is my welder mad at me

[outkastkustoms]

first off I must say my first couple months with my millermatic 210 have been awesome and has worked flawless, but it seems its little brother my millermatic 135 is mad at me, a couple times recently I have turned it on had everything set, gas, ground and I go and pull the trigger and nothing, I try a couple more times and nothing, acts like its not grounded, then i trim the wire down, look at it for a sec and try again and it starts welding and i dont have another problem. anyone know why, just seems to do it when its cold but once i get started its fine, the welder is only a year old and has only had one small bottle of gas run thru it, so its had very low use

[Paul Seaman]

Recently there was a post about a similar problem with a 135 can't remember the title but the contactor switch was suspect then it turned out to be the gun had a short in the cable for the trigger. Andy helped get it straight. If you have a meter you can check to see if your getting contact form the trigger back to the machine, if not atleast you have a direction to go. Warranty should cover it.

Hope its not a big deal, good luck

[timw]

If I understand your post, the wire is feeding but you don't have arc, when cold. It sounds like you might have a problem with your wire being dirty or corrosion on it, once you use it it could be cleaning itself enough to establish the arc. Also could be loose/bad connection on ground clamp. This is a place to start. This reminded me of a trick we used to play when I worked in a shop with 30 guys. We used to take a small piece of cardboard and put it under someones ground clamp and watch them try to figure out why it won't weld.

[ASKANDY]

outkast,

Sometimes, depending on the wire manufacturer and composition, the wire will "glaze up" on the end and not make good contact. As you stated, clipping the wire made a better start because you now have fresh wire to make a good connection. This doesn't seem to be as much of a problem with the bigger units that have stronger drive motors and can push the wire hard enough to start it. You may have to clip the wire after it sits awhile.

A-

[outkastkustoms]

Thanks guys for the reply's, Andy yours would make some sense do to the fact it has happend both times with the same brand wire, it has happened on 2 out of the last three rolls of wire and the one roll it did not happen on was a different brand, so just maybe that is it, I hope

[ASKANDY]

You would be surprised at the difference between brands. Even though they fall into the same AWS classification, The amount of deoxidizers and type of coating will give varied results. Don't think all ER70S-6 wire is created equal!

Good luck!

Andy

[DDA52]

Originally posted by ASKANDY
. Don't think all ER70S-6 wire is created equal!

Good luck!

Andy

Andy,
Is there an ER70S-6 wire that would be considered preferable or at least more consistent with Miller machines?

Don

[cope]

Originally posted by DDA52
Andy,
Is there an ER70S-6 wire that would be considered preferable or at least more consistent with Miller machines?

Don

Don, Miller used to make a nice wire back in the ealy 1990s, but I haven't seen it in years. Hobart Weld-It wire should do fine. I have Uniweld .035 on my PowCon, but have no comparison because the wire that was on the machine I bought it was old and well oxodized.