Whilst doing some welding tonight, my mig cut out and was making a "boiling" type of noise. I took the lid off and the transformer seemed to be bubbling. Its a clarke 105 gas/gasless, but i only use it with gas. I assume its going to pack in soon, so, do i try to get a new transformer or replace it? Ive been toying with the idea of a more powerful one for a while, but with most of the welding done on the car, i dont know how much use it will get in the future, though i wouldnt want to be without one. Ive had a brief look around, but what would you suggest buying? Budget is really whatever is required to get the right tool, but id have to save up for it, so say £200 for a start? How about second hand? What makes should i avoid? How many amps is sensible for a home unit on 13amp plug. suggestions please...

You've probably exceeded its duty cycle - the ratio between time on and time off.

I did that to my TIG once - it survived. I learned to be patient...

I thought thats what had happened too, but i hadnt been welding long, although i do think it cut itself out as a result of overheating due to this fault. I let it cool down, and it started welding fine again, did a couple of inches of weld and it tripped out again and made the boiling noise again.

how long did you leave it to cool down - it surprised me that it takes quite a while on my cebora. I'm talking 10 to 20 minutes not 2 or 3 when it trips out.

My solution was to leave the case off and point an office desk fan at the transformer - instant duty cycle increase

(eventually it broke - suspect this treatment didn't help).

ive just bought one of TH ESE , they are chinese, but after seeing pictures of the insides on mig-welding.co.uk i decided they looked well made.

had a SIP topmig150 before, the 'como' is a huge improvement. works on a 13amp plug up to setting 6.

will

Get a new one if you suspect it to be on the way out! If you need to justify the buy with more welding, start building another kit

How does the amps control work on that Como, it says it's a 200amp welder in the description but the spec says 35 to 185amps ? Not that you need more than 185amps for anything on a project smaller than a battleship.