Millermatic 35 troubles...

[csedan510]

I have been experiencing very low amperage out put with my welder, I had just had 220 service put in my shop so I initially cursed my electrician, but I plugged in my Syncrowave 250 and it worked fine. I checked the plug on the 35 and noticed the ground prong had broken off. I tigged it back on using silicon bronze rod and thought that would do the trick, but no go.
I have it plugged into highest heat range #6, and could just get a decent weld on 1/8" square tubing. The arc has a sizzling sound to it and is kind of erratic kind of like the sound when you run with no gas. Any ideas?
I read in another thread about diodes being shot which I guess it could be, but the OP didn't go into too much description about the weld quality other than he had to crank it up.
Can someone lend guidance on troubleshooting and some "how to" tests in terms that an electrical idiot could understand?

[csedan510]

Ttt.

[Miller Kevin]

Well a bad diode/s could cause low output or no weld output, poor weld performance (spattery) and/or tripping the wall breaker.

They are pretty easy to test all you would need is a simple volt/ohm meter, isolate the pigtails from the 4 diodes and check them 1 at a time. They should work like a 1 way valve reading continuity 1 way and when you switch the meter leads around it should be open. If it doesn't read either way it is open and if it reads both ways it is shorted. If you find a bad diode we suggest replacing the one that is on the same plate with the bad one as well.

Hope that helps.

[csedan510]

Thanks Kevin, any other issue that could cause the poor performance described?

[Miller Kevin]

Other possibilities would be a bad work clamp or poor cable connection on the work cable, bad mig gun, bad contacts on the weld contactor, poor gas coverage.

[csedan510]

Thanks again Kevin for the suggestions. I'll be tearing into it this weekend, family permitting.

I don't understand question

-Low amp output (on highest peg can only manage 1/8" material)
-Sizzling sound during welding
-Eratic arc



EDIT:....are you spam, or just a fan of Dr Seuss, bad grammar and bad punctuation?