Ferm 150/ welder settings and advice

[kristiaan_d]

Hey everyone,
ive got a Ferm 150/1 mig welder and im a little unsure of its settings and what its capable of etc.

it has 3 switches on it one being the on / off switch the other two are settings switches one is marked 1 / 2 the other is marked Min / Max

from playing with them using the welder i am guessing there for amperage as setting it to 2 and max gives a nice fat arc.

heres a photo of the front of the welder if its any help also any explanation on the duty cycle bit would be appreciated.

cheers guys

kris

 

[NotANormalCoder]

Kris. Just looking at the plate tells me that this is a 115Amp output machine but the absolute max is 145Amps.
Duty cycle is (normally) based on a 10 minute cycle. So, from the plate, you can weld at 55Amps for 60% of 10 minutes (6 mins) then wait 4 minutes for the machine to cool down, then 6mins welding etc etc. The higher you weld, the less time you can weld for and vice-versa which is why the plate says 45Amps @100% - i.e. weld all day at 45Amps. Note that some manufacturers a few years back, used a 5min cyle time - generally not used now. Most machine will do better but these are figures the manufacturers calculate will stop the machine from frying itself.
The switch sequence is usually 1 & Min = lowest, then 1 & Max, then 2 & min, 2& max =highest.
Dave

 

[R Kraft]

My switches work the way you have described,with min 1 the lowest and max 2 the highest.
The duty cycle is a segment of a 10min slice of time.
If it said 50% duty cycle, that would be 5min welding and 5min at rest cooling.
If it said 10% duty cycle, that would be 1min welding and 9min cooling.
Robert

 

[NotANormalCoder]

Absolutely right!
Dave

 

[kristiaan_d]

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply and the info regarding the welder i was getting a little confused about all the different information it offered on the plate. i figured that doing long welds at high amps would be bad for it but i just could'nt work out what periods to use on it (really poor at maths)..

thanks again for the info, out of curiosity do you think i will have any problems running this welder on a 13 (or maybe 15) amp extension lead? as i have NO sockets close to my back garden that i could plug into and weld from.

ive used it already at a friends house with no problems or circuit breaker problems, but thats not to say i might not get probs at mine .

 

[Robotstar5]

out of curiosity do you think i will have any problems running this welder on a 13 (or maybe 15) amp extension lead? as i have NO sockets close to my back garden that i could plug into and weld from.

Get or make one using 2.5mm² cable and make sure it is fully unwound when using it.

 

[kristiaan_d]

Get or make one using 2.5mm² cable and make sure it is fully unwound when using it.

cheers robot will go on the hunt on the weekend for some bits to make one up.

 

[NotANormalCoder]

Robotstar5 is bang on, though you'll probably find it hard to buy a decent length 2.5mm extension lead ready made. Always remember that the longer the lead, the greater the voltage drop, especially at high output currents, so the more current will be drawn from the mains. The bigger CSA cable you use, the less the drop. Fully unwound is great advice too.
Dave

 

[Robotstar5]

will go on the hunt on the weekend for some bits to make one up.

Best place would be local electrical factors and ask for 2.5mm² blue arctic cable, although they will probably have a minimum length of 25m, the best type of plugs/sockets are 16A link, you just make up an adapter if going into standard 13A socket like this...