chemetron sureweld TIG help

Date 08-19-2011 01:04 Edited 08-19-2011 01:10

Well sometimes people wire up a thumb wheel on the tig torch itself. I have tig welded a lot without the foot pedal or thumb wheel...it takes some getting use to but it is usually no problem till you get into the thinner materials....then you just about got to have some heat control. The main problem is it is always on till you shut it off. The high frequency should have a switch on it for "start" and "continuous"....start being for use in DC welding on steels and continuous being reserved for AC work on Aluminum. If you can obtain a schematic of the machine most welder repair shops have a guy who can rig you up a thumb control if the machine will accept a potentiometer type input, or possibly rig a foot control to work. You can check this site as these folks make tig pedals for a lot of older and odd machines http://www.ssccontrols.com/ You can also see if the "chemtron" is simply a re-branded welder. There are lots of machines out there that Miller, Lincoln and others have made that got a different color paint/different name put on them....with a little research you might find out you have a Lincoln or some such there are plenty of plug in/off the shelf parts for.

By thanson_mopar Date 08-19-2011 02:16

thanks for the info, So I understand the start/continuous switch now but how do you actually start and stop the arch with the torch? I'll have to see if its a rebadge, very little info out there about the company. thanks

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 08-19-2011 02:27

The machine probably gas a receptical for a torch mounted push button switch, this will close the contactor and start the arc.

Look for twist lock or "cannon plug" type recepticals.

Post a few good pics of the machine, the face plate in particular, someone may reckognize it.

I know some other Sureweld machines were rebrands.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 08-19-2011 10:51

Welcome to the forum Mopar!

If that old machine has High Frequency AC than I'd bet my next paycheck that it also is designed to take a foot pedal.

Maybe som internet research can come up with an owners manual for that baby..

By 357max

Date 08-19-2011 18:02

I believe you might have a Miller 250 Dialarc HF rebranded to Chemetron. Show a picture

By Tommyjoking (****)

Date 08-20-2011 01:15

Does it have a switch labeled contactor? If so switch it to panel "or the opposite of remote"....that is what tells the machine if your using a foot pedal or other remote control.....if it is on remote and you do not have one the machine will do nothing. Once that is settled.... If the machine is on and you have gas flowing out of the torch it should be able to strike an arc at any time. The "start" on high frequency is a timed thing and it will not really do you much use without a pedal....but you can switch that contactor switch from panel to remote and back to panel and you have a few seconds to establish an arc before you loose the high freq boost. On DC you can simply lightly scratch the tungsten against anything grounded and as long as you do not pull away too much it will light an arc...on AC with the high frequency on continuous the thing will arc against almost anything you get the torch near. Welding this way you would break your arc simply by pulling the torch away quickly to "shut it off".

Look on the face of the machine and see if there is a threaded pipe/connector with lots of holes in the middle of it or some other multi wire type of receptacle.....if you have that then that is the connection port for your foot pedal.

If you have the gas plumbed through the machines gas valve you may not be able to get gas through your torch without a pedal....some machines do not open that gas valve without a remote. You can bypass this by plumbing your gas directly to the torch and use your regulator flow valve to shut it on and off as needed for a temporary setup. OR you can buy mine :lol:

I might be selling one of mine in a few weeks that is ready to go.

I agree post some pictures, especially of the face/control panel.

By thanson_mopar Date 08-20-2011 07:17

interesting you mentioned about the gas not working without a pedal. I turned on the toggle switch that goes into the high frequency plug and got the machine to strike an arc but no argon is coming through so I thought the switch or solenoid for the gas valve went bad but maybe its just because i need a pedal.

By aevald

Date 08-20-2011 16:58

Hello thanson_mopar, the two prong twist lock is generally the contactor closure plug, this also controls the gas solenoid and water solenoid where applicable to that vintage of machine. If there is another twist lock plug(a three prong style), that is the one that generally controls the remote amperage output. Your Sureweld is basically a re-badged Airco/Miller machine. Many of the tig machines of that era used two twist lock plugs to connect to the machine, one, the two prong one, would close the contactor for the output(making the torch "hot) and also open the solenoids for gas and water(providing shielding gas and water flow through the torch if it was set-up that way). The other three prong plug was responsible for taking the place of the amperage control on the machine when it was switched from panel to remote, if the machine was so equipped. A better picture would really help for all of us to help you out further. Good luck and best regards, Allan

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 08-21-2011 03:28 Edited 08-21-2011 03:36

That is an older Miller built machine. It is a moving core transformer, and will not have remote amperage capability. You set the amps, and deal with it.

The foot pedal or torch mounted button controlls the contactor and gas flow, perhaps even the water flow if it has 2 selonoid valves. this hooks to the twist lock receptical, usually 2 prongs, but if there are 3, one is a chasis ground.

Closing the circuit should close the contactor and initiate gas flow. It may have a mechanical post flow timer which may or may not still work. One of My older machine sometimes goes through more than 1 post flow cycle before it stops.

Yours is the big brother to this machine: http://www.millerwelds.com/om/o302j_mil.pdf I think they called it the 250 Twin or something like that, couldn't find a manual for it. If You find an old timer at a miller dealer, they might recognise it in a better picture.

By thanson_mopar Date 08-21-2011 05:38

Definitely a Miller machine, After taking the cover off to inspect and clean I found several parts labeled Miller. def an older machine. under the cover someone scratched into the paint "points gapped to .008 every six months 3/4/1969". So I can in no way, shape or form have remote amperage capability with this machine? No modification to control amp with foot pedal? It is pretty important for me to be able to have control of amps, if there is no possible way to adapt the machine, I may have to sell it to get a machine that I can.

By thanson_mopar Date 08-21-2011 06:18

oh sorry for this but what does moving core transformer mean?

By Northweldor (***)

Date 08-21-2011 11:51

I believe it means you set the amperage entirely by physically moving the core of the transformer.

By DaveBoyer (*****)

Date 08-22-2011 05:14

Look inside and see what happens when You crank the amperage control. No way to do that with a foot pedal.

The old foot pedal/remote mperage machines used a saturable reactor or a magnetic amplifier to control the current. This device uses a low power current to control a much greater one through what looks like a transformer, but the core and windings are different.

By 357max

Date 08-22-2011 13:26

There was a company (probably out of business by now) that sold a remote amperage kit for machines like this. They used a variable speed drill, sprockets and bicycle chain and remote wired the drill's variable speed trigger switch to vary the amperage. The remote wired the reverse switch into it to have both increase and decrease. If you are on the cheap and are creative and need a remote control, it can be done but not with what you have now.