Hi Guys,
Acquired a new inverter Mig some time ago and have only just got round to trying it out. I used to have a Clarke 180 amp transformer machine which I've used for a lot of welding and made very nice welds with few problems.
This present machine is inverter technology and has up to 200 A output at 25 V.
Wire speed is automatically controlled. When I first powered it up I was surprised how slow the wire feed was at maximum setting. It would feed about 5.5 inches in 5 sec with no arc struck.
With some new steel 3/32 box section, which admittedly had some thin mill scale on it and 0.6 wire, it didn't strike an arc very readily. Cleaned off the mill scale. Somewhat better. Welding was very slow with appreciable bead build-up. You could make a tolerable weld if welding downwards but it was not that neat. When welding into a vertical inside corner, the arc would jump from side to side without joining the two parts together. Droplets would form on the end of the wire and fall down on to the edge of the shroud and stick to it. It seems to not work at all well where there is any gap at all between the workpieces. Even after tacks were made the performance did not improve so improper grounding of one workpiece seems not to have been the problem. Welding seemed to be rather close to the shroud possibly indicating incorrect burn-back. No problem with insufficient shielding gas (argoshield) as welds were not porous.
Am I correct in thinking that the wire speed is too low? According to someone watching, the wire spool would accelerate a bit when welding but was not exactly flying round.
Could it be that the welder requires 0.8 wire at higher output?
The drive was set at maximum clamping pressure so the drive wheel was not slipping on the wire. Perhaps surprisingly, the wire did not make birds nests when the wire welded itself to the shroud which happened several times, suggesting that maybe the drive motor was weak.
Am very disappointed so your opinions would be welcomed.
Regards Gus.
Acquired a new inverter Mig some time ago and have only just got round to trying it out. I used to have a Clarke 180 amp transformer machine which I've used for a lot of welding and made very nice welds with few problems.
This present machine is inverter technology and has up to 200 A output at 25 V.
Wire speed is automatically controlled. When I first powered it up I was surprised how slow the wire feed was at maximum setting. It would feed about 5.5 inches in 5 sec with no arc struck.
With some new steel 3/32 box section, which admittedly had some thin mill scale on it and 0.6 wire, it didn't strike an arc very readily. Cleaned off the mill scale. Somewhat better. Welding was very slow with appreciable bead build-up. You could make a tolerable weld if welding downwards but it was not that neat. When welding into a vertical inside corner, the arc would jump from side to side without joining the two parts together. Droplets would form on the end of the wire and fall down on to the edge of the shroud and stick to it. It seems to not work at all well where there is any gap at all between the workpieces. Even after tacks were made the performance did not improve so improper grounding of one workpiece seems not to have been the problem. Welding seemed to be rather close to the shroud possibly indicating incorrect burn-back. No problem with insufficient shielding gas (argoshield) as welds were not porous.
Am I correct in thinking that the wire speed is too low? According to someone watching, the wire spool would accelerate a bit when welding but was not exactly flying round.
Could it be that the welder requires 0.8 wire at higher output?
The drive was set at maximum clamping pressure so the drive wheel was not slipping on the wire. Perhaps surprisingly, the wire did not make birds nests when the wire welded itself to the shroud which happened several times, suggesting that maybe the drive motor was weak.
Am very disappointed so your opinions would be welcomed.
Regards Gus.