Miller Dialarc HF w/ Power Factor. Ser. # JG097521 which I bought new in about 1986 / 87........Primary use TIG , Water cooled with a Bernard cooler and WP-20 torch. Built many Race Cars with it and just started another Project after it being Idle for about 3-4 years other than just a few minutes here or there.
My eyes have suffered some since the last build and was having some issues seeing the puddle and then installed a 2.0 power cheater in the hat which helped allot...........Been practice welding mild steel CR 1/4" plate to .125" plate using 3/32" tungsten and 1/16 or 3/32" filler rod and not doing to bad but continued to think perhaps the machine was low on output in the middle heat position which is 40-190 even with the fine adjustment Amperage rheostat set a 90-100. As I continued to work on the basics like Argon flow ( 15-20 cf) and different filler materials er70s2 and s6 and 309 stainless getting comfortable under the hood again I continued to feel as though I needed way to much pedal or near 190 Amps to create a puddle just to get started , but then of course once welding it was hard to manage even after I throttled back some as at that setting it would tend to undercut the 1/8" material and the welds just looked washed out with to much heat..........I tried speeding up some but that didn't work either. My feeling was I should only need perhaps 125-140 amps for 1/4 to 1/8" material. I talked with a couple of guys st the store who pointed me towards the RFC-23a foot Pedal which I took apart & cleaned the square 4" tall resistor face some with a stainless brush added a little pressure to the brush assembly and even went back in and reversed the resistor end to end while also changing the white & black wire position.to accommodate that..........which all seemed to help......
Today just when things were looking real good I went back out in the shop just to practice some more and while set in the 40-190 position with the rheostat set at about 70 and the pedal buried , it would not even create a puddle........I increased the rheostat to 100 but still no Joy! Had a weak arc that would not melt the metal. I Switched the lever to High range 125-310 and set the rheostat to 30 and it welded fine , great puddle and great looking welds more like I'm used to. I never really tried the low 40 amp range other than it did have a small arc.
So is there a High / Low Transformer or coil that's out? Is there some more testing I should do to better figure out whats wrong? Could it be the contacts on the levers that went Bye Bye? .................................What say you?
Terry
My eyes have suffered some since the last build and was having some issues seeing the puddle and then installed a 2.0 power cheater in the hat which helped allot...........Been practice welding mild steel CR 1/4" plate to .125" plate using 3/32" tungsten and 1/16 or 3/32" filler rod and not doing to bad but continued to think perhaps the machine was low on output in the middle heat position which is 40-190 even with the fine adjustment Amperage rheostat set a 90-100. As I continued to work on the basics like Argon flow ( 15-20 cf) and different filler materials er70s2 and s6 and 309 stainless getting comfortable under the hood again I continued to feel as though I needed way to much pedal or near 190 Amps to create a puddle just to get started , but then of course once welding it was hard to manage even after I throttled back some as at that setting it would tend to undercut the 1/8" material and the welds just looked washed out with to much heat..........I tried speeding up some but that didn't work either. My feeling was I should only need perhaps 125-140 amps for 1/4 to 1/8" material. I talked with a couple of guys st the store who pointed me towards the RFC-23a foot Pedal which I took apart & cleaned the square 4" tall resistor face some with a stainless brush added a little pressure to the brush assembly and even went back in and reversed the resistor end to end while also changing the white & black wire position.to accommodate that..........which all seemed to help......
Today just when things were looking real good I went back out in the shop just to practice some more and while set in the 40-190 position with the rheostat set at about 70 and the pedal buried , it would not even create a puddle........I increased the rheostat to 100 but still no Joy! Had a weak arc that would not melt the metal. I Switched the lever to High range 125-310 and set the rheostat to 30 and it welded fine , great puddle and great looking welds more like I'm used to. I never really tried the low 40 amp range other than it did have a small arc.
So is there a High / Low Transformer or coil that's out? Is there some more testing I should do to better figure out whats wrong? Could it be the contacts on the levers that went Bye Bye? .................................What say you?
Terry
Comment