Here's the Daddy!

My new Portamig 361 turned up today so I thought I'd post my initial opinion. I'd been looking for a machine to replace my 2 year old Butters 211 which is just not man enough for the work I do (See my original post 'I'm after a big fella') After lurking on here for a couple of days then joining and asking questions, the Portamig seemed the ideal choice. The duty cycles are amazing, 270a@100% and 350a@60% with a 40a minimum current. Delivery of the machine and the torch were spot on, the driver rang me to say he was on his way, he turned up at 9.45. An hour later, the torch turned up via parcelforce. The machine was delivered on a pallet, well wrapped and the delivery truck had a tail-lift as requested (it weighs 120kg!) Initial impressions of the machine were 'christ it's big!' You can see how much bigger it is than my Butters 211 which is actually a decent size machine.
The torch supplied is a 4 metre Parweld Ergo MB36 model B3600-40ER. I've never seen an MB36 torch before and it's massive! Look at the size difference between it and my Parweld MB15 on the Butters. The machine itself is very solid, the chassis base appears to be 3mm steel and the body and side panels 2mm. The side panel isn't particularly easy to remove but it's only because it's new and the paint is thick causing it to be slightly tight. The butters side cover hinges up but the Portamig's comes right off. When fitting the wire you notice how big the wire feed motor is, it's massive, the starter motor on my Mitsubishi L200 is smaller . Look at the two photos of the motors and it looks like the Portamig has a 5kg reel in, in actual fact they're both 15kg (the Butters is an empty one just to show the difference in motor size.)
The wire feed rollers are geared so both drive not just one. The earth lead on the portamig is also very heavy duty, the Butters came with a flimsy clamp which I changed for a heavy duty one, the portamig has one as standard, looks like a 400 amp one. Check out the difference in cable size!
The input cable is also very large, even though it would run at low settings on a 13a plug, there's no way you could fit one as the conductor is just too thick. It specifies a 50a input current. After fitting the wire and gas (0.8mm Hyundai SM-70 wire (ER70S-6), air products ferromaxx gas @ 15l/pm) I fired 'him' up and did a test weld at 2/3 power on some 6mm plate. Very nice weld, the arc doesn't seem quite as smooth as the Butters but it was getting late and I didn't have time to tweak the wire feed/voltage settings and try again. I'm using it all day tomorrow so I'll have a fiddle with the settings and see what happens. I'm also going to try a reel of 1mm wire as suggested by the supplier as most of my work is 5-6mm and nothing under 3mm. I'll post some more details as I use it more.

WOW That is a beast! Congratulations on your new toy

You posting that has made me want mine even quicker, still got to save the pennies though! I Like the little hook on the torch, that is a really nifty feature. (Is that standard on all Portamigs?) Looking forward to seeing some welds from it!

Danny

The hook is standard on the Parweld Ergo torches, I don't know what torch is supplied with other portamigs though, the torch comes from the dealer, not Portamig.
Pics of welds to follow

Looking good........
So what are you doing with the Butters then?

I'm not sure yet, I had a faulty thermal sensor a couple of weeks back which Butters replaced but it's not working properly so they've suggested a new transformer as the original sensor is wound into the coils but the new one is external. It's out of warranty but they will supply it FOC, all they ask for is an hour's labour. I may still keep it as it's a nice machine and it's very portable wheras th portamig brute isn't If I decide to sell it I'll let you know.

Wow, nice unit.

I must be psychic or something. Dont laugh but i'm using a MigMate 170pro and it has the usual duff wire feed. After some posting on here, i decided a new drive could be built and even without seeing one, have sketched up a unit that looks VERY similar to the portamig drive! I've got the motor on hand and some small gears and bits.

I'm moving house at present but will post when i get some progress.

Good luck with the new welder

Dave

Thoose parweld torches are not bad, very light, and comfortable to hold.

I also bought an mb25 Parweld Ergo for the Butters but I've been using it on the Portamig for better access on the project I'm working on. It is a very nice torch. I'll set the MB36 up and try it out. When you're used to an MB15 tiddler, an MB36 seems massive.

Here's the Daddy - Part 2

Well, I've been using the Portamig 361 pretty much every day since it turned up so I thought I'd post the second part of the review.
So far I've run umpteen kilos of wire and over 1/2 a cylinder of Ferromaxx through it so far and the machine is, well, astonishing! The duty cycle is unbelievable, it hasn't tripped the thermal overload once despite it being subjected to some pretty heavy use. With a bit of tweaking the arc is now just about as smooth as the Butters, I'm now running 1mm wire as suggested by Weldequip. The arc is now so quiet I'm not sure which I can hear the loudest, the gas exiting the shroud or the howl from that monster of a wire feed motor. (It's about the same size as a car windscreen wiper motor!) The torch latching switch is something I've never had on a mig before but once you get used to it it's great, it's like a cruise control. It's easy to forget it's on though, a few times i've flicked the trigger to inch the wire out and ended up with 6 inches sticking out cos my reactions weren't quick enough to hit the trigger again!
All in all, an excellent machine at an excellent price from an excellent seller!

All in all, an excellent machine at an excellent price from an excellent seller!

Click to expand...

Well, that's praise indeed, thanks Warren! (Shall I send you your fee by cheque or cash?!! ).
Cheers
weldequip

hehe, I'll settle for 25% discount on a tig Steve???

20!! What you say 10 for! Here's 5!
weldequip

Simple philosiphy (please excuse me if that's spelt wrong... it's late & I'm on me second ER third tinny!) if you sell good stuff people talk & you will sell 10 others. If you sell ****e (box movers ) you may sell 1000 but 900 will talk... and there you go.
weldequip

Steve - How does the performance of a Portamig compare to an equivalent Murex or Esab model?
(I aint forgotten about the tig pedal - got a tig job in soon to pay for it - i'll give you the nod then! - cheers!)

The latest Murex Tradesmig 260-1 is 20% @ 250amps.
Portamig 261 60% @ 250amps.
weldequip

Nice machine,looks expensive...you supply it weldquip?...I got a lowlife SIP 170 migmate pro.....are the portamig made here?.....could you send some details of models and prices.can't get one yet but interested to see....cheers.

The 261 is full industrial spec & expensive yes (although less than the equivalent Murex) but there is a lighter duty range; if you PM me your email I will forward details.
weldequip

Heh, seems everybody is making their machine look better by lowering duty cycle. Even Miller has done it.

Used to be 250A model was 100% duty with use up to 330A @ 60%. Now they will call it a 325A machine.

PortaMIG seems to be lagging the industry with marketing hype.

60% seems reasonable for a spec unless your are doing an assembly line. 20% hardly seems practical.

Before I bought the portamig I looked at that murex one but wasn't at all impressed with the duty cycle. I don't doubt they're good quality machines but 20% @ 250amps or 60% @ 250amps? No contest! Probably very little difference in price either.

Weldquip,it wont let me pm you for some reason......my email is northyorkspaul@aol.com......you have a website or anything?...thanks.P.