BrokenBiker
Member
- Messages
- 10,882
- Location
- Newport, South Wales
Right lads, this is going to be an on going thread updated as and when i try various things with the above welder.
it will probably become picture heavy too.
So, It arrived this moring and first thoughts were, dear god thats packaged well...no skimping on the bubble wrap thats for sure.
upon opening it i find everything as advertised, the welder, regulator, gas hose, mig torch, MMA stinger, earth lead and clamp, spare tips and a nozzle, 1kg of 0.8mm wire plus the other things i ordered: 5Kg of wire, a pair of MMA gauntlets and a pair of esab tig gloves...
after a quick poke about i quickly realised that this welder has been built properly, everything is solid and looks heavy duty (granted my last mig was a cheap sealey) compared to others i have seen and used.
the mig torch looks high quality, the leads are supple and flexible, the torch is solid and comfortable to hold, plus its a euro torch so consumables are easy to source and swapping is simple if needs be.
The earth clamp is a bit smaller than i was expecting, but certainly up to the job of 160 amps (probably a 200 amp clamp). good firm clamp and a good grip.
The MMA stinger, again is a little less than i was expecting, it really is just a cheap bargain special stinger...but that said i have just used it and it works as it should, it clamps the rod well enough that if the rod sticks you can yank it off without the rod falling out of the stinger. its a bit bulkier than i like but hey, its a mig welder at the end of the day.
I was planning on using my parweld leads for ay MMA welding, but the Dinse connectors are the smaller size on the CWS, and the larger size on the Parweld so swapping leads isnt possible really, which is shame as the parweld earth clamp is a much heavier affair, but as said, theres nothing wrong with the provided clamp really, its just me being picky.
so, onto the inside of the welder, the spool holder looks nice and robust, will take anything up to 5Kg reels and the wire feed looks decent (very similar to what i have seen in the r-techs). There is plenty of space to jeep pliers, spanners, a few MMA rods and all your consumables such as mig tips, shrouds etc, maybe even some spot weld drill bits if you wanted too.
the front panel...now this bit has me a tad confused...all the migs i have ever used have voltage (power) settings and wire feed...now this welder has Amps (instead of voltage) and wire feed...it also has a DRO that alters when the amps knob is turned, but not when WFS knob is turned...
Now i have used it as a stick welder (because BOC still havent given me a customer account number yet) and it burns rods just fine, the amps range seems accurate too. i ran a 2.5mm 6013 on 75 amps and it ran just as it would in the parweld. the only critisicm i have of the MMA side is that it doesnt appear to have anti stick, whcih isnt a problem once you know its not there, but after using the parweld for a while now im kind of used to it...only took 2 attempts before i reverted to 'buzz box' style starting and all was well again. it may have anti sitck, im not sure, but if it is there it isnt as pronounced as the parweld, but then again thats a dedicated MMA plant, this isnt so i cant complain.
The regulator included is a bog standard flow meter Reg, bottle pressure gauge on the front, flow meter on top, the only issue i have is its a side entry reg, so not sure how im going to rig that on a boc bottle as i believe they are top exit bottles (may be wrong though). Gas hose is nice and sturdy, comes with a little hose clip that im not sure how to tighten so i may swap for a jubilee clip.
overall, first thoughts after unboxing and running a rod on some scrap, i must say im impressed. especially when considering that my total order, including gloves, extra wire and next day fed ex delivery came in a few pennies under £410...i certainly wasnt expecting a unit this solid and robust to turn up, and i hope that the coming posts from me will show how well the unit works as a mig as well as stick welder and will show a few joints from projects i have in mind to show how the welder copes with various thicknesses.
Just gotta wait for BOC now
it will probably become picture heavy too.
So, It arrived this moring and first thoughts were, dear god thats packaged well...no skimping on the bubble wrap thats for sure.
upon opening it i find everything as advertised, the welder, regulator, gas hose, mig torch, MMA stinger, earth lead and clamp, spare tips and a nozzle, 1kg of 0.8mm wire plus the other things i ordered: 5Kg of wire, a pair of MMA gauntlets and a pair of esab tig gloves...
after a quick poke about i quickly realised that this welder has been built properly, everything is solid and looks heavy duty (granted my last mig was a cheap sealey) compared to others i have seen and used.
the mig torch looks high quality, the leads are supple and flexible, the torch is solid and comfortable to hold, plus its a euro torch so consumables are easy to source and swapping is simple if needs be.
The earth clamp is a bit smaller than i was expecting, but certainly up to the job of 160 amps (probably a 200 amp clamp). good firm clamp and a good grip.
The MMA stinger, again is a little less than i was expecting, it really is just a cheap bargain special stinger...but that said i have just used it and it works as it should, it clamps the rod well enough that if the rod sticks you can yank it off without the rod falling out of the stinger. its a bit bulkier than i like but hey, its a mig welder at the end of the day.
I was planning on using my parweld leads for ay MMA welding, but the Dinse connectors are the smaller size on the CWS, and the larger size on the Parweld so swapping leads isnt possible really, which is shame as the parweld earth clamp is a much heavier affair, but as said, theres nothing wrong with the provided clamp really, its just me being picky.
so, onto the inside of the welder, the spool holder looks nice and robust, will take anything up to 5Kg reels and the wire feed looks decent (very similar to what i have seen in the r-techs). There is plenty of space to jeep pliers, spanners, a few MMA rods and all your consumables such as mig tips, shrouds etc, maybe even some spot weld drill bits if you wanted too.
the front panel...now this bit has me a tad confused...all the migs i have ever used have voltage (power) settings and wire feed...now this welder has Amps (instead of voltage) and wire feed...it also has a DRO that alters when the amps knob is turned, but not when WFS knob is turned...
Now i have used it as a stick welder (because BOC still havent given me a customer account number yet) and it burns rods just fine, the amps range seems accurate too. i ran a 2.5mm 6013 on 75 amps and it ran just as it would in the parweld. the only critisicm i have of the MMA side is that it doesnt appear to have anti stick, whcih isnt a problem once you know its not there, but after using the parweld for a while now im kind of used to it...only took 2 attempts before i reverted to 'buzz box' style starting and all was well again. it may have anti sitck, im not sure, but if it is there it isnt as pronounced as the parweld, but then again thats a dedicated MMA plant, this isnt so i cant complain.
The regulator included is a bog standard flow meter Reg, bottle pressure gauge on the front, flow meter on top, the only issue i have is its a side entry reg, so not sure how im going to rig that on a boc bottle as i believe they are top exit bottles (may be wrong though). Gas hose is nice and sturdy, comes with a little hose clip that im not sure how to tighten so i may swap for a jubilee clip.
overall, first thoughts after unboxing and running a rod on some scrap, i must say im impressed. especially when considering that my total order, including gloves, extra wire and next day fed ex delivery came in a few pennies under £410...i certainly wasnt expecting a unit this solid and robust to turn up, and i hope that the coming posts from me will show how well the unit works as a mig as well as stick welder and will show a few joints from projects i have in mind to show how the welder copes with various thicknesses.
Just gotta wait for BOC now
