welcome to sailing vessel Seeker today's started off I thought I was going to do some welding
on that turns out that's not what I did at all instead I worked on a welder it's one
of my favorite welders it's my Miller 12vs it's a suitcase welder because well it looks
like a suitcase oh it is the wire feeder I got it used from ready Arc in Tulsa and it
was an old beat up machine then and I just beat it up more over the years of building
this boat so I'm impressed with this machine oh yes there it is it's a suitcase it doesn't
Supply the power but I get the V-Max to supply the power to this I think I've never tried
that normally it comes through you know a big inverter that sits here it runs off the
larger and Generator so I'm going to try and leave those two pieces out and go directly
off the vmac and we're going to be using stainless steel wire that's flux core meaning it carries
its own flux with it but it also still uses gas but the gas isn't argon like we've been
using for TIG it's CO2 carbon dioxide and I happen to have carbon dioxide here too that's
Crab Pot collection day we'll look at them line up okay
this is a Bernard Centerfire gun I just love these uh it's a little more expensive but
it's worth it it's got a tip that's not threaded it just presses in and then the nozzle is
insulated so the nozzle is what keeps the uh the power on the tip but not on the outside
of the nozzle when it starts arcing off the side of the nozzle you know that you've got
too much spatter built up in there and you're actually electrically connecting the two I'm
going to open the tensioner on the wire feed so I won't get any wire out I'm gonna wire
my trigger on so I get some gas feed start back up and I come back here and check my
gas flow I got gas but I got no flow so there must be something wrong with the switch the
ball should be up so I think something may be wrong with the regulator now I can troubleshoot
that by just putting an air nozzle on the end of the CO2 Line open that up oh there
it is I was turning it the wrong way okay so I want about 20 right there okay now 20
on this may not be 20 on my guns we'll go set it back up
there it goes I only moved a bit and stop okay it does have a problem but it's not here
this connector is really springy so I think it might be the problem there I don't got
no way of testing that with one person otherwise I'd just shove it in Tighter and ask somebody
hey is it flowing now oh I do have a way of testing it because see it's showing flow there
because it has pressure on the line so if I turn the tank off and then press that connector
home while the machine's running that should drop to zero if that is indeed the problem
and I have to have the power on because the solenoid on this machine is electric
no no change so that's not the problem and that's not good that means it could be the
solenoid inside the machine it could also mean that a mud dauber built a nest inside
that connection again I've actually had this happen twice on this machine no no mud dauber
Nest I don't feel anything in there either well I got this off I can confirm gas flows
through it
yep certainly not the problem with the connection yeah see both needles went to zero as expected
because the tank is off so I'll turn the tank back on and we have flow so it's not the regulator
it's not the hose it's not the connection that puts the problem inside the 12vs feeder
this is the part where you start thinking am I doing something stupid especially on
a machine that I haven't used in almost a year the spool Drive is running so we know
it's getting power we know the switch on the gun is working it's wired down because that's
what's making the drive run remember that question those connections there but it is
running so it's getting its signal there's no switch for turning the gas off if you've
got gas supplied it opens the solenoid and lets it through and the gas flows down the
umbilical so the umbilical will be jammed up and the gas flows into the umbilical at
a joint right there so I suppose we want to check that take the umbilical off oh now they
can blow I'll crimp those down make them a little tighter while I'm in here too I can't
imagine what would get in here and plug this up so I'm not very hopeful on this oh yeah
I got the wire in there too already okay draw the wire back and try not to let it spring
loose when it comes out ah try not to let it do that exactly now that comes off see
those little holes is where the gas passes into the umbilical here and they all look
good the O-rings are good and this little block of metal is what feeds gas to it and
stick my finger in there I can feel a slot so we connect that back up turn it on put
some soapy water in there and see if it blows bubbles
well that's even Stranger than I thought let's turn this wide open
so it's slow in gas but just a little bit of gas even though the thing is wide open
back there so I think it has a problem with the solenoid because it's that much gas I
mean you would you would get a lot of bubbles that is what it should be flowing lots lots
