Sooo, I learned something new today...

My welder is f*cked up. I decided to work on my roll bar, and plugged in my welder. Not turned to the "on" position, I placed the grounding clamp on the bar, and draped the welding "gun" over the bar. Apparently, the tip must have made contact to the bar because it arced, and welded itself to the roll bar Remember, the welder is turned off! I unplugged the welder, and removed the tip from the bar.

Plugging the welder back in, I heard the relay "click." That click usually happens when the trigger is pulled. I also could hear a buzzing coming from the welder. Unplugged, and haven't touched it since.

I opened the box, but didn't see anything obvious.

Any suggestions? or should I just blast this thing with some air, and send it to a repair shop? I need this fixed.

Wow.. that doesn't sound good. Check the switch in the welder with a multimeter to see if its gone bad. If there are any relays in there, check those as well.

I checked the "main" switch, and it is good... off is off, on is on. When you turn on the main switch, you can hear the fan turn on. Circuit breaker switch is good too.

Does it have a switch for "Local / Remote"? Switch that the other way, if it does.

What other switches does it have?

Disconnect the electrical (switching) connection for the welding lead and plug it in again. That could isolate a short in the lead itself.

I was just looking at it online. It doesn't appear to have any switches beyond the power switch. Real basic 110v flux unit.

Well, spent some more time troubleshooting it today. I removed the switch entirely from the circuit, as well as the gun/feed controls, and it still would turn on when off.

So, I started removing other components that were in line with the power. I had it down to the bare controller board, and a couple other components, and the same problem was there.

Turns out, there is an internal short somewhere on my controller board. Looking online, and calling a couple shops here, the cheapest I could find was $95 +shipping.

I am half tempted to say screw it, and weld with it the way it is... I just have to remember to unplug the welder from power after every time I make a pass...

This sucks.

Check over the controller board and make sure there is no steel dust laying around on it. Blow it off really well with the air compressor as well.

Are there any relays on the board that may be stuck?

If you need a welder, you can borrow mine. It's kinda far from you though.