SV1BDO
Member
- Messages
- 101
- Location
- Greece, Egio City
When I was searching for a single phase Double pulse MIG welder for my alu weldings up to 4mm, I focused on the Chinese Powertek MasterMIG 215DPP. It had some very good opinions, but IMHO, it's a bit over-priced for a Chinese machine, so I was looking for something cheaper, also made in China. There are many companies in the European welding market, mainly from Germany (Stamos, Stahlwerk, LCD-Vision etc) & Poland (Ideal, Magnum, Sherman, Fachowiec-Welder Fantasy, Spartus, Weldman etc) that are selling re-branded Chinese welders. Most of these companies are also selling through ebay, amazon and other selling platforms, so I hope that (because of the competition between them) they will choose reliable chinese factories to co-operate & will cary a good after sales support for their products. The Polish company Fachowiec (I have already buy from them my AC/DC 200A JET TIG II, which is the same like R-Tech 210EXT, but much cheaper) is selling now 3 different Double-Pulse single phase MIG welders (all of them are Chinese). The cheaper of them, the Kramer Bi-Pulse 200, looks to be a copy of the Powertek 215DPP, but at much lower price, so I decided to go on with this machine. We will see together if this welder is a bargain (costs less than 500 EUR, including shipping to European Union) or a waist of money.
I ordered it directly to Fachowiec on 30th July and arrived to me on Saturday 17 Aug. Well packed, without outer damages showing bad handling during transportation. While opening the package, I noticed that eventhough the torch was in a plastic bag, the machine itself was "nude" into the protective polysterine spacers. This makes me thought that the machine has been opened or was a returned item. Opening the door for the wire roll, I saw the MMA torch & ground torch to be also "nude" inside the roll compartment, without any protection bag. The power cord (fiited with a Schuko plug at the end) was also clumsy packed, having also some signs of use on it.
Well, I thought that the machine was a returned product and shall working OK, so I go on to power up the machine. The 2nd disappointment occured when I powered up the welder. The display seems to have one or two "dead" vertical LED rows, (maybe that was the reason that the initial customer returned it back). I made some test welds in mild steel & alu and machine seems to work well.
I contact the Polish company immediately and they arrange return collection within 2 days from my address at their own costs. Finally I received the returned machine on Friday 6 Sept. The shipping carton was the same and after powering on the mahine, the LED now displays as is should be.
The box includes one 3m MB-15 MIG torch, one MMA holder, one ground clamp with 3m cable, an extra roller with U-grooves for 1.0 & 1.2 ALU wires, a multifunction key to tight-untight the tip, 2 extra tips & TEFLON liner for the torch. There is also a booklet with the manual in Polish language, but you can download an English manual elsewhere. The manual is very poor, compared to other manuals and provides just the minimum information. Some functions are not mentioned at all (ie the memories for job saving), while some other functions have mistakes (ie burnback time). These mistakes are also present in the manual that I received directly from the factory, which is a copy of the Powertek 215DPP manual (which has also the same mistakes). Most text, drawings & schematics are the same. Chinese people do not copy the western technology, but also the chinese. The respect to intellectual property is still unknown in China.
There are some improvents compaired to original 215DPP. The Kramer supports spool gun operation, but this is not mentioned at all in the manual. There is a 4-pin connector at the front side, just bellow the EURO torch connector and a switch inside the wire champer, above the wire feeder. At the same position there are 2 terminals for sellecting gas or gasless operation. By selecting the proper terminal, you select if the torch will have positive or negative voltage.
The built quality is good, but not top. The Chinese factory uses enough plastic, (front & rear sides, bottom, inner separator between wire champer and electronics etc), but the main construction is the typical. The weight of the machine (without wire, clamps, torches etc is 13 Kgr.
At the back side, there is a double flip switch for power on-off. The power cable has a Schuko plug at the end and there is also the gas input. The table wih power factors is a small surprise, as the machine claims for 60% @ 200A and 100% @ 155A efficiency. These values are higher than the average that we see in Chinese IGBT machines rated 200A max (usually have the 100% @ less than 140A). There is also a grill for the fan, which is very silent and operates only when it needs. We will see if the fan is sufficient for its job and keeps the machine cool at high amperage.