of air so there's something wrong I think in there maybe it's just a cracked hose 80
pound patient but mainly that's 40 pounds of wire
that's got to be the controller board uh there's got to be some oh there's the big that's the
cutoff for the power supply so the main power comes in there and it runs through this bar
and that's a big contactor runs it on up and sends it On Through the Wire so it picks it
up off the wire from this copper piece here okay drive rollers and tensioner big motor
to run the drive rollers and right over there in the corner that's our solenoid for the
gas and this is the gas hose so it could be a problem in the hose it could be a problem
in that solenoid not opening all the way
all right that's a clear hose so assuming that wasn't coming out of break in the hose
let me see if I can clog the other end
yeah unclog the other end so the hose I think is in good shape solenoid [Music]
okay now the wiring shouldn't matter it's just DC I'm sure yeah 12 volt DC and looking
down there it's got a screen I wonder if that screen is just got Decades of dirt in it I
bet that's it a little mud dauber crap in there too probably
yeah that's dirt yeah I can even see a chunk down in there take the coil off just so I
don't damage it
now there's a plunger that runs up and down and that that could be sticking part way too
that would do it but I kind of doubt that's it I think it's the dirt and they're trying
to protect that little piston in there that goes up and down and turns the gas on and
off turning it on and running some air backwards through it see what that does you know I've
often wondered if some neodymium magnets could cause that piston to come up and open a valve
maybe it can in some cases but not in this one so 12 volt DC coils only 12 volt battery
will do that is the sound you want to hear that seems pretty good we'll get some high
pressure iron pushed through it
all right let's put this back on and we'll try it out with uh CO2 gas make sure that's
flowing through there well
I think we have a working valve now half the day is gone but it sure beats taking it into
the town finding a welding store like air gas it'll do repairs on it and waiting a week
for them to get it done just to find out it only has some dirt in it
back to where we started make the torch run make the wire not run turn it on
set the gas slow really you're kidding okay now why
well start from beginning
what could I have done wrong I wonder if the solenoid is has a polarity to it I don't think
any of them do though they're just a magnets DC current you should have pressure here and
hear it yeah I heard it no that's all I think I got the coils have polarity on them okay
I switched the wires took the hose off so I can feel the gas coming out uh put a jumper
in so it thinks the trigger is being pulled on the gun all the time we should see the
motor turn and hopefully have gas
oh God all right I did not get any gas
so that's strange the contactor kicks in the gas flows everything's great and then it just
kicks out after a while the voltage bleeds down I take a switch out put it back in does
it all over again contactor kicks in gas flows voltage is there and then it kicks out so
no coils don't care about DC polarity you know if it was a new machine I think it's
some kind of safety feature it senses that it's not actually a welding and turns itself
off but this is a machine I've had for a long time I didn't do that you trigger that torch
and it'll run forever okay so I don't think it's a safety feature because it's never worked
on my machine as a safety feature but Marcus over on our patreon group said hey it's a
safety feature he pulled up the manual and it's actually a safety feature now but my
machine is older than the machine he pulled the manual up for so I pulled up the manual
for my machine doesn't say anything about it so maybe it is a safety feature and mine
started working for some reason but literally I have you know laid down the torch on the
deck somewhere and maybe that's it I have like hundreds of feet of cable so the resistance
and the voltages are different so maybe the sensing part of it was thrown off by what
I'm doing down there in the engine room it's a really short connection and I'm not sure
what the vmac's doing now I also said the vmac is constant voltage is constant current
uh you can put it in a constant voltage you just gotta flipped over to 48 volts and then
you set the welding current on it I didn't know that it apparently doesn't care if my
machine works either way but anyway back to the safety feature thing they'd actually put
that on there but I would lay my torch down on the boat somewhere and then you know go
to bed next day I come out first thing I do is I go down to the inverter flip the power
onto the inverter if that torch has its trigger pulled you know I'd go off and turn gas on
do other things get a welding hood walk up onto the boat and it's got like you know 30
feet of wire that is pushed out and it's welding a puddle down in the building somewhere so
it's like yeah it if it is a safety feature it's uh it's either not on my machine or it's
