsewhere but I ordered it at the same time as the transformer and IIRC it was another $22. If I had paid someone else to repair it I would guess a minimum of $500.
I'm guessing that the cap shorted first and allowed high current DC from the output to feed back into the transformer burning it up. To hopefully keep this from happening again I put a fuse inline with it so that it will blow before the transformer can burn up. I think I used a 1/2 amp fuse but can't remember for sure and probably could have used an even smaller one but I didn't have time to experiment.
I've also had to replace the polarity knob and shaft on a Lincoln AC/DC tombstone. I can't remember the exact price but both parts combined were less than $5. Getting that thing back together after replacing them was the biggest challenge! :-)
I also had a friend loan me an old Lincoln IdealArc TIG 250 once so my son could learn to TIG. When I got it I found that it would only work on DC+. If you switched it to DC- or AC there was no output. I opened it up and found a big glob of molten metal had stuck to one of the contacts in the polarity switch keeping it from working correctly. I popped it off and cleaned the contacts with a file and it was good as new. I think probably someone switched the polarity while welding. :-(
Since I'm just a hobby welder I don't need portability so I'll take an old simple transformer based machine over a newer one with all the bells and whistles any day. I know that's not realistic for many people but the simplicity makes them much cheaper and easier to repair in most cases.
Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com
Well, the new boxes are often exceedingly expensive to repair (and often replaced/sold off by original purchasers who have figured this out when they hit end of warranty) simply due to the way virtually all modern electronics are built - a 10 cent resistor or $1 diode fails, but the factory service procedure is to replace the $100s to $1000s board it's built into. Isolating the particular failed component is tricky, getting to it is difficult with the conformal coatings that are supposed t be protecting your circuit boards, and the whole business is a mess.
I had a Lincoln fail well within warrantee - made auxiliary power fine, but the welding terminals only put out 0.6V. As I was driving by the service center on my way to somewhere else, I took it in for repair, and sat there for a while as the service guy whipped the panels off and swapped this board and that board. Eventually determining that it needed some board he did not have, I went on my way. 2 months later they had finally gotten a new main board from Lincoln and it worked again. I cannot possibly imagine that being a cost effective repair if out of warrantee. Rather disturbing for an expensive tool I hope to get many decades of service out of.
1) Old Miller 330 A/B - paid $400 from used equipment dealer at swap meet. Couldn't strike an arc. Spent another $400 in Miller spare parts (control circuit relay, control circuit rectifier, two main diodes, and two HF capacitors). Had I known what I know now, I could have used generic components and probably saved at $200. Now used primarily as a stick-welder.
2) Old Hobart T250 - free from welder repair shop. Blew circuit breaker when powered up. Isolated problem to short circuit in main transformer, gave up trying to fix. Machine is now spare parts for my CyberTig.
3) Old MillerMatic 35 - free from welder repair shop (with old Tweco gun). Cooling fan-blade was missing and also blew circuit breaker when powered up. Spent $45 on new Miller cooling fan-blade and salvaged main diodes from Hobart above. Now used as a flux-core welder.
4) Old Hobart CyberTig - $100 from local college. Nothing wrong with it, works great. It is my primary TIG machine.
My observation is that old Miller machines are fairly easy to fix, manuals can be downloaded from Miller and spare parts are still available (but expensive). Old Hobarts are difficult as manuals aren't available. It is difficult to isolate problems without the manual and schematic.
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