New to welding and having big problems.

[savagemania]

I recently purchased a new Lincoln 175 HD 230V welder. So far 3 have broken on me. One caught fire, the other just made a bang sound and died, and the first just didn't work. I have use my friends mig and tig welders many times and never had a problem. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what I should check to try and fix this. I also wanted to know what "duty cycle" meant. I heard it was the # of minuets in every 10 you can weld. I also heard that you can ignore this because it has and overheat protection button thing. Although I have never gone past 3 minuets of straight welding. What does "rated CV Output Amps" and how can I find the maximum amps I can continuously weld at without overheating the welder.

Thanks,
Savagemania

[aczeller]

Originally Posted by savagemania

I recently purchased a new Lincoln 175 HD 230V welder. So far 3 have broken on me. One caught fire, the other just made a bang sound and died, and the first just didn't work. I have use my friends mig and tig welders many times and never had a problem. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what I should check to try and fix this. I also wanted to know what "duty cycle" meant. I heard it was the # of minuets in every 10 you can weld. I also heard that you can ignore this because it has and overheat protection button thing. Although I have never gone past 3 minuets of straight welding. What does "rated CV Output Amps" and how can I find the maximum amps I can continuously weld at without overheating the welder.

Thanks,
Savagemania

#1.) double check that you have the correct input voltage into your welder from the wall outlet. i'm not sure what your specifc welder requires, but check your manual... you should be able to find it within the first few pages.

#2.) the duty cycle is the percentage of actual "arc-time" (time that the trigger is pulled nd is creating a bead) in a 10 minute period... 20% duty cycle = 2 minutes of arc time within a 10 minute period. 30% = 3 mintes, etc... if your welder is equiped with the over-heating/duty-cycle protection, you don't have to worry... your welder will stop arcing, your wire will stop feeding, but your fan will continue running. put the torch/gun down and grab a beverage of your choice... give it 10 minutes to cool down and you'll be good to go again... LEAVE THE WELDER ON!!!! the fan will continue to run, helping to cool everything down.

#3.)CV means Constant Voltage... maximum amps that you can weld at would be as far as you can crank that knob... it'll just dictate how often/quickly you will hit your duty cycle switch. they will not allow you to weld at 200 amps when your other equipment parts are only rated for 100 Amps... everything in the system will be rated to run at the maximum voltage and amperage for the duty cycle.

also, where did you pick up your welders? are you SURE they are new, and not re-manned or just re-packed?

Later,
Andy

[David R]

Duty cycle is what tells me how big a machine really is.

Here is the manual. http://content.lincolnelectric.com//...r/im/IM726.pdf

It says 30% at 130 amps. So 3 minutes out of 10 at 130 amps. NO more. If you continuously trip out the hi temp circuit breaker, it will be hard on the machine.

Never tripped out my SP 100 since I have owned it (20 years)

good Luck
David

[savagemania]

I bought it from home depot. Also do you know where I can find what the duty cycle at each knob setting is? Like for the 175 amp setting? I thought that might be my problem and why they are dropping like flys, but it has never popped out the circuit overload/thermal protection button.

[CaptainWilly]

I cant see blowing up 3 welders cause you worked it beyond the duty cycle within 3 minutes of welding, or having 3 defective machines... Im going with incorrect input voltage? machine might be set for 208 and your plugging it into 240?

[weldgault]

I would suggest your LWS for lincoln, were you can get service, if needed. John.

[Sandy]

Originally Posted by savagemania

I bought it from home depot. Also do you know where I can find what the duty cycle at each knob setting is? Like for the 175 amp setting? I thought that might be my problem and why they are dropping like flys, but it has never popped out the circuit overload/thermal protection button.

Some manufacturers are nice enough to provide a curve chart in the owners manual. They aren't chiseled in stone because of the many variables that go along with the environment you might be operating in, but they are a good guide. If not you can often glean some clues out of the manual and come to some fair conclusions of your own. I would imagine that at max around 10% is the best you're going to see out of a hobby machine. Take a look see at several other similar models. They all run very similar stats due to the competitive factor. It's not a science any way so it's one of those things where close is as good as your gonna get.

