I do not have a schematic and I am not much of an electrical whiz, but I
sure hate to toss the thing in the trash. Anybody have an idea of what
might be wrong and how I might get it fixed?

The only thing I can suggest without being there to look at it (and I
probably couldn't help much then either!g) is to check the connections at
both ends of your leads. If you have a bad/dirty/loose connection either at
the welder or at the stinger or work clamp you could have problems like you
describe.

I wonder if Sears still does the lifetime Craftsman warranty? ;^)

As a matter of fact they do but I don't think it covers any type of power
tools. :-(

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall


"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"Jake in Escondido" wrote in message
news:%kYbe.85$F33.57@fed1read04...
I have an old Sears Craftsman 30-230 Dual Range arc welder that I have had
for over 20 years. It has had pretty light use, but has been a life saver
when I needed it.

Lately it has been difficulty to strike an arc. Saturday it just gave up
the ghost. Regardless of where I set it or what range I use, it won’t
strike an arc. I opened it up and everything seems to look OK. There is no
smoky smell of anything burnt. The fan works. I ran a VOM over various
locations. They all seemed to produce a range of voltages from 28-220
volts depending on where I placed the leads.

I do not have a schematic and I am not much of an electrical whiz, but I
sure hate to toss the thing in the trash. Anybody have an idea of what
might be wrong and how I might get it fixed?

I wonder if Sears still does the lifetime Craftsman warranty? ;^)

TIA

Jake in Escondido