pikeysaurus
New Member
- Messages
- 12
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Hi there everyone, and thanks for being part of such an informative and helpful forum, which ive been reading for a few months now before posting this -
ive toasted the tiny hobby mig which has served me mightily over the last three years, the clarke 135en turbo has finally melted all the rubber off the earth clamp and the plastic knobs on the polarity thumbscrews inside - it's been used and has actually performer pretty well, (and amazingly has never once stopped welding, despite being used on max amperage continuously for ages... earth cable was melting through and it never cut off)
i frequently weld very different gauges of steel, in the morning it might be thin (0.9mm) sheet and lunchtime 5-10mm (various thickness at varying times) angle, plate and tube for long stretches. I have an arc welder, but would prefer to get a decent mig that can cope with all those different thicknesses itself, as at the end of the day, mig is faster and nicer to be around fume wise.
so - to cut a long story short, im ready to invest in a quality machine which hopefully will last longer than me nan's cat, and have narrowed it down to:
- Portamig 285 single phase for the reason of the duty cycle, four roller wire feed, reputation and quality torch & reg. that weldequip supply (maybe with custom winding down to 15amp on transformer as an upgrade is that 15A really necessary?) total money : £1064 inc vat
- Oxford migmaker 270-1 plus 4mtr torch & reg.
total money: £1152 inc vat
- Tecarc 281 - £834 inc vat
with following upgrades: 281 Tec-Arc Compact Mig Welder
Duty Cycle: 60% Upgrade (+ £50.00)
Mig Torch: MB25 4 Mtr Torch (+ £45.00)
Regulator: 2 Gauge Ar/Co2 (+ £25.00)
Drive Unit: 4 Roll Drive Unit Upgrade (+ £40.00)
Colour: Blue
Amp Range: Upgrade 20-280 amp (+ £35.00)
total: £1068 inc vat
so my questions basically are, of these three transformer based, tec arc built mig machines -
- are portamig and tec arc welders any different apart from the lower amps the portamig goes to?
- anyone got experience of both or pics of the innards?
- Are oxford welders really loads smoother because of their capacitors?
- is my nan's cat ever going to leave this mortal coil?
thanks a million in advance for your experienced opinions
ive toasted the tiny hobby mig which has served me mightily over the last three years, the clarke 135en turbo has finally melted all the rubber off the earth clamp and the plastic knobs on the polarity thumbscrews inside - it's been used and has actually performer pretty well, (and amazingly has never once stopped welding, despite being used on max amperage continuously for ages... earth cable was melting through and it never cut off)
i frequently weld very different gauges of steel, in the morning it might be thin (0.9mm) sheet and lunchtime 5-10mm (various thickness at varying times) angle, plate and tube for long stretches. I have an arc welder, but would prefer to get a decent mig that can cope with all those different thicknesses itself, as at the end of the day, mig is faster and nicer to be around fume wise.
so - to cut a long story short, im ready to invest in a quality machine which hopefully will last longer than me nan's cat, and have narrowed it down to:
- Portamig 285 single phase for the reason of the duty cycle, four roller wire feed, reputation and quality torch & reg. that weldequip supply (maybe with custom winding down to 15amp on transformer as an upgrade is that 15A really necessary?) total money : £1064 inc vat
- Oxford migmaker 270-1 plus 4mtr torch & reg.
total money: £1152 inc vat
- Tecarc 281 - £834 inc vat
with following upgrades: 281 Tec-Arc Compact Mig Welder
Duty Cycle: 60% Upgrade (+ £50.00)
Mig Torch: MB25 4 Mtr Torch (+ £45.00)
Regulator: 2 Gauge Ar/Co2 (+ £25.00)
Drive Unit: 4 Roll Drive Unit Upgrade (+ £40.00)
Colour: Blue
Amp Range: Upgrade 20-280 amp (+ £35.00)
total: £1068 inc vat
so my questions basically are, of these three transformer based, tec arc built mig machines -
- are portamig and tec arc welders any different apart from the lower amps the portamig goes to?
- anyone got experience of both or pics of the innards?
- Are oxford welders really loads smoother because of their capacitors?
- is my nan's cat ever going to leave this mortal coil?
thanks a million in advance for your experienced opinions
