learning on an aga 200 3 phase mig

[bouzirouge]

bonjour from sunny france,
i'll soon get my hands on my "new" aga 200 3phase mig(ebay). now i must learn how to weld with it. it has no instructions. it doesn't look like it's had too hard a life. the chap i got it from had never used it so offered no info.
i've done a little arc and gas welding and carbon arc brazing 30 years ago, but that's all. i hope i've bought the right machine but having picked this one, will persevere (pigheaded) regardless, so please take pity on me and don't tell me all the machines i should have bought.
i've been reading this forum for some time before registering and tried to find a compromise between power and 3 phase. i read all the stuff about choosing but it seems there are very few low powered 3 phase machines for sale, especially on my budget. i chose 3 phase for two reasons,1. its readily available over here. in fact a lot of houses run on it. and 2. the biggest domestic supply you can get in single phase is 60amps or about 12kwatts. given that this must run the house as well, it would have severely limited my welding time. so i'm having a new 3 phase workshop supply installed by edf.
having established this much, what do you reckon i do from here? does anyone own or have experience of this machine and it's capabilities? can anyone fax/email/post me a copy of even bits of the handbook?
i will use it mainly for car/4x4/light van/motorcycle repairs and mods and am hoping that, as it's relatively low powered for a 3 phase machine, its range will start at 30amps or even less(thats right, i don't even know this much).
it will have to serve as my total welding plant and i hope it will also be big enough to cope with those heavier repairs/modifications to trailers, fences, gates etc. that need done from time to time.
i must stress, my total welding knowledge comes from this well run and very informative forum. please don't hesitate to say what to you might seem obvious or even condescending. it will all add something to a very limited knowledge. regards, stewart

 

[madkayaker]

Hello and welcome. nice to have 3ph lot better kit. I have no knowledge on the machine but a few pics on here will enable us all to work out what you have got.

 

[Nardini]

As I said in your other thread:

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PS: I found this place selling a copy of an AGA MIG 200 manual, if it is of any help to you...

http://www.machinetoolmanuals.co.uk/page2.htm

Is this the same as yours? It's only 15 quid (or € - take your pick now...), so not expensive for the full thing.

Whereabouts in Scotland?

 

[bouzirouge]

hi nardini, how's the weather in italy. cold wet and miserable in france just now. lived in minishant before france, sw near ayr. driven here by the weather, it's perpetual autumn in ayrshire. i looked at the link you sent, but i am really hoping i can get a copy of the relevant parts from someone in english. i emptied the piggy bank for a bit when buying the machine so even 15quid is a lot right now. hopefully someone who owns or has used one of these will comment on what to expect. i've already downloaded the book in finnish but even translated online its meaningless to me. regards, stewart

 

[bouzirouge]

hi madkyaker, 3 phase is great for a workshop, but speaking as a sparky it's a little awkward to wire a house for single phase appliances. plenty of power, just not too many amps per phase. of course you can up the amps from 15 to 60 per phase if you like and have no problems with tripping the system but the more current you reserve(not use)from the leccy supplier, the bigger the standing charge. a 60amp 3 phase supply could make that half the bill.
old french houses have one or two sockets a room if you're lucky and old french people tend to run very few appliances at the same time.
using the excellent, knowledgeable advice from this forum, i hope i've made the right decision in going for three phase, and hope this aga will actually do what i bought it for. i will post pics when the machine is here but i'm not sure they'll help much as the dials and knobs seem to be graduated like volume controls, ie. 1 to 10 rather than say 30 to 200 amps, which i could probably understand. i don't have time to collect it till this coming weekend. so for now i'm just trying to find out as much as i can. leafing through the finnish handbook is a fun way to spend a couple of hours. bit like one of those specialist subject quizzes where you don't understand any part of the question, let alone making a stab at an answer. regards, stewart

 

[madkayaker]

Im a Sparkey Rather than a welder! Its rare to get three phase in house over here (unless its very very old.) But we get 100a/pH 3ph rules for industrial stuff

 

[Nardini]

hi nardini, how's the weather in italy. cold wet and miserable in france just now. lived in minishant before france, sw near ayr. driven here by the weather, it's perpetual autumn in ayrshire. i looked at the link you sent, but i am really hoping i can get a copy of the relevant parts from someone in english. i emptied the piggy bank for a bit when buying the machine so even 15quid is a lot right now. hopefully someone who owns or has used one of these will comment on what to expect. i've already downloaded the book in finnish but even translated online its meaningless to me. regards, stewart

Points well taken, Stewart! At least you know that you can get hold of a copy if you ever need one enough to pay some of your hard earned for it! The weather here? We have snow. Loads of it. In fact, we had about 2 ft of the stuff a couple of days ago (it is starting to melt now though). Other than that, it's great here. Interesting what you say about domestic leccy supplies - here, the normal house supply is 3kW. Yep! That's the normal supply. Not a problem to uprate - especially as the meters are remote controlled - but it costs. Interesting to see that most of the domestic appliences are rated rather lower than they tend to be in the UK - saves tripping the supply all the time! Still, oven and microwave on together is a bit of a no-no if you have a standard supply. How's the gas there?

 

[malcolm]

I think Hitch has a couple of AGA 200 machines at work, and if they've survived there for so long you have probably chosen a decent machine.

He might know the minimum and maximum current, but for how to use the things post a photo of the controls on the front and we should be able to advise what all the buttons and switches do.

