jwrb
New Member
- Messages
- 3
- Location
- Kent, United Kingdom
Hello all!
After being reccomended by a lot of professional welder friends, I've picked up my first "proper" welder; An ESAB Power Compact 160. As an upgrade from the small Clarke Pro-90 Mig I've been using, the difference is quite substantial. It is both much bigger and heavier, and also capable of welding thicker material.
I'll mostly be welding car chassis, subframes, axles, etc on my project cars. I'm very much a beginner welder so I've been practicing on some scrap material and such for now.
The machine was sold as spares-or-repairs, and although it functions mostly fine, it does have a few niggles (however for the £94 price-tag I'm still very happy)
On higher coarse settings, the welder holds a consistent arc and can lay a beautiful line. So far I've tested on 4mm, 6mm and 8mm plate and on all I was able to get consistent welds with good penetration. Less so on thinner material, where even touching the wire speed dial (or probably breathing near it) will drastically change the welding voltage and wire speed.
This makes the welder somewhat inconsistent when welding thinner material.
I've measured the wire speed potentiometer, and the resistance seems to bounce around quite a bit even with the pot not moving. I cant imagine this is helping factors. I've also found a one blown cap so far on the mains input side. I do still expect I'll find a few more failed components, due to the age of the machine.
I'm more than confident to replace components where faulty, as I do a lot of work with SMD and through hole circuit boards in my free time (typically ECU and board repair for vehicles, both old and new).
I have read that some members modify the wire speed pots. I did think perhaps 2 pots or a 10 turn pot would allow for better adjustment (potentially with a counter or readout so it could be checked with a glance)
I'd also like to perform a euro torch conversion on the unit at some point, mostly because the provided ESAB torch is fairly worn, and from looking at the spare parts listing it seems to be out-of-support in general (as with the whole machine)
If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, advice or overall feedback I'd be more than glad to recieve it
After being reccomended by a lot of professional welder friends, I've picked up my first "proper" welder; An ESAB Power Compact 160. As an upgrade from the small Clarke Pro-90 Mig I've been using, the difference is quite substantial. It is both much bigger and heavier, and also capable of welding thicker material.
I'll mostly be welding car chassis, subframes, axles, etc on my project cars. I'm very much a beginner welder so I've been practicing on some scrap material and such for now.
The machine was sold as spares-or-repairs, and although it functions mostly fine, it does have a few niggles (however for the £94 price-tag I'm still very happy)
On higher coarse settings, the welder holds a consistent arc and can lay a beautiful line. So far I've tested on 4mm, 6mm and 8mm plate and on all I was able to get consistent welds with good penetration. Less so on thinner material, where even touching the wire speed dial (or probably breathing near it) will drastically change the welding voltage and wire speed.
This makes the welder somewhat inconsistent when welding thinner material.
I've measured the wire speed potentiometer, and the resistance seems to bounce around quite a bit even with the pot not moving. I cant imagine this is helping factors. I've also found a one blown cap so far on the mains input side. I do still expect I'll find a few more failed components, due to the age of the machine.
I'm more than confident to replace components where faulty, as I do a lot of work with SMD and through hole circuit boards in my free time (typically ECU and board repair for vehicles, both old and new).
I have read that some members modify the wire speed pots. I did think perhaps 2 pots or a 10 turn pot would allow for better adjustment (potentially with a counter or readout so it could be checked with a glance)
I'd also like to perform a euro torch conversion on the unit at some point, mostly because the provided ESAB torch is fairly worn, and from looking at the spare parts listing it seems to be out-of-support in general (as with the whole machine)
If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, advice or overall feedback I'd be more than glad to recieve it