Welder help!

Okay, today, my welder stopped working. It's been acting funny lately. Sometimes it will stutter, and it isn't conistant. After a good amount of use, it reaches it's load capacity. I'm pretty sure thats what happens. Yesterday it met that load capacity within 15 minutes, of small beads. Today while welding, it stuttered and stopped the arc then spattered again. Then completely shut off. I look over, and smoke was emitting from the lower region of the welder. It now will not ground itself. I opened up every panel, and nothign looks to be fried. However, the large coil of wire in the lower part of the welder was fairly hot. There is also a burnign smell coming from somewhere, but I cannot tell where. Does anyone know what might be the problem? And, does anyone know of a place that you can buy replacement welder parts?

Thanks

Your going to have a fire, take it in to a serivce dealer to checked out!!

No one will work on it. It's a Hansen MIG 160A and the company who made it went out of business about 15 years ago. The local shops refuse to work on it due to the brand, and cannot order parts.

Seth check on Ebay you might be able to find another one or parts for it......Ive used one before thats what we had in school, I dug them work great.

Mine did work fine for a while. I've been searching craigslist and eBay all day. So far I haven't been able to find anything whatsoever. I can't even find iformation on the manufacturer. Other than the fact that they went out of business.

Sorry if I'm being short. I'm incredibly frustrated right now.

im drunk

sounds like the transformer went out/ is going out. Let me check at work on monday and see what they have in the pile at work.

Thanks man! What does the transformer look like? There are a few things in the bottom part of thtat boz, and I don't know what any of them are. Would that be those two cylinders near the back? Or maybe the big coil?

Yes! Just got off the phone with the guy fixing my welder. It was just a relay that got burnt, and Lincoln uses the same one in some of their welders, so it's swapable. Apparently I'll have it back Friday.