Generally it is said you will have a smoother arc with 3 phase as rectification to DC is easier. Also people don't tend to build rubbish 3 phase machines. Normal trouble with them is a high minimum amps as they tend to be aimed at fabricators rather than tin bashers.

 

[runnach]

I'm sure it was the AGA 200 I have used when working in various places, if we are discussing the same, you will find you have yourself a decent bit of kit. Machine will be a fair age no doubt, expect some of the workings to be a wee bit sluggish, especially wire feed unit, they are not at their best if abused.

A pic would be handy.......

Cheers.........

 

[Hitch]

Well remembered Malcolm
We have 2 of them, real workhorses, Ive known them for 10 years, and they were however old before i started there.

Blue frames, and orange panels, 3 wheels?

No idea on the min current, but normally the prefered machines for the light jobs, over the much newer migatronics.

we run our on 0.8, happily do an outside corner weld on 1.2 sheet.

 

[Hitch]

The switches on ours, theres stitch/spot, 2 power switches 1234, 1234, left hand is coarse step, right is the fine step. The wire speed is the one above the left hand power knob. The other is the stich timer (assuming its an identical machine)

 

[Benji]

If you think a different slant on the translation might help, Mrs B is Finnish and could be cajoled into having a go I expect!

 

[bouzirouge]

hi madkyaker, sorry to patronise you, didn't read the pro sparky bit! domestic sparky in the uk, before promoting myself into management. big surprise to find 3 phase 15amp supply so common especially in the real rural parts. slowly changing though, not that i do much now. think once ive wired up all the new 3 phase toys here, i'll go for a mere30amps in an attempt to keep the bills to a minimum. see how it goes, can always ask them to up it if it trips too often. how do you put on your signature? i'm looking in the wrong place 'cause i can't find where to upload mine. regards, stewart

 

[bouzirouge]

hi nardini, same in france, appliances don't draw half what they do in the uk. kettle takes ages but doesn't seem too bad once you realise t-break starts on filling the kettle! when you say gas i take it you mean argon. short answer is i don't know yet. but i'm sure, like everything else in france it won't be as simple as renting a cylinder or buying disposable. you'll need a letter from the mayor, signed in front of tyour commune sur l'honneur and a copy of your edf bill, college certificates, livre de famile, siret no etc etc. for a nation os small businesses, they don't half make things hard here.
if you mean domestic, it's all cylinders in the country, but town gas in the bigger places. qualigaz(like corgi) registration before touching it. we've had our annual snow(i hope) so just waiting for spring really. grey and damp describes it best. summertime in ayrshire. regards, stewart

 

[bouzirouge]

hi malcolm, thanks for that. i was dreading the "what on earth were you thinking about" type of response. i don't need masses of power, but from what i learned from these pages i realised 3 phase was the better option for france, after that it was a case of haunting ebay until something that fitted the advice came up. from reading various posts i knew more about the makes to avoid and didn't really know what i did want if that makes sense. then along came the aga. about which i could recall some favourable comment from someone and only 200amp. so should have low current setting.
i'll post some meaningfull pics once i pick the machine up and sort out the gas, wire, helmet, gloves, clamps, grinders, etc. etc. it's not the cheapest thing to get into, but i've wanted to do it for years and could never justify the time to learn or the set-up cost for the few times i'd use one. there were always a few mates who could sort me out if i needed something done. too much time on my hands now, so why not. regards, stewart

 

[bouzirouge]

hi runnach, thanks for the positive response, i had read a post from someone, hitch as it turns out that the aga was a decent bit of kit. it drove me mad trying to find out anything specific though, so as time ran out on ebay i just took the plunge without being 100% sure it was the right machine for me. of course being capricorn, i would then be completely incapable of admitting my mistake and would feel duty bound to "make" it work for me. i'm afraid my non experience will mean i'll take a while to find out whether it's me or the machine who is too old and worn out to do a decent job. regards, stewart

 

[madkayaker]

Signature is in user CP on the left half way down ish.

 

[malcolm]

The signature only works after you've been a member for 10 days. Couple of other settings on the forum are like that too, but I can't remember what all of them are.

 

[bouzirouge]

hi hitch, does indeed sound like exactly the same machine. i'm afraid i went into this blind. i read all the excellent advice on this forum and started haunting ebay. when this one came up, i remembered i'd read a post somewhere saying they were good machines, but when you search here on aga there's nothing too specific and when you search the internet you get lots of recipies and "lifestyle"cooker shops. i did manage to download the handbook in finnish though. therefore i could only hope that maxing at 200amps would mean a low enough minimum for cars. i want enough power to cope with slightly heavier stuff as well. glad you think so highly of them. i hope to be able to agree with you, but it might take a while. i've got to learn to weld first. regards, stewart

 

[bouzirouge]

hi benji, i'm sure your wife would be delighted to know what you've volunteered her for. the manual is something over 100 pages long and as none of it means the slightest thing to me i can't separate the "before operating turn the switch to on" pages from the stuff that might be usefull. i'm going to wait till it's here, post some pics, then have a go. hitch is familliar with this machine, wobblemonster is not too far away and might drop by for a visit, and sparky i hope, is going to visit for a day or two and jam with the band. if none of that works, i'll forward you the pdf. and hopefully your wife won't have to spend too much time wading through so much drivel about wiring it up, wearing gloves and the like before getting to the (guessing) very few relevant and useful pages. i'd hate to have to wade through it all in english. thanks for the offer though, i really apreciate it. some really nice people on this forum. regards, stewart