P61a pot overflowing

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papa bears stove

papa bears stove

Member
Oct 4, 2010
133
Marathon, NY
www.papabearsstoves.com
Looking for things to try on a Harman P61a. The feed keeps on feeding and pushes the fire off the end of the pot. Cleaned the esp probe and replaced it as well. Still have same problem. Tried both modes of operation in room temp mode and stove mode and have the same issue. It seems like the stove is feeding on high and there is no way to slow it down. Any ideas or suggestions greatly appreciated.
 
Turn the feed rate down by 1 number. This is the very top dial. It should be on 4. What is it on now?
 
Hi Tony, it's on 4. It's been there for two years. This issue just started this week going into the third year with the stove.
 
Did you switch pellet brands this year? Does it just continously feed non stop? You should here it cycle.
 
Have you tried just moving the switches fully a couple times. Sometimes wiping the pot switches can help. Harman board weakness is the pot switches.
 
Yes it just feeds pellets continuously and I haven't tried moving the switches.
 
Nuth'in worse than a dirty pot.... My wife gives me heck for that all the time......:p

I wonder if spraying them with contact cleaner would alleviate the issue?
 
Sometimes. Burners bits and pieces will replace all three pots for about $40. If your good at soldering the pots are around $5 .
 
Bioburner said:
Sometimes. Burners bits and pieces will replace all three pots for about $40. If your good at soldering the pots are around $5 .
Click to expand...

Can you TIG weld them?????
 
I have a friend that does just that on medical devices.
 
Bioburner said:
I have a friend that does just that on medical devices.
Click to expand...


I've TIG'd 2 aluminum pop cans together end to end and Tig'd a broken tape measure back together so I do imagine it's possible with a small diameter tungsten and very low amps. My favorite process but too slow.
 
He is on a better pay scale. Pace makers etc. microscope to see the circuits.
 
I use a digital iron at 650 with silver bearing solder.
 
Bioburner said:
I use a digital iron at 650 with silver bearing solder.
Click to expand...


Mine's digital too, with post flow, pre flow and pulseand of course a foot pedal.
 
SidecarFlip said:
Mine's digital too, with post flow, pre flow and pulseand of course a foot pedal.
Click to expand...
At one point in my life we had a tig machine at work but it was a lousy unit, some form of low frequency corner cutter ( the company wouldn't pay for the real deal). As it turned out for what we did Mig was fine anyway, once the company scrapped the idea of stainless steel repair for some kind of apron material for the assembly line and other non related items to my department etc. Let me stick with aluminum truck bodies and steel fabrication. I had two MIG guns, one ran steel off a big spool, the other aluminum or steel with little spools loaded inside of it. I preferred that gun. Used stargon gas for steel and argon for aluminum. Big difference using that stargon on steel compared with CO2. Nice machine, I bought that with the companies blessings back around 1979, I'm sure the new ones are better today though in terms of feeds and wire control . Not so sure about durability.
 
We have everything from engine driven to pulse MIG (which gives you a TIG quality in appearance weld with the speed of a MIG) to TIG and CNC plasma. Everything here is Lincoln with the exception of a Hobart MIG, which is really a good machine (Miller)and HyperTherm. PMIG is nice but limited to heavier gage material. My favorite process is still TIG but it's slow. We even gas weld ocassionally. I started out gas welding using coathangers for filler rod. I stuck a lot of stuff together with coathangers.

Weldors are in high demand today. Machinists have given way to CNC but the welding trades are strong, especially specification welders, welding on certified assemblies. One trade that you can learn and get certified in andmake a very good living at without years of college.

About anyone can use a 'glue gun' (mig), but it takes skill to TIG weld and that skill demands a good wage. Robotic welding (even TIG) has it's place but manual TIG is a high demand profession.
 
Highest precision is TIG. Having to coordinate both hands and visually control the puddle and sometimes using foot control to vary the power. Space and aircraft industry are the big $$$ for TIG. My friend that does medical gets paid well and his weld time is low only a couple hours a day because of the concentration and micro size.
 
Some weldors prefer the amptrol on the torch, some prefer a foot amptrol. I'm a foot pedal person but the discipline really determines the location. Our machine initiate the arc automatically. When doing stainless or aluminum you cannot physically initiate the arc or it contaminates the weld with the tung. Only steel is 'scratch' start. Our gas driven unit has an HF scratch start module on it but it's never been used. The engine drive is mainly used for field repairs on farm equipment in SMAW with LH electrodes, reverse polarity.

TIG is kin to playing a piano. Both hands have to work in harmony. The best prerequsite to TIG is gas welding. Once you master gas welding, TIG is easy because you've mastered keeping the filler rod in the gas envelope.

I like sticking stuff together myself.
 
SidecarFlip said:
We have everything from engine driven to pulse MIG (which gives you a TIG quality in appearance weld with the speed of a MIG) to TIG and CNC plasma. Everything here is Lincoln with the exception of a Hobart MIG, which is really a good machine (Miller)and HyperTherm. PMIG is nice but limited to heavier gage material. My favorite process is still TIG but it's slow. We even gas weld ocassionally. I started out gas welding using coathangers for filler rod. I stuck a lot of stuff together with coathangers.

Weldors are in high demand today. Machinists have given way to CNC but the welding trades are strong, especially specification welders, welding on certified assemblies. One trade that you can learn and get certified in andmake a very good living at without years of college.

About anyone can use a 'glue gun' (mig), but it takes skill to TIG weld and that skill demands a good wage. Robotic welding (even TIG) has it's place but manual TIG is a high demand profession.
Click to expand...
I took a winter class in welding years ago and got a certificate for that, it's around here someplace ( maybe, it was about 35 years ago and not a certificate like you are speaking of at that). I've done a lot of gas welding in my day. The school started us all out in gas actually, then arc and then tig. Their tig machine was fancy with water cooled head and such (don't know if they even use that these days). But that was a lot of fun even if slow. At work I had a Miller arc machine, ac/dc and the big Miller Mig. No tig. But ya, gas I welded a quick job as soon back as the week I retired at the end of Oct. Now I weld pop corn and granola and raisins to my teeth, LOL ! I'm going on two months into this retirement stuff, I don't know about this , gained 4 lbs, drink too much coffee so far. Granted the job was tough at going on 65 and now my innards aren't hanging out in my underwear now but still ( scratches head, 44 years was a long stretch to just end).
 
Thread has gone to pot or should have stayed on the pot of OP problem:) Can we get it back to the problem?
 
No issue with me. Does DigiKey offer the pots? Seems to be a better alternative than the OEM. (Kinda suprised that in this day of digital; controls, Harman still employs analog controls, though, in the end, analog is more replacement friendly.
 
Ebay has them offered by the same company that offers the replacement of them for $40 for $5
 
Bioburner said:
Thread has gone to pot or should have stayed on the pot of OP problem:) Can we get it back to the problem?
Click to expand...
Someone here said that when they solder in these replacement pots they use some silver content in the solder and a 600 deg iron. Where did they get the solder with silver that flows at 600 deg ? Because i have a Harman and one day I might have to replace these things and so may the OP.

Actually I have silver bearing solder but it's .093 diameter.
 
Last edited:
Believe the post was by me. Computer supply. Should be available in electrical supply too.Will need to use some solder wick to clean up the board after getting the pot removed. The solder comes in a small tube and is not very expensive as your only buying like half once. The digital iron was spendy but got on sale for like $45 from Radio Shack on sale. Well worth the $$. Was borrowing one all the time. Probably use it now every week to repair something. Hate wire nuts especially in outside applications(trailers).
 
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