ESAB sMIG technology

[Paduroiul]

Hello,
Has anybody used an Esab with smartMIG?
I am interested if it's worh the extra price, for a beginner.
It's advertised as being able to learn and adapt to your style of welding.
I don't really understand what it does better than regular synergic welders.
Also, are there other brands that offer a similar function?

 

[GaryS65]

Hello,
Has anybody used an Esab with smartMIG?
I am interested if it's worh the extra price, for a beginner.
It's advertised as being able to learn and adapt to your style of welding.
I don't really understand what it does better than regular synergic welders.
Also, are there other brands that offer a similar function?

sMig is a crappy knock off of the fantastic QSet function that was available on older Esab machines.

To a degree it does do the same thing, its senses the welding condition and adjusts the arc to suit. Really only applies to short circuit mig.

Do you need it as a beginner. No definitely not. Learn how to set the machine yourself.

Qset was a fantastic thing that made welding aluminium on thin plate, steel with gaps and welding silicon bronze a dream.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Personally I think you are better off buying a standard old school mig, whether it's a transformer or inverter, just get something with enough power for your needs and 2 knobs for adjustment.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I like the s-mig.

I would agree with Gary, the Q-Set is more refined but that's only available on the high end esab products (with matching price tag)

S-Mig is the budget version fitted to the mid level machines.

It's much more than just a synergic program.
The self-learning works well.
I'm not sure if it's helpful as a beginner? On one hand, it will get you producing nice welds very quickly. On the other hand, you'll miss out a lot of the learning process which won't help you if you need to use a different welder in the future or do a weld that the s-mig won't cope with.

Although I suppose that's a bit like saying you should learn to drive in a manual car with no power steering or abs just for the experience.

For bench use, especially if you are producing multiple identical welds for production or something, you could manually adjust settings and positioning and eventually produce better welds than s-mig can.

But for some jobs it's magic.
Say you are up in a tractor bucket and need to weld a bracket onto the inside U of an rsj on the side facing away from you..
That's at least 5 different weld positions and you'll be doing at least 2 of them with the wrong hand. S-mig will make the poorly positioned ones look good enough to charge money for. Not only cosmetic but they will actually be decent welds.