John Deere 230 amp arc welder

JDEM

Well-known Member
I bought two new Deere welders at the Deere dealership I was working at around 1972. Both have worked flawlessly until today. I have no
idea who made these welders for Deere. I have never seen any like them under a different brand-name. Slide-control for amps and two
different voltage outputs.

So today - I went out the unheated barn with one welder is. It was around 16 degrees F. I could not make the amp-control lever move. It
is an odd design with two plastic-coated bars that slide in or out of a transformer. Big nut on top applies spring pressure to the bar to
lock it in place. When I took the cover off, I found I can easily shove them in an out by pushing directly on them. Odd? Linkage is not
stuck or rusty. I am sort of blaming the cold but I have used this thing when it was 20 below F and it worked fine. Cannot figure what the
heck has changed?
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We had one with a similar configuration of the core moving to change the output. The plastic was getting rough and the slide got jammed just a bit crooked. It stopped being able to be adjusted. we cleaned up the plastic sliding parts and it worked for a while longer till the windings shorted. Yours looks like the adjustment force applies diagonally to the core. Maybe getting crooked? PTFE type lube like TriFlow might help getting it to adjust. Jim
 
The lube might be a good idea. The plastic is still smooth but was all covered with dust and dirt. I cleaned it off but it made no difference. Thanks for the idea.
 
The inside of that welder reminds me of an old Craftsman that I have. Mine also has the sliding core to adjust the amperage. I think my Craftsman was made by an outfit in St. Louis. Years ago, something about that slide apparatus started to fail, and it became real hard to adjust. I took it apart and made a block of oak to slide through the transformer, and it worked until I quit using it a couple of years ago.
 
I'm guessing you had power on when you tried to adjust it and it would not adjust?

My old Craftsman from the 1980s has plastic slides like you describe and even when new it would not adjust when power was on.

I always could adjust it if I switched it off first. ( I haven't used it but once since I got my first wire welder.) Of course, if it was hot, you had to switch it back on so the fan could cool it.

I am thinking that when energized, the fixed legs of the coil pinch inward because of magnetism and bind the moving leg of the coil.
Try moving it when power is off.
 

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