Hello .............

[Ian G]

Not really a newbie........... I have been 'hobby' welding for 43 years, first on gas, then MIG, with a good deal of stick in there as well........... my father was a coded welder on gas, MIG, & TIG mainly in turbine and aircraft applications......... he taught me to gas weld at the tender age of just 12 and I have been welding ever since........... also my son in law is coded on MIG & TIG.......mainly for SS welding.

My brand new toy is a SIP IC300WS .........loving the synergic functionality....... this will replace my trusty Cebora which is going to a new home.....

My next objective is to sort out a decent TIG ...........

I recognize a few user names on here from LR4x4 ...... now you need to work out who I am on there (long time member)


Ian

 

[malcolm]

Welcome. I'll leave the LR 4x4 folk to figure out who you are, but it's great to have a hobby welder with 43 years experience on the forum. Maybe we'll be able to teach an old dog some new tricks ... more likely the old dog will be teaching us.

In the meantime the synergic sounds fabulous. You are probably the first hobby welder on here to have one. What does it do for you that the old simple welder didn't? I've read the specs for some of those synergic welders and seen some lovely tig like welds from the pros demonstrating the things. But you'd be the guy to tell us what advantages they offer in real life for the rest of us hobby welders.

 

[Ian G]

Malcolm,

My first impressions of the SIP interpretation of Synergic are good........ it is just very difficult to do a bad weld.............believe me I have tried.......

Tell it the correct program ....... in my case, Ferrous Steel with 0.8 filler and Argon / Co2 mix gas ................ then set the wire speed to zero............. set the material thickness (rough power setting) ............. then the correct inductance for the earth lead (either high or low)...............burn back delay is included in the program but can be manually over ridden......

Once you start welding the welder reads the weldpool from the wire delivery and adjusts the wire speed and power (tip voltage) accordingly.......it continues to do this (seamlessly) for the duration of the weld............... the display on the MIG then shows the tip voltage and welding current as you are welding and holds those numbers for 10 seconds after the weld has finished.

I can see that I am not going to use it in manual mode very often !


Ian

 

[Luke]

Hi Ian, didn't fancy being BBC on here?

Syneric machine sounds lovely! are you going to give it it a go on alu before the TIG arrives?

Luke

 

[Ian G]

Hello Luke,

Yes, I would like to lose BBC on there as well really ......... I guess not exactly PC these days !

I notice HFH has joined as well................. asking all about TIG's

I might give the MIG a go on Ali ............ though you really need a spool gun for that and I would rather put that cash towards a decent TIG........also (as you well know), Mig & Ali tends to give off a lot of smoke and smuts..........

Today I have changed the breaker to a 63A C curve to give me reliability from the breaker dropping out on full power. A 50A A curve was getting upset at the startup current ............ It is on a dedicated 10mm supply, fed from a 100A RCD consumer unit, and connected via a quality commando plug.


Ian

 

[Luke]

Well I'm a bit embarrassed by LML on lr4x4 too, I've managed to stick with just Luke everywhere else. It's too cheesy!

I've currently got a short Eurotorch for using with aluminium, it's an old 4m cut down with the end re-made, i guess its about 1.5m long now. It's much better in terms of bird-nesting the wire on the rollers. it's got a teflon liner in it too, which seems to help a lot.

My Portamig 215 is still on a a type B 20A, which means it won't run on full power, I haven't been able to find a C or D for the Volex CU yet.

 

[malcolm]

Luke - For the volex MCB I had the same trouble. I fitted a hager type D. Fitted well enough.

Ian -for MIG welding alu the spool feeder is the least of your worries - if you fancy giving it a try with MIG have a lool at the setup page for alu on this site, and the alu welding page linked from there. It's a real pain with normal MIG but you might find it more fun with the synergic.

 

[Ian G]

Luke,
you will be surprised as to what MCB's fit what CU's........... mine CU is a Wylex NH series and the D curve Wylex breakers will not fit it ..........

So, I went along to the local wholesalers (CEF) armed with a 50A and got him to get out all the different 50C/D and 63 C/D they keep in stock.......... a Proteus 63C was almost a perfect match..........


Ian

 

[Luke]

Interesting, sounds like a trip to somewhere like CEF could be productive! thanks both.

 

[malcolm]

Well worth taking an existing breaker own to the electrical store for a match. You can compare it to whatever they can offer.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Did the same with the main switch in our Wickes CU, took it i to my local Wilts branch and got them to match it up, came away with a Wylex RCD. One drawback was that the L and N terminals were on the opposite sides but a quick shuffle of the MCBs along the DIN rail and it was sorted . Won't be a problem on an MCB though.
They can't match the ones in my garage CU, I've currently got a 40A B curve which I'd like to replace with a D curve but it's too old, nothing will fit it. I was thinking of replacing the garage CU anyway so not a problem.

 

[Paul.]

Luke - For the volex MCB I had the same trouble. I fitted a hager type D. Fitted well enough.

Ian -for MIG welding alu the spool feeder is the least of your worries - if you fancy giving it a try with MIG have a lool at the setup page for alu on this site, and the alu welding page linked from there. It's a real pain with normal MIG but you might find it more fun with the synergic.

Hi
the set up tips for ali are very useful, now not sure about the SIP but my SAF Optipuls and most other syn sets Ive seen have a 4 roller wire feed set up, this straightens the wire before feeding it to the teflon liner, I also use genuine SAF Sintered contact tips for Ali, and BOC Helishield, I can weld a 2mm open corner joint in the vertical up position, and you would think it was TIG welded, no spatter and very little smoke
Give it a try
Paul