Like all the electrical machines, your welder needs regular maintenance to perform smoothly. Without the regular maintenance work, you will notice discontinuation of good work that your welding machine used to provide.
But should you do the maintenance job yourself? Let me tell you something at the very beginning of this article. Unless you do the regular maintenance work, the problem with your welder will get serious.
You can’t fix the problem yourself. You need to go to a repair shop. Now, this is where the most insane thing happens. Any repair shop will charge you an insane amount for the work. If you have a cheap welder, the charge may surpass the cost of your welder!
I am telling you this from my experience.
I do not want you to face the same ridiculous situation. Instead, if you learn some maintenance work, you can do it on a regular basis and it will seriously increase the life of your welding machine.
Welding Machine Maintenance Tips
You do not like it when your welder feeds unevenly. Sometimes it gets so hot that you are afraid it’s going to explode. But if you learn some tips on how to do some pretty basic maintenance work for your welder, you can easily avoid these situations.
Do not start following these tips until you fully read the article. Some safety issues involved here. I mentioned some warnings at the end. I deliberately put them at the end so that you read the full article and understand what you will be dealing with.
- Take Preventive Measures
Nothing happens without a reason, right? Specks of dust and debris are good reasons why your welder may not perform like it used to do. So, before you start it, you need to clean those dust. Do the following cleaning cycle each week.
Take off the cover of your welding machine and get rid of those clouds of dust blowing compressed air into the machine. If you plan to do grinding, do it covering your welder and keep it away from the grinding work.
That way, nothing will suck into the machine from the grinding work. I saw a lot of people do the woodwork near the welding machine. Please keep them separate for the same reason if you want to increase the durability of your welder.
- Cable & Other Inspection
Loose or damaged cable connection often leads to malfunctioning of welding machine like much other electrical equipment. Also, no excessive coiling cables should be there around the ferrous metal. These will lead to the erratic arc.
So, cable inspection is a serious part of welding machine inspection. Replace all the damaged cables or if there are any loose connection; make sure to tighten them. Once you are finished with a spool of wire, clean the cable assembly each time.
Once the cable is okay, you need to inspect the drive rolls. Use a wire brush to clean the drive rolls if you notice any dust there. If found deformed, simply replace them like the cable.
- Use Blended Coolant Instead Of Water
Water coolers do an incredible job to provide steady performance. So, maintaining coolant level is important. Whether water is good but you can do even better using blended coolant. This will solve your foaming problems.
- Inspect Gas Hoses
I was not happy with the bead color. I knew the problem was with the lack of sufficient shielding gas coverage which helped me to solve the problem myself. I inspected for the leak or damage in the hoses. I could not find any of them. But I did find loose connections there.
So when I tightened the loose connection, the problem was fixed. You may have to do it while you are doing the maintenance. My problem was the loose connection, but yours can be a leak or something. Replace the hoses if they are damaged.
- Check The Gun Nozzle
Did you notice the gun nozzle often fill with the spatter? The gun nozzle can’t help to shield the weld if you don’t clean it regularly. With a spatter filled gun nozzle, the gas can’t flow smoothly; hence no smooth welding as well. You can solve the problem with nozzle dip.
Just dip the nozzle every once in a while. It will prevent the spatter from sticking with the nozzle. However, under no circumstances, submerge the entire nozzle. It may damage the porous insulator. Only dipping the tip will do the job perfectly.
- Maintain The Routine
Most welding shops do the servicing professionally on a monthly or yearly basis. That’s how they keep their welder machines always functioning and on top condition.
For you, it may not be possible to do professional servicing on a regular basis. But you can do the maintaining task yourself on a regular basis. So, set yourself a routine and stick to that routine.
Warning: Before you start the maintenance task; make sure you disconnected the electricity and other connections. Don’t touch any wire with your bare hands, use electricity-safe gloves and you may need to put on your welding helmet to follow some of these tips.
Wrapping Up
As I mentioned earlier, no matter whether you are a hobbyist or a professional welder, you should do the scheduled maintenance job to keep your welder trouble free.
All the tips I have shared above are easy to follow and should not cost you almost anything. But following them can really increase the durability of your welder and offer you best return from your investment on it.
Use the standard safety protocol while following these tips. If you have a budget, take your welder to a repairing shop and let them fix it for you.