Syncrowave 300 question

[Thumb Clip Pull]

Hello!

I took my Syncrowave 300 to my local Miller dealer, authorized repair center this morning. They tested my machine and said that the control board and a "L.E.M." was bad. They said that repairs would cost about nine hundred fifty dollars. Does this sound about right?

The shop manager offered to send my control board out to have it repaired. (Someone painted the dang circuit board black sometime in the past. We could not read the components this morning.)

Any thoughts? I don't mind paying a fair price for good work. I just don't want to be "taken".

Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

[rb455ho]

Is this the syn 300 you bought from the Virginia state auction? If it is I believe you said you paid less than $200.00 for the machine. If this is true then I would fix it as you will have less that $1200.00 in a 300 amp machine. If you do not need a 300 amp machine put the $1000.00 towards a dyn 200 and step up to the corvette of welding. Good luck

[Thumb Clip Pull]

Yes Sir!

This is indeed the $157.50 dollar tig welder from the Virginia State auction! The shop foreman at my Miller dealer recognized it on sight! He trouble shot it for William and Marry College. (They ended up purchasing a new TIG welder from Miller.)

I was thinking that a new board cost less than two hundred dollars. The L.E.M. thingy looks a lot like a wire wound coil, with low voltage taps on the side. High voltage wires pass through the center of it (sort of like an amprobe). One of the repair man at the shop told me that this devise senses what the load is and sends feed back back to the control board which in turn controls the output. He told me that my welder runs wide open (on the tester) with their new board installed. They checked the return wires from the "L.E.M. to the control board connector. The connections were good. The shop foreman told me that he has not seen this devise go bad in the past. I just can not imagine that this devise costs close to seven hundred dollars.

Does any of this sound familiar? Again, I don't mind paying a fair price for quality parts and service. I am in the service and repair business myself. I use original manufacture parts if they are available and I do the best work that I can.

Any thoughts?

Yours,
Thumb Clip Pull Pin.

[rb455ho]

The coil is just and inductor picking up the magnetic field created by the current through the wire. This is very common in the power field as feedback control. I would tend to agree with you on the $700.00, that seems high. You might contact Miller and see what these parts retail for and go from there. Good luck I have a syn 350 and I appreciate having a 300-400 amp machine if you need it. I also have a syn 180 thats like new as I primarily use the big boy now.

[cruizer]

The list price on a "059641" Lem is $498.03 US, without the serial, This unit would be my best guess.

Now this is List, so cost would be around the $380 mark give or take a couple of bucks. An overhauled Control board will be around the $350 mark. So $950 for everthing including the repair techs time isn't all that bad.

They'll send the board to a firm called "Industrial Electronics". These fellas appear to work piece work, and are rather slow, been a month already on my boards.

[Sberry]

I am not sure if the schematic in the service manual has the board in it or not. I will look, I have a full manual. I had my TV repair guy fix mine, 50 cent transistor was all it was.

[Mike W]

Are you sure the coil is bad?

[dyn88]

Might you be able to find a used "known good" board at a machine salvage yard?

[Thumb Clip Pull]

Syncrowave 300 update

I called my dealer this morning and explained that I can't afford to pay them to fix my welder. They are only charging me a very little for testing my welder. I will go by there at lunch time and pick it up.

I will have to try and find a technical manual for my Syncrowave 300 as there is no "theory of operation" or circuit descriptions in the Owner's manual I got with the machine.

Thank you very much for the suggestions about having an electronic repair place trouble shoot the control board. I am going to go this route if I can get the dang black paint off to the board that someone put on it. (Does anyone have any suggestions what to use to get the paint off with?!)

Hey "cruizer"! Thanks for the price quote on the "L.E.M.". (A friend told me that "L.E.M." stands for "load equalization module" in his Miller M.I.G. welder.) I found that 059641 is the part number for the "current sensor" of the Syncrowave 500 Miller welder.

I think that 004590 is the part number for the "current sensor" of my Syncrowave 300. I have got a quote of $349.00 for that part. So you can well imagine that I feel a lot better about this part of the repair parts.

Thanks again!

Thum Clip Pull Pin.