Mig welder playing up

[colhonk]

Welder welds fine, but the last 3 times I have used it it has suddenly gone dead when pulling the trigger. Newish torch ect and then it will (so far) start to work again. yesterday it did it`s trick but would not go. took the gubbins side cover off and wiggled every wire (switched off) found none loose or any sign of burning, then blady thing then worked and been ok again. any thoughts/
Butters AW261 of 1994. Always been a brilliant piece of kit so far.

 

[Dry Rot]

It's not got a thermal cut out switch, has it? My toy welder does that all the time. I drink a lot of coffee.

Another alternative is a heat sensitive electronic fault which has the same effect. The test for that was to give independent components a squirt of freezer spray to see if the machine comes back on, then you know what to replace (often capacitors).

 

[AJR75]

Did you take the torch apart? Sometimes the wire can come off the contact to the trigger

 

[john432]

I had a problem that the mig would trip the rcd circuit breaker, allmost constantly when cold, took the covers off and gave it a good blow out of all the dust with an air line. No problem since. Metalic dust from grinders probably acting as a conductor somewhere?

 

[Jason g]

I had the lined breaking down on mine and the earth arcing inside the welder causing no connection

 

[colhonk]

But it is just now and again. does not seem after any specific amount of welding, Yesterday it was when my son tried to use it for the first time of the day. Will take the torch to bits and lookin it, and give the gizards a good blow out

 

[Jason g]

My mate had it with 1 and it was the invertor breaking down

 

[AJR75]

You may find there's a wire off to the trigger. Have you go another torch you can use to try and eliminate/ pinpoint the problem?

 

[Dave W]

The 2 pins where the torch attaches to the wire unit might be the cause. Usually spring loaded but don’t always make a good connection.