Can anyone please help this problem with a Mig welder?

So a good friend of mine let me borrow his barely used Hobart 135 Mig welder. Im just welding some sheet metal, mostly spot welds. It did fine for the first couple days, now a problem I cant trace.
If you do about 4 or 5 spot welds quickly, the wire feed comes to a stop. If you wait about 20 seconds or so the wire feed will continue again for another couple spot welds then stop again. Wait another 20 seconds and it will feed again etc...
During the time that the wire will not feed, the relay clicks inside the unit when you pull the trigger, the fan coninues to run, if you let the wire touch the metal while not pulling the trigger there is a small arc. The white ****on of the circuit breaker on the rear of the unit does not pop out at all. I pulled the case and the is nothing obvious.
If anyone knows what may be going on please let me know. I will not give my friend back his welder in worse shape than he lent it to me.
Thank you

 

Sounds like the board fried. I have a friend with the same welder and the same things that your describing happened to him. One stop to the local welding supply store and one new mother board it worked great again.

 

I've had a bit of trouble with the wire not coming off the the spool right with my Lincoln 175 when I use the larger spools of wire. And sometimes when you use the small spools the wire doesn't want to straighten out very well when you get down to the last 1/4 of the spool.
Clean tip, correct groove for the wire on the drive wheel, No kinks in the line from the machine to the gun?

 

a new liner can work wonders. is the tension too loose on the drive wheels?

 

No kinks, in gun line, it happens like clockwork after a few spot welds it stops feeding, wait a few seconds, feeds again for a short burst. I pulled the board and didnt see any cracked solder joints.

 

It is hardly used at all. The drive wheels aren't slipping.

 

I put on a new tip with no change.

 

I was experiencing a similar problem with a miller that I borrowed from a friend.Replaced the liner,new tip and an extensive cleaning and it resolved the problem somewhat.It still happens but not as much as before...the cleaning did help out tremendously though.

 

Maybe the tip is getting to hot and pinching the wire,I`ve had a similar problem, slowing down some seemed to help.

 

I had a similar problem with mine at one point. This will sound nuts, but have you made sure your selector knob is completely turned to it's position? Mine was off by a millimeter, but it was enough to keep the welder from arching.

 

does it have a timer on it for stich and spot welding, my old lincoln does

 

I would get a hold of tech serv at Hobart...........I did and they walked me through troubleshooting the electrics.

My 160 needed a fan and a board.....the cooling fan supplies power to the board, Although my welder was out of warranty, they sent me the parts (the fan and IC board) free.......good people.

 

While pulling trigger, watch the action on the wire spool & tension wheels---Are both working freely?---Also, is the handle ****ed a little to interupt a free flow of wire? Lastly, experiment with wire feed rate & use "spatter off" on cone & tip.

 

When you're welding, are you positioning the welder in such a way that you've got a lot of bend or curl in the lead to the gun? If so, try repositioning so that the gun lead is as straight as possible. If that improves things, look hard at the liner.

 

That was my first thought.

 

I had some similar issues. The problem was less consistent than you describe but it ended up being the trigger in the gun was screwed. New trigger...fires every time.

Good luck

 

I was going to mention Hobarts web site, but I see you already found it

 

do you have it set on s***ch weld?

 

There is a set of points or contacts in the unit ,could be the small arc & click you here you see is that the points are sticking or burnt

 

You're not using an extension cord or plugging into a low amp circuit are you?

Does it do the same thing when you are not welding (just pulsing the trigger in the air)?

Another thing to look at is how tight the reel of wire is. If it feeder is pulling the wire tight and it seems like it keeps breaking the friction of the reel, you will be making small kinks in your wire.