KnightFab
Plastic
- Joined
- May 6, 2022
- Location
- Vail, CO USA
Hi all,
I recently picked up this Atlas model 200 welding positioner. Got it from a local welder who had shut down his shop and was getting rid of most of his surplus machinery. He told me he's been using it for over 30 years and he picked it up used at auction prior to that. All of the functions work great but I decided to tear it apart to clean it up and repaint it for another lifetime of use. Upon opening the case I was greeted with a rats nest of wires, most having been previously repaired and a few that had been burnt though. Ive begun replacing everything with new wire and connections but am unsure about how or even if the motor was grounded. I have the foot pedal and power cable both grounded now but looking at the wiring diagram for the motor (Dayton 2Z799C) it appears it never had a ground wire. Its a 4 wire motor that goes to a forward/reverse switch and a speed controller (KBVC-14). There is a fuse in the system as well going from power cable to the speed controller which then goes to the foot pedal. Is the motor grounded elsewhere in the system or should there be somewhere I am missing to connect another ground cable? Any input would be greatly appreciated! Id love to put this guy to use but don't need any shocks. The wiring is a bit less straight forward than most of what I've done in the past, especially considering the possibility of welding current interfering with things. Thanks in advance.
I recently picked up this Atlas model 200 welding positioner. Got it from a local welder who had shut down his shop and was getting rid of most of his surplus machinery. He told me he's been using it for over 30 years and he picked it up used at auction prior to that. All of the functions work great but I decided to tear it apart to clean it up and repaint it for another lifetime of use. Upon opening the case I was greeted with a rats nest of wires, most having been previously repaired and a few that had been burnt though. Ive begun replacing everything with new wire and connections but am unsure about how or even if the motor was grounded. I have the foot pedal and power cable both grounded now but looking at the wiring diagram for the motor (Dayton 2Z799C) it appears it never had a ground wire. Its a 4 wire motor that goes to a forward/reverse switch and a speed controller (KBVC-14). There is a fuse in the system as well going from power cable to the speed controller which then goes to the foot pedal. Is the motor grounded elsewhere in the system or should there be somewhere I am missing to connect another ground cable? Any input would be greatly appreciated! Id love to put this guy to use but don't need any shocks. The wiring is a bit less straight forward than most of what I've done in the past, especially considering the possibility of welding current interfering with things. Thanks in advance.
Well after some more looking and checking it turns out the ground lead for the welder had got un hooked from the table leg and was far away from anything metal. Maybe we never even hooked it up in the first place, just rolled it out. That did not slow us down from welding, imagine that welding without the ground lead hooked up, still thinking WTF, how is this even possible? Some more thinking and the electrical ground and the welding ground were the same ground in the welding machine and the welding current went up the 3 phase power cord, into the panel and down the 120v ground wire to the outlet we had the rotator plugged into, then down the power cord where it connected to the alum box the speed control was in, by sitting on welding table that finished the ground path to the weld. No idea how many hundreds of feet of wire that ground went through.
