Wasted $200 on a welder from a pawn shop that lasted two weeks

Found a Miller 130i at a pawn shop in Nashville for $200. Looked clean and fired up fine in the lot, so I figured it was a steal. Got it home and ran maybe 10 hours of work before the drive motor locked up and the wire feed started chattering. Opened it up and found a circuit board that looked like someone had sprayed it with soda. Live and learn, I guess. Has anyone here had luck fixing those older Miller boards or is it just scrap?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_ramirez3810d ago

Wait did the pawn shop have any kind of return policy or was it all sales final?

faithpatel10d ago

Woah that's rough... I'd try cleaning that board with alcohol first, sometimes it works.

keith16410d ago

Man that's a bummer! A buddy of mine actually grabbed a Lincoln off Craigslist a few years back, same kind of deal. Looked great, ran okay for about a week, then it started acting up. He opened it up and found a rats nest of old copper wire that was all chewed up and basically shorting out. He ended up taking it to a local repair shop and they fixed the board for like 60 bucks. Said it was just bad solder joints from getting knocked around. Might be worth checking if there's a shop near you that does that kind of thing instead of trashing it.