A while back I saw a post about someone who had problems with the gas regulator that came with the Millermatic 135 they had purchased. I have been struggling when I weld with gas and seem to do better with fluxcore. I have tried increasing the gas pressure and have varied the voltage to no avail. Has anyone else had problem with the screw type regulator that came with their welder? Is there any way to know for sure that the regulator is OK?

Steve,

Is this (http://www.chevelles.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=008649) the link? Sorry, I can't help with the problem, but I remembered the posting.

Good Luck.

Yes that's the post. Has anyone had this problem or can tell me how to check if my regulator is OK.

Go here...

http://www.millermotorsports.com

or

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/

Post on either of these boards (Miller and Hobart are owned by the same company).

There are folks who work for Miller & Hobart that can tell you how to accurately check your regulator and also give you helpo in resolving the problem.

I talked to the welding shop that I bought my welder from and they think that the diaphram may be damaged. They claim that if I didn't back out the adjustment screw and lock nut every time that I turned on my bottle that 3000lb of pressure will blow out the diaphram. So it sounds like they aren't interested in looking at my problem as a defective regulator. They say they can send it out for repair, but I would have to pay for it. They do say that the regulator is not that great so I wonder if I would be better of buying a better quality one.

I'll say it again...check the sites I mentioned.

Several posted in the recent past with regulator issues. If you can give a machine serial number and date of purchase, Miller can check it's records. They had gotten a bad batch of regulators from the manufacturer and were giving replacements to those affected.

Certainly worth looking into.

I did as 10secBU said, went to the Miller Ask Andy Forum. Posted my concerns there and got an email from Kevin Schuh who advised me that he was sending me a brand new regulator UPS 2nd Day. Got it yesterday and it seems to have made a difference. I'm a happy camper and am impressed with the service I have received from Miller graemlins/hurray.gif .

Quite a nice happy ending!

K

Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes flux core wire will require different polarity from gas shielded solid wire. Have also heard of people getting welders with a "free" spool of wire of one type or the other, but the welder was set up with the wrong polarity to run it. Not hard to change, just have to keep track of which wire needs forward / reverse / DCEP / DCEN / straight polarity... what ever the heck they call it these days.