Telwin 182 Turbo - Help Please

[GTVOX]

Hello I've just joined the forum, I'm not a professional welder and use my welder for car restoration. I've recently bought a lightly used Telwin 182 Turbo which is not working correctly. I've found the instruction manual but its not very informative. As I was used to a simple Clarke Welder with a min/max and 3 power settings could anybody help ?
What does the turbo control do? The welder works but only with wire control feed above mid point and the power at max. The little orange light doesn't come on. I suspect the wire feed motor is faulty as it seems to speed up and slow down during working, the wire reel is free moving but the drive wheel needs to be screwed down fully.
I can manage to do a few tacks at a time and a shor run before the wire stops. Striking up doesn't melt the wire immediately but makes it glow red. Could anybody help please before I just start buying random parts. I've seen theres a control board for the wire feed and the turbo but I'm just guessing. Thanks.

 

[Turbo]

Turbo normally means that its fan cooled.

 

[maroon]

First thing I would do is see how free the rod is in the snake with and without tip cut a length move it backwards and forwards see if there's a kink in the tube. And see if the motor runs freely without load(rod)

 

[Turbo]

First thing I would do is see how free the rod is in the snake with and without tip cut a length move it backwards and forwards see if there's a kink in the tube. And see if the motor runs freely without load(rod)

I think our new Italian member will struggle to understand your post!

 

[maroon]

I think our new Italian member will struggle to understand your post!

Boh!

His English is better than my Italian is.
Cosi cosi

Infact his English seems better than my English is!

 

[eddie49]

Ciao and welcome to the Forum !

I suspect the wire feed motor is faulty as it seems to speed up and slow down during working
Striking up doesn't melt the wire immediately but makes it glow red

The wire glowing red, rather than arcing and melting, implies that the voltage at the torch tip is too low. It should be about 15v DC, positive with respect to the work clamp, at the lowest power setting, rising to around 30v at maximum.
Voltage may be lost due to a high resistance in the high-current welding path. Inspect all connections from the transformer secondary to the torch tip, looking for loose, burnt, or corroded joints. If in doubt, unscrew and check any suspect bolted connections.

When you say that the printed circuit board has controls for the wirefeed and the "turbo", maybe you are referring to the spot weld timer? On the front panel, the control knob is close to the word "Turbo", but the actual label is a series of dots, which represent spot welds. When enabled, the welder will stay on for a short, pre-determined, variable time after squeezing the trigger, and then stop. During this time, you will be circling the weld pool within an 8mm hole in the top sheet, to simulate a spot weld. This is known as a plug weld.

 

[GTVOX]

Ciao ! Thanks for the responses so far. I live in Italy now but I was born and lived in Leeds for most of my life so I'm glad you think my English is ok ..it's not what my London colleagues thought at work ! I've been reading through various posts and it's really good to find a forum where people actually know what they are talking about unlike some of the car forums I've dipped into.
The reel is free to move but the drive motor sounds like its struggling I can even pull the wire out from the tip without restriction once I've released the clamp. I didn't realise it had a spot weld function. I do have an old spot welder but it's bloody heavy and its not ideal for some of the restricted space on the cars so that might be useful. The unit is really clean and doesn't look like its been abused but had been stood for some time so will check and make good any connections and report back.

 

[eddie49]

The spool of MIG wire has a brake, usually a compression spring on the spindle. The brake tension should be just tight enough to prevent run-on of a full spool on release of the torch trigger when feeding at maximum speed.

The wirefeed motor is driven with power tapped off from the main welding output via the speed controller on the PCB. If the welding power is low or fluctuating ( e.g. due to poor connections as mentioned above ), the wire speed will be erratic.
If you slacken the pressure roller, lock the torch trigger on, and hold the feed roller with a gloved hand whilst turning the speed control knob, is there consistent torque at all speeds?

Even if the machine has not done a lot of work, the grease in the wirefeed motor gearbox may have hardened, and would require cleaning and re-lubricating.

The spot weld timer can sometimes be helpful, but with practice these "plug welds" can often be better when timed manually. Note that for the UK MOT, spot welding is generally only acceptable when replacing full panels.

 

[GTVOX]

So after getting a new multimeter ... the voltage starts at around 16v rising up in steps to 29v with the trigger pressed. There's a residual voltage of 6v when not pressing the trigger. The wirefeed motor starts off ok but slows down and speeds up again at all increments on the control knob. I'll strip it down to see if its hard grease.
I'm replacing complete panels on this car there are not many repair sections but I always weld all way around any repairs.