help with old gas power miller

[mjosmadness]

I've been given a miller aea200le portable welding machine from my grandfather-in-law. It runs realy well. it generates power on both a/c and d/c circuits, but I can only run cheap rods. I have been using linclon rods from lowes for convienience, and decided to up-grade to hobart rods. I could run a decent bead with the lincoln rods, but when i tried to use the hobart, i had a problem with the rod sticking. I turned up the heat, and when I got an arc started, it got too hot and either wilted the rod, or burned through the material. I thought i may have gotten a bad batch of rods, but like I said, I could use the cheep ones just fine. I took my project into the garage and used the hobarts with my miller thinderbolt and had no problem what-so-ever. Is it just and out-dated machine, or is there some aged breakdown of vital components? Is this too vague of a question? has any one had a similar problem. i;m in the market for a newer machine, but that;s not the point. I love the classic nature of this old machine and would love for it to be reliable again. thanks for any help.
-ben

[kcstott]

What rod are you using and what rod to you switch too?

As far as I can tell from the manual it's an AC only machine. That would severely limit the rods that would work with this machine. And it would also answer the sticking problem. and the fact that the cheap rods work and the good ones don't. the cheap ones are most likely designed for AC welding the good ones are for DC.
Try some 6011 and see if that helps. Other then that I'd say he gave you a nice generator. Unless you want to install a rectifier and a capacitor bank??? kidding about that as it would be more expensive then a used machine.

[mjosmadness]

thanks for the quick reply. I thought it was a dc only machine with ac generator power, but thats what I get for assuming. It has a huge switch behind one of the side panels to swop from weld to generator and has a dc plug that stays on when the switch is in the weld position so I thought that ment it was dc when on weld and ac when on power. I will have to check in the morning and thinking of it, I think the lincoln rods are ac rods.
thanks again

[kcstott]

Well Double check as I'm not sure. An easy way to tell is if it says somewhere straight or reverse polarity. That means it's DC. I couldn't find anything in the manual that said it was DC though.

Just read the manual again and the weld out puts on the electrical print show AC. and no rectifier in the weld circuit so It's a AC welder that can put out DC voltage at the receptacle.
Bad thing is the manual says the 120 AC out let is for accessories only like portable tools so it looks like it's of low capacity like 1 KVA

[mjosmadness]

much thanks to you. Im still going to get a new machine but atleast i don't have to write this one off.

thanks again.
-ben

[shortarc]

If you scroll up to the top of the page, mouse over on the tab that says resources, then click on the top right link that says owners manuals and parts list you can download the manual for the welder you have.

I just did, and sounds like you defiantly have an AC welder.

[69FordTruck]

Yes its definitely an AC only machine "AEA" indicates that, if it was "AEAD" then it would be AC/DC.

[mjosmadness]

thanks guys. crisis averted. I'm going to set my high frequency box up on it and see how well it tig's aluminum. but i'm still going to buya new machine. the manual indicates an 80's model but my machine is much older (don't know how much older) although it is the same model.