The front panel has a transparent plastic cover that opens upwards. All operations & selections of the machine are carried with the 2 rotary knobs, while some functions are also available by pressing small buttons. The screen is a matrix of red leds. Maybe it is a bit old-fashioned, but preffered against the LCD screens, that sometimes are invisible under strong light.
I installed a 5Kg roll of 0,8mm SG2 wire, attached my own MB-15 torch, plug the gas tube at the inlet located at the back of the machine and now I am ready for the tests.
...To be continued...
I ordered it directly to Fachowiec on 30th July and arrived to me on Saturday 17 Aug. Well packed, without outer damages showing bad handling during transportation. While opening the package, I noticed that eventhough the torch was in a plastic bag, the machine itself was "nude" into the protective polysterine spacers. This makes me thought that the machine has been opened or was a returned item. Opening the door for the wire roll, I saw the MMA torch & ground torch to be also "nude" inside the roll compartment, without any protection bag. The power cord (fiited with a Schuko plug at the end) was also clumsy packed, having also some signs of use on it.
Well, I thought that the machine was a returned product and shall working OK, so I go on to power up the machine. The 2nd disappointment occured when I powered up the welder. The display seems to have one or two "dead" vertical LED rows, (maybe that was the reason that the initial customer returned it back). I made some test welds in mild steel & alu and machine seems to work well.
I contact the Polish company immediately and they arrange return collection within 2 days from my address at their own costs. Finally I received the returned machine on Friday 6 Sept. The shipping carton was the same and after powering on the mahine, the LED now displays as is should be.
The box includes one 3m MB-15 MIG torch, one MMA holder, one ground clamp with 3m cable, an extra roller with U-grooves for 1.0 & 1.2 ALU wires, a multifunction key to tight-untight the tip, 2 extra tips & TEFLON liner for the torch. There is also a booklet with the manual in Polish language, but you can download an English manual elsewhere. The manual is very poor, compared to other manuals and provides just the minimum information. Some functions are not mentioned at all (ie the memories for job saving), while some other functions have mistakes (ie burnback time). These mistakes are also present in the manual that I received directly from the factory, which is a copy of the Powertek 215DPP manual (which has also the same mistakes). Most text, drawings & schematics are the same. Chinese people do not copy the western technology, but also the chinese. The respect to intellectual property is still unknown in China.
There are some improvents compaired to original 215DPP. The Kramer supports spool gun operation, but this is not mentioned at all in the manual. There is a 4-pin connector at the front side, just bellow the EURO torch connector and a switch inside the wire champer, above the wire feeder. At the same position there are 2 terminals for sellecting gas or gasless operation. By selecting the proper terminal, you select if the torch will have positive or negative voltage.
The built quality is good, but not top. The Chinese factory uses enough plastic, (front & rear sides, bottom, inner separator between wire champer and electronics etc), but the main construction is the typical. The weight of the machine (without wire, clamps, torches etc is 13 Kgr.
At the back side, there is a double flip switch for power on-off. The power cable has a Schuko plug at the end and there is also the gas input. The table wih power factors is a small surprise, as the machine claims for 60% @ 200A and 100% @ 155A efficiency. These values are higher than the average that we see in Chinese IGBT machines rated 200A max (usually have the 100% @ less than 140A). There is also a grill for the fan, which is very silent and operates only when it needs. We will see if the fan is sufficient for its job and keeps the machine cool at high amperage.
The front panel has a transparent plastic cover that opens upwards. All operations & selections of the machine are carried with the 2 rotary knobs, while some functions are also available by pressing small buttons. The screen is a matrix of red leds. Maybe it is a bit old-fashioned, but preffered against the LCD screens, that sometimes are invisible under strong light.
I installed a 5Kg roll of 0,8mm SG2 wire, attached my own MB-15 torch, plug the gas tube at the inlet located at the back of the machine and now I am ready for the tests.
...To be continued...