migmate 130 Turbo

after getting annoyed with the welder i spoke to a mate who posts on here regularly and poped round for a tea and some weldling lessons.

we played wtih the migmate and the below happened.

was getting inconsistent feed = unstable arc which means there was no welding going on. The wire was heating up to quick and melting to the tip.

to stop the it burning back we had it on full speed and was weldilng clean 2.8mm ish sheet.

and then we played with his clarke 160t and i had no problems at all!!!!

so is the migmate fixable

could be a number of things, to much friction in the torch meaning the wire feed motor has real trouble pushing it down the torch. Or the pcb that controls the wire feed is dying either is fixable. The first just means a torch service new liner etc, the second means a new pcb. Try and watch the wire feed unit to see if the wire is slipping between the pinch rollers, if it is service the torch

i'm goign to buy a clarke from weld-quip i guess it's a wise idea?

will have a play tomorrow with it see if i casn sort it to sell on!!!!
it's under a year old aswell

Is the wire clean? Any slight rusting on the wire will cause problems with inconsistent feeding on any welder and SIPs are more prone to feeding problems than other brands. Take the wire out, take the contact tip out and blow compressed air through the liner, this may help. If the wire's rusty, throw it and get some more. I'm assuming it's a 0.8kg reel not a 5kg, if it's a 5kg, strip off the rusty layers until you get to the clean stuff. Also, fit a new tip, that can help no end. Then.....sell it and buy a clarke

That's funny - there's a SIP180 at work that I use occasionally to blob things together. Found it needed wire speed of 8 out of 10 to blob sensibly on the medium power setting.

i'd put that one down to it having never been serviced and needing a new liner and tip, but haven't opened the side panel.

The SIP130 works well with a steel liner - you'll probably have one of those but it's worth checking it's not plastic. See http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/sip-wirefeed.htm There are some tests there you can do.

Worth opening up the side panel to see if the wire is slipping on the rollers before spending money. Might just need a liner, new wire, or the roller tension increasing if you have some slip.

thanks Malcolm, will have a look tomorrow see what i can find

still going for a clarke though

If you search the forums you will find 3 main issues with the SIP's:

1. Plastic wire liner

Wears out quickly and the resulting "chaff" gets behind the tip and melts/clogs. Malcolm has a page on how to install a steel liner.

2. Wire feed tension

Been several posts about the tensioner not holding consistent or enough tension.

3. Adjustment sensitivity

There is a trim pot on the main board to set the minimum speed, it also effects the sensitivity. Apparently, changing it to 100 ohms helps considerably as with teh stock 1k ohm, the adjustment is all within the last 10%.

ok now i'm very annoyed.

done the above, it's .8kg wire with steel liner allready.

checked all the wire and it is clean no rust.
tighten and losened the feeder and then tried it all seems fine
it's not slipping at all, it seems to be feeding alot better now but splattering every where, took bottle off and it seems empty.

got a X bottle from boc today but not got the thing to turn the bottle on!!!!! hopefully i'll get one tomorrow with the clarke 160t

any other ideas on what to check?

i also took the side off and checked everything was still connected etc. and all seems ok

The Clarke 160 will knock it's socks off!
Apart from an inherently bad wire feed design, the electronics are also poor on the SIP Migmates/Topmigs & don't give any kind of smooth power regulation... in my opinion
weldequip

got a X bottle from boc today but not got the thing to turn the bottle on!!!!! hopefully i'll get one tomorrow with the clarke 160t

There's no cylinder key supplied I'm afraid
Couple of quid from BOC
weldequip