As reported earlier my Eastwood welder decided to stop working completely about two weeks ago. I detached and re-attached the hose and gun assembly, thinking maybe some of the wire had bound up inside, but it came out straight and clean. I was at the end of a spool so I put a new one in, and it worked briefly for a few small welds. But the next time I fired it up I got nothing. The unit powered up fine and the fan was blowing but I got nothing out of the gun. I called Eastwood’s tech support and over the course of a week talked to several very nice CSA’s who took notes and assured me they’d get back in touch, but I had to do the legwork. I took the gun apart and tested for continuity at the switch, which checked out fine, and by request I cracked the case to look over the boards inside to see if anything was visually damaged. I didn’t see anything wrong, but yesterday I was finally sent an RMA by email to exchange for a new unit. I was worried about finding a box to pack it in, figuring I’d already recycled the original, but spied it under a bunch of tarps in the garage, holding the pedal assembly and air cleaner from the green ’68 parts truck. It was a bit worse for wear but I taped it up and reinforced the bottom with some 2-ply cardboard, and sent the unit out this morning. In the meantime I’m going to see if I can rent one locally so that I can finish the small welds required to button up the firewall and gas tank, and get the truck off jackstands.
The Scout is still at the shop; I haven’t heard back from them yet but when I checked in on Monday he said they’d cleaned off the underside, run it up, and put it on the lift to look for leaks. Apparently there are two outlets on the transfer case that are weeping and another leak up front somewhere. So I’m hoping I’ll hear back from them today, and if not I’ll check in tomorrow.
Finally, I reconnected with a guy who had some parts trucks in a yard close to my sister’s place in New York. He still has a C-series Travelall in his field that I’d like to look over, so I’m making a plan to go check it out when we’re up there for Thanksgiving. So I’ve got to put together a recovery kit to bring north with me, including fire and cutting tools. This might be the impetus to buy a cordless angle grinder, actually…