in question; smell of death or over heating a mig machine?
the unit is a millermatic 175 (new )
while this machine does produce a fair ammount of fan noise the position of the internal fan and vent openings are not so good.
the second time since I own this machine a funny smell has filled the garage, it is unmistakable....some insulating material is getting awful HOT, melting ? no over heating light ever came on.
i ran the unit on heat setting 8 and with the matching wirespeed, MIG welding process, 10 second bursts 10 times with a few second pause to move the work piece.
the back of the unit where the fan blows the air out was pretty hot to the touch. after 3-4 minutes of fan on , no wleding it was still prety warm. I decided to remove the cover of the unit to see if for any odd reason maybe something has built a nest in there, wich would block air flow. there is 2 transformer coil inside among other things. the the smaller one close to the front was still extremelly hot to the touch.
here is what I can see being a design problem. the fan is mounted toward the rear but too far from the vent opening. so the fan only partially forcing the air out of the vents and just circulating the hot air inside. also the vent openings in the back look odd. the sheet metal slots are press punched in an oval form and folded toward the inside, the lip of the folded metal acts as a spoiler disrupting air flow.
I don't want to sound like Mr. smarty pants , but i would have pressed those vent holes smooth or at least facing toward the outside.
test/ solution? since the machine is under warant any modification would not be wise. I placed a small 5 inch diamerter 110 V computer like fan at the front air intake repeated the same welding job / piece work. the machine was warm to the touch at rear air discharge, much better.
has anybody had similar experince with these miller units?
your responce appriciated.