Welders are a long term investment that can last for a long time if you care for them properly. While there are many important maintenance procedures you should follow in order to guarantee your own safety, such as checking your gas lines, regulators, and electrode clamp (if stick welding), here are three simple ways you can protect your welder for the long term:
Protect Your Welder from Dust
If you don’t have a cover on your welder, you may be exposing it to dust and bits of metal that could interfere with its operation down the line. A cover is a simple way to also protect your machine from sparks that may fly while grinding metal.
Open Up Your Welder for Cleaning
Speaking of dust, even a covered welder may accumulate dust, especially if its in a garage. From time to time it will help to remove the cover and to make sure dust isn’t accumulating inside of it. If you’re leaving a MIG welder for a long period of time, take the wire spool out of it and store it in a bag so that it doesn’t get rusty inside of your welder.
Don’t Push Your Welder’s Duty Cycle
One of the easiest ways to burn up a welder is to ignore the duty cycle. A duty cycle specifies how frequently your welder needs to rest in order to cool off. The larger your projects, the longer you’ll need to weld and therefore the longer duty cycle you’ll need. If you’re tempted to push your duty cycle in order to complete a weld so that you don’t have to worry about a tie-in, remember that a little grinding is better than having to buy a new machine!
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