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Mig welder...no spark!

38K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  snorulz 
#1 ·
A guy I know loaned me his old Craftsman 110v/80 amp mig welder to tack some motor mounts on and a few other things. Well the wire feed works, the fan comes on but no spark. The gound clamp is good and I've tried it on both high and low power but no dice. What would be the most logical explanation for no spark...transformer or what???
 
#2 ·
no spark ??

i go with the transformer is bad... but.. open the side cover and make sure the wire is being crimped between the wheels. if thats ok, then take a wire (about 12ga) and put it in the ground clamp, pull the trigger and touch the other end of wire to the roller where the wire feeds.. u got spark?? bad contact with welding wire or no spark the trans is bad.
 
#3 ·
corroded connections

I hadn't used the old airco tig for about 15 years.. I found corrosion. not much but enough where the cable lugs connected.I cleaned them with a small wire bursh and it welds, not a good as the new Lincoln 255 tig or the sp 200 but it will do the job.
 
#4 ·
I'm guessing the Craftsman is a Lincoln, on mine it did the same thing and it was the power selector switch. On mine the A,B,C switch the points had become pitted and wouldn't send power to the transformer.Replaced the selector switch and was back in business
 
#5 ·
Yep, the one time that my Century welder did that it was where the ground clamp cable connected to welder inside. Removed it, cleaned up the connection and that was all it took.
Brian
 
#8 ·
I have spark now.....I removed the ground connector inside the machine and cleaned the connections with a wire brush. Then I hadn't noticed before but someone had put a 2 prong plug adapter on the power cord that eliminates the 3 prong ground plug. I removed it, plugged it in and sparks!!

Now I have to buy some gauges, rent a bottle of argon/02 and start practicing. Like I said earlier, going to tack the motor mounts in for the Cadillac then take the chassis into town to get them tig welded. Still thinking about fabbing up some tri-y headers, I want to run a stock looking 20 louver hood and it will be VERY tight on the first 2 forward header pipes.
 
#9 ·
I was going to say go ahead and weld those motor mounts, but then I checked back at what machine you had, 80 amps is NOT enough, not nearly enough for your motor mounts. But for those headers, and other sheet metal no problem. :D

Brian
 
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