Munkul
Jack of some trades, Master of none
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- 7,371
- Location
- Cumbria
Some time back, @TechnicAl posted about this:
Anyway, we're at the end of the journey now... I've quite enjoyed following this on Instagram, and following the 11 other people who had the machine for a week.
Now it comes to me, last (and probably least ) covered in stickers, and in the diagnostics, it had already clocked up 6:40 hours of arc-on time... I thought that was quite a lot, considering it's not being used every day!
So i had a few hours with it last night. Now I predominantly TIG weld stainless, and even though it isn't a "proper" TIG set with HF start and gas control, I was interested in the TIG features.
The supplied Fronius valved torch is actually great. It's ergonomic, stays cool, and the slide gas valve is way better than the turny-knob type. If it had conventional Binzel/CK style consumables, it would be perfect, but the Fronius style ones work well enough.
1.6mm stainless butt weld with a pulse - started at 2hz slow pulse, and then ramped it up to its max of 100hz for the rest of the seam. Seemed to give good results!
Got some 6mm offcuts and ran some straight DC at max 150 amps, some straight steel filler and also some inconel filler I had, just to play with it. It doesn't quite have the amps to do this properly, but was still fun.
The fan didn't even come on until I was nearly finished this.
I did a second run over the top, again just having a play around, unfortunately, the fancy Fronius style ceramic shattered on me mid weld! i don't have a spare, so that's the end of the TIG play time.
I like this machine. I'm biased towards Lorch, just because I know and love their machines, but I think Fronius, Lorch and EWM are probably top of the pile in the welding world today.
There's been some serious thought put into the design of this thing. It has the TAC feature, where you can set a pulse for a set time period at the start of arcing up, just to tack things. Something that I personally would use. It has a nice usable range of basic TIG pulsing, suitable for thin metals. It has adjustable soft-start, with a ramp-up.
It has the Comfort stop feature, where you're supposed to be able to long-arc, close it up, and the machine will slope down and end the arc for you. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work at all, even with adjusting its sensitivity.
Instead, it has the next best thing: adjustable Break Voltage cut-off. Basically, you can long-arc and the machine will end the arc for you at a preset arc length.
This is way better than most of these type of sets, where you usually have a huge flare-up and arc strikes as you pull away to end the arc. As you can see from the stainless - no oxides at the end of the weld. A slope down would be better (if the Comfort Stop worked), but it IS still just a stick welder, after all.
Lots of stuff is adjustable in the menu structure, though. Enough stuff that I had to check all the values were as factory-set. The manual doesn't actually describe them all, it doesn't mention the TAC or pulse feature at all. But it's all more or less self explanatory.... and the ones that aren't, I leave alone!
I could actually use this thing for site work and not hate it - unlike the other lift-arc setups I've tried. I've hated them all.
Yes i would like to win this, it's £700+ of highly desirable welding machine.
I'll do some actual stick welding later in the week...
win a Fronius
https://www.fronius.com/en-gb/uk/welding-technology/info-centre/news/vintage-voyager-0920
www.mig-welding.co.uk
Win a vintage edition Fronius TransPocket 150 welding machine
Win a vintage edition Fronius TransPocket 150 welding machine - join our vintage design TransPocket 150 as it travels the UK and Ireland
www.fronius.com
2020 sees Fronius celebrate our 75th anniversary and to mark this special occasion, we are giving one lucky person the opportunity to win a limited edition, vintage design TransPocket 150.
Part of our Professional Welding Tools portfolio, the Fronius TransPocket 150 offers a high degree of flexibility. The integrated PFC (Power Factor Correction) technology supports the use of extremely long mains leads of up to 100 m in length. The operating concept has also become even more intuitive. A 7-segment display makes it possible to quickly read off the parameters that have been configured. In addition, the display is slightly set back and therefore well protected against damage. Easily comprehensible setup settings are a tremendous help in simplifying operation. More information about the TransPocket 150 can be found on our website.
We want to send our vintage edition machine on a voyage around the UK and Ireland and we need our Instagram and Facebook followers to help us on its travels.
To be in with a chance to receive the vintage TransPocket 150, you must complete the form below. All entries will then be entered into a ballot and 12 people will be selected to receive the machine and use it to weld for your relevant application for one week. After this period, we will collect the machine.
At the end of the vintage voyage, a winner from the 12 people who have helped the machine on its journey will be selected at random to win a vintage TransPocket 150.
Anyway, we're at the end of the journey now... I've quite enjoyed following this on Instagram, and following the 11 other people who had the machine for a week.
Now it comes to me, last (and probably least ) covered in stickers, and in the diagnostics, it had already clocked up 6:40 hours of arc-on time... I thought that was quite a lot, considering it's not being used every day!
So i had a few hours with it last night. Now I predominantly TIG weld stainless, and even though it isn't a "proper" TIG set with HF start and gas control, I was interested in the TIG features.
The supplied Fronius valved torch is actually great. It's ergonomic, stays cool, and the slide gas valve is way better than the turny-knob type. If it had conventional Binzel/CK style consumables, it would be perfect, but the Fronius style ones work well enough.
1.6mm stainless butt weld with a pulse - started at 2hz slow pulse, and then ramped it up to its max of 100hz for the rest of the seam. Seemed to give good results!
Got some 6mm offcuts and ran some straight DC at max 150 amps, some straight steel filler and also some inconel filler I had, just to play with it. It doesn't quite have the amps to do this properly, but was still fun.
The fan didn't even come on until I was nearly finished this.
I did a second run over the top, again just having a play around, unfortunately, the fancy Fronius style ceramic shattered on me mid weld! i don't have a spare, so that's the end of the TIG play time.
I like this machine. I'm biased towards Lorch, just because I know and love their machines, but I think Fronius, Lorch and EWM are probably top of the pile in the welding world today.
There's been some serious thought put into the design of this thing. It has the TAC feature, where you can set a pulse for a set time period at the start of arcing up, just to tack things. Something that I personally would use. It has a nice usable range of basic TIG pulsing, suitable for thin metals. It has adjustable soft-start, with a ramp-up.
It has the Comfort stop feature, where you're supposed to be able to long-arc, close it up, and the machine will slope down and end the arc for you. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work at all, even with adjusting its sensitivity.
Instead, it has the next best thing: adjustable Break Voltage cut-off. Basically, you can long-arc and the machine will end the arc for you at a preset arc length.
This is way better than most of these type of sets, where you usually have a huge flare-up and arc strikes as you pull away to end the arc. As you can see from the stainless - no oxides at the end of the weld. A slope down would be better (if the Comfort Stop worked), but it IS still just a stick welder, after all.
Lots of stuff is adjustable in the menu structure, though. Enough stuff that I had to check all the values were as factory-set. The manual doesn't actually describe them all, it doesn't mention the TAC or pulse feature at all. But it's all more or less self explanatory.... and the ones that aren't, I leave alone!
I could actually use this thing for site work and not hate it - unlike the other lift-arc setups I've tried. I've hated them all.
Yes i would like to win this, it's £700+ of highly desirable welding machine.
I'll do some actual stick welding later in the week...
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