Good resource and knowledge base is lincoln themselves.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/

[Sandy]

I recently purchased a new Lincoln 175 HD 230V welder. So far 3 have broken on me. One caught fire, the other just made a bang sound and died, and the first just didn't work. I have use my friends mig and tig welders many times and never had a problem. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and what I should check to try and fix this.

Naturally there are a ton of details that we aren't privvy to, but just going by all the input we see and get, I' say you need to look real close at where you are plugging these things in.

I'd bet that most of these manufacturers and dealerships are geared around 5% to 10% failure rate out of the box. That includes all of the tiny little things that might occur right down to a wire loose, missing tip, so-on. For major component failure it's probably even less yet.

Don't take this wrong. Not that you do have something wrong right where you're standing but the odds for one person to get three bad ones in a row with major component failure would be phenomenal.

[savagemania]

I have checked the plug it is outputting 242V and it is on a 30 amp breaker (the manual specifies a 40A breaker but it is on a 30A which Lincoln said was fine. I am having a electrician friend come over and look to see if i did anything wrong when installing the plug. I haven't checked but Lincoln says the welders come preset for 230V operation but I will look and see if it has been wired for 208.

[DesertRider33]

It could be something as simple as a hot being connected to the ground terminal in your outlet or plug. I could see reversal of the hots and ground at the outlet causing 3 machines to fail like that.

On most 220v single-phase blade-type outlets/plugs, the two hots go on the right and left flat blade terminals and the ground goes on the top, or center round or u-shaped terminal. Commonly, the ground wire is green and the hot wires are black and white.

Always double check the outlet with a volt meter to be sure someone else didnt do something unconventional before plugging in a new machine. Also, if you have a new-to-you used machine, open it up and double check where each wire goes to be sure a previous owner didn't change any connections inside the machine, possibly when installing a new power cord to it.

Hope you get it straightened out before burning up machine #4!

[savagemania]

My electrician friend came over today and found nothing wrong with the plug and we opened the cover of the welder and saw that the transformer was all burnt up and melted a bunch of stuff around it. but it was wired for 230V and the plug was hooked up correctly so I really am confused as to what could be causing it.

[TozziWelding]

The only machine I ever tripped out on a regular basis was a Miller Cricket. It was a home owner hobyist piece of junk.

[sonofjabba]

I'm pretty sure you have an issue with your holes. Something isn't hooked up right somewhere. I own a lot of 220/240V gear I haven't smoked any up yet. Then I'm handy with wiring.
:knock on wood:
I'm used to seeing folks cook 110V welding equipment up. Rarely 220V Stuff Unless they have a wiring issue outside of the unit.
Lincoln 175 HD is a Nice Unit. I can't imagine 3 Bad out of the box. They Test all their stuff before it leaves the factory.

[sonofjabba]

Maybe Trace the wires to the Breaker would help, Or a Bad Breaker

[denrep]

Originally Posted by savagemania

I recently purchased a new Lincoln 175 HD 230V welder. So far 3 have broken on me. One caught fire, the other just made a bang sound and died, and the first just didn't work....

I side with those who think it is incorrect supply power connections.

Any chance of posting a picture of the power panel and outlet?
Can you read a nema# off the plug or outlet?
What else have you used the outlet for?
Maybe you have 208/120 three phase power?

Find a voltmeter and someone here will walk you through a voltage check.

[savagemania]

I will try to get a pic but I don't know when I will be able to get down to the shop. I have used an AIRCO 250A TIG welder on the same plug and it works fine. I have done a voltage check with a multimeter as follows.
I put both the leads into the hot holes Voltage-242/3
I put one lead in hot and one in ground Voltage-121/2
I put one lead into other hot and ground Voltage-121/2