Safety first, 15yr old MIG in mothballs

[wallythacker]

I'm returning to welding after a 15yr hiatus.

I have a Century MIG I bought in 1991/2 IIRC. It's a 110v unit, tweco gun, gas-capable.

The Century has been in a shed all this time. I dug it out, blew out all the dust with air, checked the connections, (gun/ground), cleaned the drive roller (tiny bit of oxidation) and everything else (AC cord, basic chassis) looks OK. The Century never got wet but my climate is really humid in the summer.

I don't want to electrocute myself/blow fuses/start fires so,

Before I plug it in is there anything else I should check? How about a checklist before I pull the trigger?

Thanks guys, hopefully I won't be asking too many more asinine questions.

[JimDon]

Hi,
If you've got your owners manual, I'd pull that out and look it over. I wouldn't worry too much about tripping breakers. If there is something wrong, the breaker will trip and keep you from overheating the circuit from the panel to the welder. If you're really hinky about starting this welder up again, he's a couple of ideas. Make sure the welder is plugged into a GFCI circuit. In your garage or shop, all outlets have to be GFCI protected when you have a bare concrete floor. If your home was built in the last 15 years or so, no problem. If you're not sure, use a GFCI box like I do for work. Whenever I plug in an extension cord on a jobsite, I have a fourplex box with a pigtail on it with a GFCI outlet set up in it, that way, I'm protected from any faults in power tools, or wet surfaces, etc. If you're really worried, get yourself a dry, wooden pallet and set yourself down on that before you plug in the machine or strike an arc. That'll eliminate yourself as a potential source to ground. You can up that protection level by putting a rubber mat beneath the pallet, or on top of the pallet or both. Electricians in papermills who have to work on live circuits (up to about 660 V) will often use this trick to keep their feet becoming a source to ground. Their hair will stand on end all over their head from the static that's around, but they're still relatively safe. The pallet trick, plus the GFCI should do it for you. Just don't get yourself between the stinger and the grounded work when you strike the arc and you should be fine. I'd be willing to bet that your welder will warm up just fine and weld like it did the day you put it away even with the humidity. Hope this helps.
Jim Don

[JimDon]

Another thought. You may want to get yourself a new spool of wire before you start. The wire in it may have some corrosion on it from sitting that long. Wire shouldn't have any corrosion to weld stuff up correctly. Also make sure the wire isn't fused to the tip of the gun. You can unscrew the tip to check this.
Jim

[hankj]

If it looks clean inside, I'd install a new tip, a new spool of wire, check the polarity for the wire (solid or flux-core), plug 'er in and pull the trigger! Any ground fault will immediatly trip the breaker, and the on-board overcurrent device will protect the welder.

I'll bet it runs fine.

Hank

[wallythacker]

Thanks guys,

I'll follow your advice and hope for the best. IIRC my old Century was a decent unit, other than the always hot wire. If she works well no new HH or Lincoln for me

But, with the money I don't spend I can buy other gear

I'll post a follow-up after I fire her up and see how she works.