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  1. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Perth
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    363

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    I thought of another benefit. I clean with flap discs or grinders or whatever to shiny metal but occasionally there's some contaminant for whatever reason. I don't wipe with acetone, although I have a bottle. So it's not aerospace clean, just backyard hack clean. Supposedly the high pulse rates agitate the puddle more and drive contaminant out. Now it might be my imagination compared to non-pulsing, but I can definitely see the impurities driven to the surface of the middle of the puddle when I haven't cleaned 100% and I'm using these very high pulse frequencies.

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  3. #17
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Canberra
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    Thanks for that link Legion - an interesting article. Its the sort of thing that convinced me I needed to get a machine with pulse! I like what you mentioned about better puddle agitation - like you I dont use acetone before doing my jobs and getting rid of impurities would be a bonus. I really must sit down with the machine and have a serious play with pulse unit..I have been meaning to do this for years.

  4. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Canberra
    Posts
    816

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    Update - welder died. It was the most peculiar thing. Packed it up in perfect working order whilst I demolished my garage to do an extension. Unpacked it after a few months to do a job and it wouldn't work. Machine turns on etc and will throw the hf spark but no current will flow in either tig or mma mode. Bloke from token tools reckons it's a control board and a new one will have me sorted. Waiting for one to arrive and then hopefully um back in action. It's been 9 months since I had a garage and I'm itching to do some work!

  5. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Ballina, NSW
    Posts
    725

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    Bummer. Hopefully after repairs it will last another 6? years. It'll be interesting to see what your total cost of ownership is per year and how that stacks up the Millers and Lincolns of the world.

    It's amazing how things die when not being used. I had a TV only a year old, which we packed up while doing renovations, went to the trouble of packing/padding/ taping it up in a box - no dust/no bumps. Comes out after 4 months - only half works. Computer's are the same. Boats are the worst. If you don't use a boat for a couple of months there's bound to be 4 or 5 things wrong with it.

    - Mick

  6. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Mackay Qld
    Posts
    3,466

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    Hi Brendan.
    Sorry to hear that your welder failed.I reckon its like a "use it or lose it type thing"

    I have seen it happen with cheaper welders up here. If it has happened in Canberra perhaps its all the hot air from parliament house mixing with the cold at at night to make a fog.

    The following is just a theory and I have no proof or data to back it up, other than observation.
    I believe regular use keeps sensitive components from absorbing a certain level moisture from the atmosphere. With out the regular use and heat to evaporate it ,the moisture grows to a certain critical level. Then the overly moist component goes POOF! and lets out he blue smoke on start up.

    Your are fortunate that it is indeed a that brand of welder where a board is available for a 5 year old machine no longer made.The other bit is that the expertise is readily available to diagnose and repair with the available spare part.

    Spare parts availability some of the other Chinese welders of this age is not an option. Even the cheaper BOC and Uni Mig models go straight in the bin for other then dead simple warranty claims.

    Grahame

  7. #21
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Canberra
    Posts
    816

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    Hi Graham,

    Yes it was a blow when it failed.It was 9pm at night when I pulled it out and I intended on using it to do some emergency repairs on a spit roaster that was due to be fired up at 6am the next morning.I had recently had the power moved for the extension so my first thought was that the power point I was using now had a bad earth or something as the welder operates exactly as if the earth clamp isn’t connected. I of course did all the testing I could re the earth clamp, tried all the various modes and then concluded it was the powerpoint.I then ran around for the next two hours trying to find a welder I could use to do the job.

    A week or so later I went to my mates house and plugged it into his circuit and used his earth clamp and torch etc – no good.Same prob. Rang Pete from Token and he said control board straight away. Couple of hundred bucks and I should be back in action – just waiting for them to arrive in stock.I am indeed fortunate that the parts and advice needed to get the thing running exists – its part of the reason why I chose this welder in the first place.

    I also agree that it’s a moisture ingress thing.I did leave it for 6 months idle once before and it was fine after that though, but god knows what the humidity was like in my garage compared to the shed I stored it in. Not sure what else it could be…gremlins perhaps.

  8. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    melbourne
    Posts
    59

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    I know how you feel, it makes you feel sick when your expensive welder stops working. I have a generic 250A ac/dc 4 in 1 that works great while it works, but after 2 years I got the same fault as you. Had HF and no output current on any setting. I spent hours researching welders and I used to be an electronics engineer which helps, but it was a major effort. With mine, the control board was shutting down the welder right enough, but only because there were two FRED rectifiers in the switchmode rectifier that had gone short circuit. The control board itself was fine. I have to admit the electronic design is pretty good, because if the control board wasn't smart enough to detect the fault and shut it down quickly enough to avoid major physical damage, the whole thing would have fried itself and lots more components would get damaged. In fact with my fault, it looked very like the HFV had managed to get back through the output stage and had taken out 5 components right back to one leg of the HF rectifier.
    Regarding failing while stored, I suspect it might have broken when you started it up, rather than breaking when not in use. In my opinion old age has more to do with it than moisture, unless you have condensation on it. Life expectancy of electonics is inversly related to the heat it runs at. Chinese stuff is often underrated which makes compnents run hotter than they should, giving them shorter life but making them cheaper to build. It would be nice to think that comapnies like miller use properly rated components which might sway me to get a better make in the future. I'm not convinced though, everyone is making things as cheaply as they can nowadays.
    I hope yours is easy to fix then, and you get it back soon.

  9. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    363

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    I had a problem with a control board on my dynasty. One phase of the AC cycle wasn't working due. It was repaired under a no-questions-asked warranty. The service guy loved blue but didn't see many of them in for repair, and said repairs was a dying business because no-one bought quality any more. Everyone buys cheap Chinese and throws them away and replaces them when they die.

  10. #24
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Canberra
    Posts
    816

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    Back in action. Had to try a couple of different boards in the end but Token tools were helpful and sent them up to me until we had it sorted. The main board was the initial suspect, but in the end it was a small supplementary board on the side of the welder that failed. This part is cheaper than the main board which was a boon. replacing it myself was dead easy too.

    So happy to have my welder back!

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