Welder won't work

[PAULHEAD]

So my buddy has this Weld pak 100 laying around his shop that I keep bugging him about. Finally he relents and says, "Dude, you can have it." I'm stoked. I take it home and then of course it sits in my garage for weeks before I even plug it in. So I find this old broken thermostat housing I'll try to "mend" and start my self welding lessons. I go to use it (after taking all safety prcedures) and it works for like 5 seconds then nothing. Only thing on is the fan. No wire feed, no spark. So I mess around with it a little then I get the feed to work (don't know what I did) but no spark. Finally frustrated I go to pull the plug to put it away and I noticed the ground prong broke off. Is that the cause? I bought a new plug to splice on it and we'll see what happens. But any ideas would help.

[PAULHEAD]

Ground, hmmmm.

[Joe Dillard]

Sounds to me like you're in the right area.

If you lift the lid where you place the wire, you may have an electrical schematic placard/decal to help isolate the troubles.

[PAULHEAD]

My first weld.

May be I need a little practice. (no I don't plan on using this thermostat housing)
Luckily I picked up a bunch of scrap metal to practice on.

[Allen]

Too cold.

Turn up the heat.....

Allen

[igofshn]

Originally posted by PAULHEAD
My first weld.

May be I need a little practice. (no I don't plan on using this thermostat housing)
Luckily I picked up a bunch of scrap metal to practice on.

For one thing, that is cast. You need a nickle wire to weld cast. Chances are you just weakened the casting with what you did.

[PAULHEAD]

So I finally got (some time) to practice some more on some tail pipe and steel today. I thought it looked ok but my question is whats the crust on this one.


Here are the others.


Other side of the above piece