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Posted by Martin H. Eastburn on July 26, 2007, 3:58 pm
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Just have to love old equipment with an unknown history.
That reminds me that I need to print out the design of my 3P
control box and put it in the door. Don't want Gunner to stumble
into that control box.
Martin
Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/
Gunner Asch wrote:
> Buddy of mine runs a nice automotive shop and a month or so ago, he
> calls and says his Tig welder died (ancient Miller 300 rebadged as
> AIRCO) and could I check it? Since he does a lot of A/C adapters and
> so forth, I loaded up one of my spare TIG machines on the trailer and
> took it along. We trade machining and electrical work for mechanic
> work...so we really work at keeping each other happy..<G>
>
> Found a bad breaker..really marginal wiring...old shop, poorly wired
> in the first place. Since he had a couple hot jobs, I disconnected his
> old welder and installed my Airco 250 Squarewave (Esab) and showed him
> what does what...and turned him loose. He loved it and has been using
> it daily.
>
> His hired help (who Ill refer to as "nose picker" on the other
> hand...liked the old Miller and decided on his own, to hook it back
> up......chuckle
>
> SOW cord, 8/3..with red/white/green conductors. 240vt 1ph welder.
>
> My buddy says there was a really bright flash..and all the power goes
> out in the shop..and he runs out to find the shaken nose picker
> standing there in the dark..with bits of smoke wafting in the
> breeze...
>
> So he calls me up and asks me to come over and check everything out.
> They pulled the entire breaker out of the panel to make sure its
> safe...lol
>
> I get there..and find the green and red wires attached to the breaker.
> which made a .nice Christmasy effect..but not exactly as intended by
> the maker or Code.....with the white wire going to the neutral lug in
> the breaker box..just like all the white wires in the 110
> breakers....chuckle
>
>
> So I swap the wires around and turn on the breaker then try the
> welder...no fan. Check the fuses..all ok...hum...
>
> Kinda cramped on the acess side of the welder..so I asked the nose
> picker to clean me some space and go off to pee.
>
> As Im standing there, making splashy splashy...
>
> Bright flash..all the lights go out...
>
> The guy is standing there...with a stricken look on his face...and
> smoke wafting in the air....
>
> Seems when he tried to move the big B bottle of argon, he hit the side
> of the welder and the muffler tube rack...big melted spot on the
> rack....
>
> WTF? Measured case of welder to ground..hot as hell. Shit..shorted
> transformer......hummmm...lesseee here..
>
> Killed power, pulled the wireing access hatch...and found in years
> gone by, some dick head had hooked L1-L2 to green and white..with red
> to case ground.. And all the insulation was gone in the SOW cord
> between conductors as a result of the first miss hookup.
> 2 way hot right to the old case. The welder was on 2x4s, and we were
> all weaing rubber soles..so no one got bit when touching the case of
> the welder.
>
> Replaced the power cable (took it off my welder), wired both ends
> PROPERLY..and after chanting a mantra of supplication to Ready
> Kilowatt..(and checking for power from case to ground)...fired it up.
> Ran nicely,good arc.
>
> Hard to kill a good old transformer machine. Gotta love em. Its gonna
> be good for another 30 years.
>
> Gunner
>
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> calls and says his Tig welder died (ancient Miller 300 rebadged as
> AIRCO) and could I check it? Since he does a lot of A/C adapters and
> so forth, I loaded up one of my spare TIG machines on the trailer and
> took it along. We trade machining and electrical work for mechanic
> work...so we really work at keeping each other happy..<G>
>
> Found a bad breaker..really marginal wiring...old shop, poorly wired
> in the first place. Since he had a couple hot jobs, I disconnected his
> old welder and installed my Airco 250 Squarewave (Esab) and showed him
> what does what...and turned him loose. He loved it and has been using
> it daily.
>
> His hired help (who Ill refer to as "nose picker" on the other
> hand...liked the old Miller and decided on his own, to hook it back
> up......chuckle
>
> SOW cord, 8/3..with red/white/green conductors. 240vt 1ph welder.
>
> My buddy says there was a really bright flash..and all the power goes
> out in the shop..and he runs out to find the shaken nose picker
> standing there in the dark..with bits of smoke wafting in the
> breeze...
>
> So he calls me up and asks me to come over and check everything out.
> They pulled the entire breaker out of the panel to make sure its
> safe...lol
>
> I get there..and find the green and red wires attached to the breaker.
> which made a .nice Christmasy effect..but not exactly as intended by
> the maker or Code.....with the white wire going to the neutral lug in
> the breaker box..just like all the white wires in the 110
> breakers....chuckle
>
>
> So I swap the wires around and turn on the breaker then try the
> welder...no fan. Check the fuses..all ok...hum...
>
> Kinda cramped on the acess side of the welder..so I asked the nose
> picker to clean me some space and go off to pee.
>
> As Im standing there, making splashy splashy...
>
> Bright flash..all the lights go out...
>
> The guy is standing there...with a stricken look on his face...and
> smoke wafting in the air....
>
> Seems when he tried to move the big B bottle of argon, he hit the side
> of the welder and the muffler tube rack...big melted spot on the
> rack....
>
> WTF? Measured case of welder to ground..hot as hell. Shit..shorted
> transformer......hummmm...lesseee here..
>
> Killed power, pulled the wireing access hatch...and found in years
> gone by, some dick head had hooked L1-L2 to green and white..with red
> to case ground.. And all the insulation was gone in the SOW cord
> between conductors as a result of the first miss hookup.
> 2 way hot right to the old case. The welder was on 2x4s, and we were
> all weaing rubber soles..so no one got bit when touching the case of
> the welder.
>
> Replaced the power cable (took it off my welder), wired both ends
> PROPERLY..and after chanting a mantra of supplication to Ready
> Kilowatt..(and checking for power from case to ground)...fired it up.
> Ran nicely,good arc.
>
> Hard to kill a good old transformer machine. Gotta love em. Its gonna
> be good for another 30 years.
>
> Gunner
>