"new" welder help, auction find Airco 300

[soutthpaw]

Just got this at auction today and have not wired it up yet. I found a few threads about them.
This one seems to have all the bells and whistles. I did read all the related threads I could find but none seemed to have any info on the control unit for the spool gun
Model 3S/DDR-224 HPA/B-D
Stock # 1341-0118
Serial # HH61095 (can anyone decipher the manufacture date?)


Aircomatic Control (would really like some more info on this part. does have a contactor inside.. the spool gun wires up like the Profax I have does to the Miller S52e...
Model ACH-L
Serial #2051

MIGet Spoolgun
Model AH20-E


Airco Foot Pedal
Model RFC-23A


Water cooled torch and external pump which looks like one end draws from a bucket and the other just returns the water back

about 50' of welding cable on the stinger and 25 or so for the ground.
It came from a Diesel repair shop that closed/retired owner I think. Have not had a chance to wire it up or take side off to clean it but hopefully it works. looks like it was direct wired. What attracted me to this machine is that its a really heavy duty single phase machine.... I will be adding a dedicated 100 amp panel to the garage next month.
Oh and got it all for $150 Which is a steal any way I see it... I will post once I get it (hopefully) working... I did download the Miller 330 BPA owners manual as it seems to be the same machine.

Thanks in advance for any more info on these.

[turk]

nice deal, i only paid $100 for mine, but mine didn't come with the pedal.i run mine on a 50a breaker with no problems, but i have also never gone over 50% output anyways.

[soutthpaw]

Originally Posted by turk

nice deal, i only paid $100 for mine, but mine didn't come with the pedal.i run mine on a 50a breaker with no problems, but i have also never gone over 50% output anyways.

Yeah I think they are worth more than what we paid in scrap copper. as I have an identical spool gun already I figured it was worth it just for the parts.

[soutthpaw]

Ok, got it cleaned up and hooked up and auxillary stuff seems to work, but no welding current AC or DC, I did try all ranges and current modes. Suggestions on what to check or where to start looking?
Does this have a main fuse or contactor for striking up the arc current?

On a side note, I figured out the box the tig pedal was in, is actually the bottom to the airco tig cooler pump duh!,, does this just get filled with a coolant/water mix

[soutthpaw]

Got it working Took top off and cleaned all the contacts on the switches. seems good to go now.

[farmall]

You got a screaming deal! Congrats.

[soutthpaw]

Haven't tried the TIG yet, need some electrodes for it. Just finished running 2 ga triplex to garage and installing sub panel with 100 amp breaker.

Need to solve a weird problem I have with identical spoolguns on 2 different machines with 2 different controllers.

Neither feeder motor will run when i depress the trigger even though the contactor on both units is closing and its getting welding current to the wire. The Airco MIGet will run the motor using the JOG button on the bottom of the handle. and it will strike and maintain the arc. it hooks through the Airco control box I mentioned above...

The Profax gun I got connected to the Miller WC-3 is having the same issue but the miller does not use the JOG button so I removed and tested the motor to verify its good....

I cannot make sense of the wiring diagrams to trace where the signal to run the motor finds is way back to the gun and also don't understand how the wire speed control signal gets routed, processed

[Pavinsteelman]

Remember the welder is a rebranded Miller . the Profax and Airco are also the same , should hook up the same too . John

[soutthpaw]

Originally Posted by Pavinsteelman

Remember the welder is a rebranded Miller . the Profax and Airco are also the same , should hook up the same too . John

Yep I downloaded the 330 owners manual already. Think I need to call Profax and find out to how to trace the problem

[soutthpaw]

Got both spool guns working with a bit of help from Glenn at ProFax. relay on the airco that is powered by the current thru the electrode welding cable had too wide of a gap. the WC3 controlled gun had a bad contact in the the RC-3 relay and also had to change the high/low OC circuit voltage setting
Miller WC-3
High= jumper across terminal 10& 24 = CC power source = Aluminum only= DCRP
Low= jumper across terminal 17&24 = CV power source = Aluminum and steel = DCRP

That's what he told me.
Anyone know why you cannot weld steel with one of these guns running a CC power source????