wickmesh
New Member
- Messages
- 10
- Location
- Atherstone, UK
Hi all,
I'm a long time occasional lurker (first joined the forum in 2011!) with an utter piece of junk of a Sip Migmate 105. I have done TIG before on a pro machine but Argon/CO2 gassed MIG on steel is my thing.
With loads of help from this great forum I've upgraded the hell out of it (euro torch, feed upgrades, gas and wire defeat switches, feed power supply upgraded twice) but I think I've reached the limit of its performance. I find I'm using it on maximum most of the time, it's struggling to weld 2 or 3mm material (Land Rover chassis) and I spend more time waiting for it to cool down and switch on again after it's thermally tripped than welding with it. And when it does weld, the welds aren't great. (I can weld OK - I'm no pro, but let's say with the Sip when it was new we did quite well in Robot Wars...)
It's really sensitive to the quality of the incoming mains supply too, just switching from the nearest ring main socket to a long extension lead off the cooker socket at my old house made a big improvement - it was pulsing and farting unhelpfully from the nearest socket. Unfortunately I found this too late to get my Defender through the MOT, as I'd welded up most of it from the worse supply - and one of the (many) things it failed on was crappy welding. Now at a new house and I need to get the 90 an MOT...
So I think the time has come for a new welder, I've seen (and bid on) large commercial transformer machines (on trolleys) at auction but not won any (people seem to bid "new" money on used stuff, why)? However last weekend I helped a friend get his Land Rover through the MOT, took my Sip with me which we started the job with but quickly we got fed up with it overheating.
So we borrowed a welder from a friend... One of these running gasless (fluxed) wire. Yes it's a cheap chinese multi-function thing that I'm sure you'll recommend against - but the thing was relentless, welded the chassis with ease (on maybe 60% output) with no overheating, no wire slippage (great feed) and probably at 1/4 the weight of my Sip machine. Burnt through less clean metal (in areas we struggled to clean) easily too. (Friends LR got an MOT pass by the way.)
But so relentless that I ran it out of wire, which gives the first problem - this machine only takes the tiny 0.7kg reels. So looking for similar machines that will take 5kg reels I found these two - what are your thoughts, and if the answer is to run away, please suggest alternatives!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MIG-250-...-Inverter-Welder-LED-Accessories/292538420392
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280Amp-M...DC-Inverter-Welding-Machine-240V/292538455864
Looking forward to your replies and assistance...
Thanks
Andrew
I'm a long time occasional lurker (first joined the forum in 2011!) with an utter piece of junk of a Sip Migmate 105. I have done TIG before on a pro machine but Argon/CO2 gassed MIG on steel is my thing.
With loads of help from this great forum I've upgraded the hell out of it (euro torch, feed upgrades, gas and wire defeat switches, feed power supply upgraded twice) but I think I've reached the limit of its performance. I find I'm using it on maximum most of the time, it's struggling to weld 2 or 3mm material (Land Rover chassis) and I spend more time waiting for it to cool down and switch on again after it's thermally tripped than welding with it. And when it does weld, the welds aren't great. (I can weld OK - I'm no pro, but let's say with the Sip when it was new we did quite well in Robot Wars...)
It's really sensitive to the quality of the incoming mains supply too, just switching from the nearest ring main socket to a long extension lead off the cooker socket at my old house made a big improvement - it was pulsing and farting unhelpfully from the nearest socket. Unfortunately I found this too late to get my Defender through the MOT, as I'd welded up most of it from the worse supply - and one of the (many) things it failed on was crappy welding. Now at a new house and I need to get the 90 an MOT...
So I think the time has come for a new welder, I've seen (and bid on) large commercial transformer machines (on trolleys) at auction but not won any (people seem to bid "new" money on used stuff, why)? However last weekend I helped a friend get his Land Rover through the MOT, took my Sip with me which we started the job with but quickly we got fed up with it overheating.
So we borrowed a welder from a friend... One of these running gasless (fluxed) wire. Yes it's a cheap chinese multi-function thing that I'm sure you'll recommend against - but the thing was relentless, welded the chassis with ease (on maybe 60% output) with no overheating, no wire slippage (great feed) and probably at 1/4 the weight of my Sip machine. Burnt through less clean metal (in areas we struggled to clean) easily too. (Friends LR got an MOT pass by the way.)
But so relentless that I ran it out of wire, which gives the first problem - this machine only takes the tiny 0.7kg reels. So looking for similar machines that will take 5kg reels I found these two - what are your thoughts, and if the answer is to run away, please suggest alternatives!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MIG-250-...-Inverter-Welder-LED-Accessories/292538420392
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280Amp-M...DC-Inverter-Welding-Machine-240V/292538455864
Looking forward to your replies and assistance...
Thanks
Andrew