Feed Stopped, PC board fire! Handler 187

[AndrewH]

I have a Handler 187, it does a good job and has been a good welder for me, until the other night I went out to spot a couple peices in place on a frame I've been working on. The wire wasnt feeding. I checked everything out and the drive itself was just not turning. I waited til today, when it was 55 outside, and tried, still not feeding, so I took the case off to look for any simple problems (unplugged wire,etc). While I had the case off, I cranked up ther wire speed and pulled the trigger, fire literally shot out of the side. I unpluged the machine and found [I beleive] a diode on the upper PC board with a hole burnt in the side of it. So I found my problem,or at least a result of my problem. I dont know if anything off of the board could be in error, but obviously a big burnt spot isnt good.

Has this happened to anyone else? This really sucks because I needed to put in alot of hours over these 2 warm days to make up for the last cold week and the following cold week.

Everything else, to my knowledge, is working fine. I've owned this machine for about a year, so I'm sure the problem is covered under thr 5 and 3 year warranty,but the nearest service center is over an hour away. I'd like to just get things figured out before I take it out of state to an unqualified repair shop (trust me, thats how it normally goes around here) if this is a common failure.

Anyone have any input? I'm hopeing the only damage is on the pc board, as I'm certain it has a part number for itself and can be simpley removed and replaced,either by me or the shop.

thanks for any adivse/suggestions or comfort, Andrew

[PJinNJ]

I would

I would just call miller and see what they say.

[MichaelP]

Meanwhile, I'd check if the motor stuck and caused this.

[SundownIII]

You might have better luck calling HOBART rather than MILLER.

Even though both companies are owned by ITW, they operate as separate entities and handle their warrany themselves.

OP is correct in his belief that this should be a warranty repair. I'm sure they'll (Hobart) make it good, maybe just not in the timeframe you need.

[Hobart Expert Keith]

Andrew,

Give us a call at 1-800-332-3281 M-F 7-5 EDT. We can help make sure what may have been the trouble.

Keith