SHogan
Member
- Messages
- 82
- Location
- West Sussex, UK
I'll don my PPE (ncluding a heavy duty flame suit!) before posting this as having lurked here for some time and read a lot of threads on the relative merits of the different entry level welders I finally took the plunge and bought a MIG set from TigMig on eBay. I have no affiliation to them at all and very nearly bought a similarly 'powerful' kit from a UK supplier but the price difference was too much and I thought I'd have a punt on this instead.
I paid the princly sum of around £195 including P&P from Italy for what purports to be a 40-180A welder (though as I'm on a domestic 13A supply naturally I won't be able to get to the upper limits) and it arrived a few days ago. I've just had a bash with it and there are no problems so far; I'm still alive and have neither electrocuted myself nor blown the box up so fingers crossed for the future!
I'm new welding and will be welding clean ~2mm thick steel so didn't have too much need for a rig that can do thin steel and also don't plan on helping out repairing the Forth Bridge so this seemed ideal as long as it lasts a decent length of time. I realise that I'm taking a gamble and so I've made sure I've kept the box and wrapping safe in case it needs to go back!
Here are some pictures which should be pretty self explanatory but please feel free to ask any questions about it.
I haven't properly measured the torch length but would guess at 3M. It looks like the pretty standard '15' torch that similar set-ups come with
The earth lead was a little short, it's only 1.5M long so may have to be replaced with something a little longer (and perhaps meatier) in due course
Stick attachment; doubt it will get all that much use!
A couple of drops of glue on the front from where the generic label has been stuck on but these came off easily enough (you can just see one under the torch 'hole')
Inside the Chinese box of tricks
A couple of close-ups of the wire feed mechanism. It looks pretty similar to other machines with what looks like metal in the right places rather than a load of plastic bits.
Under the black plastic knob is the drive wheel for the mechanism; interestingly enough it's labelled 0.8 and 1.0 whereas I would have expected 0.6 and 0.8 (or am I wrong to have expected that?).
The back of the machine
It didn't come with a gas pipe to attach to a regulator and is a 7mm barb. I bought a 3/8 to miniMIG adaptor (the one with the grippy bits for a very thin pipe to attach to the disposable cylinders) and cut off the adaptor end. This left me with a 3/8 screw to attach to the regulator and the open end of the pipe which slipped over the barb.
I've had a play with it and all appears to be well so far. When I take my finger off the trigger there seems to be a bit of 'post-flow' as the gas keeps coming for a couple of seconds before stopping.
I'll let you know how I get on with it and feel free to criticise/question/laugh/express interest or any other sentiment and I'll happily reply!
I paid the princly sum of around £195 including P&P from Italy for what purports to be a 40-180A welder (though as I'm on a domestic 13A supply naturally I won't be able to get to the upper limits) and it arrived a few days ago. I've just had a bash with it and there are no problems so far; I'm still alive and have neither electrocuted myself nor blown the box up so fingers crossed for the future!
I'm new welding and will be welding clean ~2mm thick steel so didn't have too much need for a rig that can do thin steel and also don't plan on helping out repairing the Forth Bridge so this seemed ideal as long as it lasts a decent length of time. I realise that I'm taking a gamble and so I've made sure I've kept the box and wrapping safe in case it needs to go back!
Here are some pictures which should be pretty self explanatory but please feel free to ask any questions about it.
I haven't properly measured the torch length but would guess at 3M. It looks like the pretty standard '15' torch that similar set-ups come with
The earth lead was a little short, it's only 1.5M long so may have to be replaced with something a little longer (and perhaps meatier) in due course
Stick attachment; doubt it will get all that much use!
A couple of drops of glue on the front from where the generic label has been stuck on but these came off easily enough (you can just see one under the torch 'hole')
Inside the Chinese box of tricks
A couple of close-ups of the wire feed mechanism. It looks pretty similar to other machines with what looks like metal in the right places rather than a load of plastic bits.
Under the black plastic knob is the drive wheel for the mechanism; interestingly enough it's labelled 0.8 and 1.0 whereas I would have expected 0.6 and 0.8 (or am I wrong to have expected that?).
The back of the machine
It didn't come with a gas pipe to attach to a regulator and is a 7mm barb. I bought a 3/8 to miniMIG adaptor (the one with the grippy bits for a very thin pipe to attach to the disposable cylinders) and cut off the adaptor end. This left me with a 3/8 screw to attach to the regulator and the open end of the pipe which slipped over the barb.
I've had a play with it and all appears to be well so far. When I take my finger off the trigger there seems to be a bit of 'post-flow' as the gas keeps coming for a couple of seconds before stopping.
I'll let you know how I get on with it and feel free to criticise/question/laugh/express interest or any other sentiment and I'll happily reply!