broken and I looked up the manual on my machine doesn't say anything about it says you know
it's just like you got no gas check the regulator that's it but the newer machines are much
better too let me point that out if you're going to get a 12 vs they move the gas and
the power connections from the bottom of the machine down at the bottom which is a horrible
place every time you set it down you already set it on top of something else so it's it's
bending that gas speed up I've never had it break but it does bend it they've moved it
to the middle of the machine now so you can set it down up against a wall or a pipe or
something that's laying on the ground and it doesn't make any difference so a good machine
made even better I need to see what the voltage is going to that contactor so I've traced
the wires from the contactor back to where they come out of the control board and put
the probes in on them so we can measure the voltage coming off the control board if it
drops out we know it's the control board that's the problem and not the wiring start with
it unplugged
from the control board to the control board is shutting down the contactor question is
why is it doing that because I don't think it's supposed to I mean the welder's not shutting
the power down because the motor keeps turning otherwise you know I could blame it on the
V-Max first time I've ever run it off the vmac and the motor and the contactor use the
same power source it actually comes through the welding cable the last thing to do is
just try welding with it see what it does
the only thing I did different is I turned the amperage way down I had it up here at
70.
you know you don't really have an amperage setting on this machine it's just like percentage
of so I cut it down to 40 and it's working fine at least it looks like it is I have the
gas shielding turned way up because obviously I can't set it alone like I used to be able
to
I don't know I mean I turned the power down even more and it did what I expected you know
jams the wire in then Burns it back turned it back up to just under you know 37 to 40.
it's happy as a clam so until I get somebody here with me I just kind of got a guess at
the gas flow I think I'll just put the air check on there and set it to 20 and see if
it's not enough if it's not enough I'll probably see it in the weld but okay sometimes the
old routines need to change this world's already clean the flux cord just fell off of it and
that's what it looks like see it's just a nice Shield that lets the the weld cool down
slowly underneath it and it keeps all the oxygen off the Weld and this big block cools
down it'll start chipping off of it too but I can just give it a little push and there
it falls right off but that right there is why it's taking me so long to give a squat
about TIG literally that's just point the gun at it move along a little bit no tricks
at all reminds me of what the form and the SNH trailers in Madill Oklahoma said to me
one day he said give me five minutes I can teach a monkey to wire weld let's just free
flow this and turn it down to 15 cubic feet per hour that's enough for a good weld inside
and I think now that we've cleaned that filter that will be fine at least we didn't waste
all of our time on it that filter definitely was a problem
successful people are not people without problems they have as a rule just as many problems
and largely the same kind as everyone else the difference is that they learn to solve
their problems successful living is nothing more than the ability to solve successfully
the problems which are as much a part of living as breathing the degree of our success will
be determined by the extent to which we can solve our problems
I think I was fighting because it didn't have a good ground in my table for a little bit
but man look how fast that is I mean I'm done whole thing's welded in I love Mig and as
I get it tuned in the wells will look a little nicer I put a lightweight weld on this side
heavier one on this side and had some problems with the wire feed but I think that was a
grounding issue so yeah yeah I'm happy with that unfortunately a full day but learned
a lot well I hope you enjoyed the video and I'm sure I'm going to enjoy having my 12 vs
back in working order and if you like this video there's a longer version of it over
on patreon uh what we do is re-release early longer versions of the videos like this one
and our five dollar a month patrons can actually give me comments early on and it actually
made corrections to this video based on that I did not know that this welder had that safety
feature on the newer models and I'm not positive that's not the case on the older welder either
they just didn't say anything about it in the manual but think about joining us on patreon
we appreciate it anyway I appreciate you joining us and I hope you uh spent some time in your
shop make it happen get out there in your shop or maybe your kitchen send us a picture
of your creation what you make today [Music] [Applause]
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