Wednesday 18 April 2012

Cigweld Transmig 130 twin- Repair

I picked this mig up for a song but was really after the other trinkets it came with.
Previous owner said it simply "stopped" and needed a new "card."
This is the burned component that fell off the card.

I googled about and found the AUD90 (!!!!!) replacement card. when i stood back up i had a re-google and saw that the burned component was the only part that ever failed. It was very consistently asked about on welding forums.It is a wire-wound resister, they fail quite commonly in a lot of DC-DC power supplies
I used a Jewellers eyepiece to read the rating (3.3ohms and 7watts)and was ecstatic to find that the component was locally available for AUD1.80. A nice little saving.


I actually got a 10watt as it takes more heat. The repaired card (below) was whacked into the mig and now sweeps through its range and at all power settings.

A little note, even the higher wattage resister is getting too hot to touch while welding, it obviously is heavily loaded so I can see why the original would burn with prolonged welding. Allowing it to cool between short welds would be prudent.
Most of the smaller "hobby" migs are very similar inside. The resister is a different rating from make to make but the principals are the same.
Hope this helps somebody, in all I've got about an hours repair time in it and a couple of hours search time. Thanks to Lilly, my assistant

7 comments:

  1. Great fix!

    Now let's talk about you wearing pink???? lol

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    Replies
    1. If you ooze masculinity, like some of us do, you have no reason to fear pink

      Delete
  2. hi. did you ever find out who sells parts for the 130 mig
    as im looking for a gooseneck and trigger part, Blackwoods want to sell only the complete gun and cable, expensive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ebay has a lot of similar parts for other brands that will (with a little effort) probably work
      Blackwoods are cruelly expensive

      Delete
  3. Not sure if you're watching this - Went to use my transmig twin last night and she refused to play. The wirefeed works when i pull the trigger, but not seeing/hearing any action on the contactor. I pulled the control board out and probed the resistor you mentioned - the resistor looks pretty crusty but its showing me 3ohm. Any thoughts or ideas?

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  4. can you still get spares for the 130 as I need to replace the roller pressure pin the part the wire feeds in before it goes over the roller and ajust the tension thanks Shane

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