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ArloGuthroJeep
04-03-2008, 11:29 PM
Brand new...

After about 2-3 seconds of welding it stops. The orange overheating LED is lit up on it. Any clue what would cause it to overheat instantly practically? Welds (to my ignorant knowledge) look fine.

It is run off of a 30amp breaker via a 45ft 10gauge extension cord if that matters.

Any ideas?

nate
04-03-2008, 11:59 PM
Defective? Call Miller up for sure!

BigDaveZJ
04-04-2008, 12:17 AM
You sure it's getting enough power? That extension cord can't be helping things, and I would think (don't know for sure) that 10ga is a little small for that long of a run. Have you tried the lowest setting to see what happens?

MoonWorks
04-04-2008, 12:20 AM
Try and plug it directly into the outlet w/out the extension cord and see what it does. If it works fine than you know its the cord starving the welder. If it still does it I'd call Miller like Nate suggested.

ArloGuthroJeep
04-04-2008, 12:53 AM
Did you guys know that reading the instruction manual MAY actually be helpful sometimes? As an engineer I make fun of people who do such a thing but I suppose sometimes they write useful stuff in there.

After finding the spansh, french, and german versions, the english version was hiding from me (page 1 or so).

It was a flashing light (slow-blink) which doesn't mean over-temp at all. It means drive overcurrent - tension too high. So a few turns of the spool wheel tensioner and wala, I have a fully functional welder that turns out BEAUTIFUL welds.

Oh, and I had measured the voltage at the welder plug. Actually reading high @ 250 volts.

And 10 gauge is rated for at least 100 ft at 30 amps so that wouldn't be an issue. If I was running 50 amps then I would have to bump down to 6 gauge. 8 gauge was surprisingly hard to find around here.

Thanks for the tips anyways guys!

froggo27
04-04-2008, 08:02 AM
way to go Ryan, now you owe me a bumper for wasting thread space. :smt036