Protection light on PT225LX

I was welding in a very tight area tonight. I had to use the end cap on the back side of the torch to fit the torch where it needed to be. I could not get the best angle on the torch, therefore I had to back the torch away from the bead so I could get the angle I needed to melt both pieces of metal. At times I am sure I had about a 1/2" gap between the base metal and the electrode, which is actually pretty large for TIG welding.

I was only welding for about 2-3 minutes maximum at 150 amps being the highest pulse setting. So I know I was not exceeding the duty cycle of the welder. Could the gap size I had going on cause the voltage to be too high on the machine putting it into protection?

Once the protection came on, the welder acted like I did not have the ground clamp hooked up. You could see the high freq arc, but it would not touch off. I would wait for a while for the light to go off and it would not. I had to shut the machine down for about 10 seconds, then turn it back on. When I did, the protection light turned red for about 1 second and then went off. Then the machine worked fine again.

The above situation happened a total of 3 times. Then when I moved to the outside of the project and was able to weld like I normally would, the welder never missed a beat. Any input on what is happening?

The unit has overcurrent protection, which can create a situation, if a long arc is held too long. In this situation, you should reset the unit. Give it a few minutes to cool before resetting though because it can heat up the components as well. The light will not go off after it has tripped, until the unit is physically reset. If you were welding with incorrect polarity or too high of balance for too long, the duty cycle can cause this to trip as well. What was your polarity on the torch, and AC balance? AC Frequency?

To verify, try welding again, on a flat controlled surface. Let me know. PM or call me this weekend and I will get with you.

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Originally Posted by performance

The unit has overcurrent protection, which can create a situation, if a long arc is held too long. In this situation, you should reset the unit. Give it a few minutes to cool before resetting though because it can heat up the components as well. The light will not go off after it has tripped, until the unit is physically reset. If you were welding with incorrect polarity or too high of balance for too long, the duty cycle can cause this to trip as well. What was your polarity on the torch, and AC balance? AC Frequency?

To verify, try welding again, on a flat controlled surface. Let me know. PM or call me this weekend and I will get with you.

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AC frequency was at about 90-100hz. The balance was around 30-40% towards DCEN.

So it sounds like my arc was just too long then and also held on for too long as well. 1/2" is pretty far for TIG so...

I did try and wait for the light to go off on it's own every time it did it, which was about 3-4 minutes of the fan running. Then I would shut it down and turn it back on and everything would be fine again. So it appears the machine is acting exactly as it should compared to the way you described it.

As was stated, once I moved to the outside of the piece where I could maintain the correct arc length, the machine performed flawlessly again.

Thank you for the insight as to what my machine is doing.

A flex 18 might be in order for you to order...lol.
They make them..We don't carry them, but they make them...

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Originally Posted by performance

A flex 18 might be in order for you to order...lol.
They make them..We don't carry them, but they make them...

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Are you sure you don't carry them now? The 225's come with a wp-18 water cooled and I'm pretty positive they're flex head.

You CAN flex them, but no, they pretty much will be stuck in that position if you do. They will bend, but they are not flexible.

So, I was welding on some fuel rails yesterday. Everything was right out in the open. Nothing hard to get to. Welding at about 180amps (fuel rail is thick). I probably tripped the protection light about three times in 20 minutes. I was not welding for 20 minutes either. Maybe a total of 5 minutes of actual welding time. It seems like it is tripping too easy to me. This could be a problem if the machine keeps tripping like this. It is not a big problem, as I just turn the machine off after a minute or so of it running and then turn it right back on... but still, everytime it trips, I let it cool down so I can shut it off. While it is cooling down, so is the piece I'm working on.

I think I still need to play with the machine more to see if it is going to keep tripping like that.

Try running AC frequency down a little lower (assuming aluminum) and see if it stops. You might want to make a call into tech support on this one. The unit should not be going into over current at all in the range you are running.

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Originally Posted by everlastsupport

Try running AC frequency down a little lower (assuming aluminum) and see if it stops. You might want to make a call into tech support on this one. The unit should not be going into over current at all in the range you are running.

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Thank you. I will play with it a little more and see. If it seems to be an actual problem, then I will call in.

diabolic,
What size breaker are you running? Also, have you verified your input voltage? A couple of things running through my head to check first.

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Originally Posted by performance

diabolic,
What size breaker are you running? Also, have you verified your input voltage? A couple of things running through my head to check first.

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My Breaker is a 50 amp breaker with number 6 wire. My voltage measures 251 volts when testing black to white. Or each pole is measuring 126.2v. This is at the plug, not the breaker.