yngndrw
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It is you're right, I just don't want to end up spending a lot of money and then have to change to something else - My lack of experience is certainly showing during this but I'm grateful for everyone's time and patience with me.Too much analysing, too few welds [imvho, of course ].
Thanks Tom that sounds very interesting - The main competition for the Bohler Uranos 2000 SMC would be the Kemppi MinarcMig 200 Evo as far as I can see and that's a good bit cheaper so I'd be interested to find out why you thing that might be worth the extra? It was on my original shortlist but I had discounted it based on the price, but it certainly seemed like a nice machine when I had a look. Will drop you a PM.I can sort something out on a Bohler Uranos 2000 SMC, best single phase 200A multi process on the market imo. Features, technical specs and build quality are ridiculously good.
It's from here, looks like the guy is from Germany:Where did you find that chart (USA...)?
For the green sections, it's a bit odd. Wire sizes, mixed units, even gas type. The Amp ranges suggest 110 volts?
A MIG Welding Amps to Metal Thickness Chart - Welding Mastermind
The semi-automated nature of MIG Welding makes it advantageous for every novice welder out there. Aside from the fact that it requires only a bit of training,
weldingmastermind.com
I agree, some of it is a bit off. We wouldn't use 98/2 gas for spray over here unless it was stainless steel... typically we'd choose at least 10% CO2 or an equivalent tri-mix type like Argoshield/sureshield, which gives you far more flexibility in short-arc as well as some spray transfer.
Sorry mate, I couldn't be bothered to reply to the whole thing
It's simple. You're not far off.
-Wire speed and stickout roughly approximate amperage. Wirespeed is the key variable.
-Voltage affects the bead shape and arc length. Too little means a peaky bead and poor burn-off. Too much means wasted heat and spatter. It's important to match with wire speed.
-Step transformers work because you set enough voltage to work with the wirespeed you want, and then finetune the ratio with wirespeed knob. Better step migs have way more voltage taps.
-Inductance affects the dynamic of the sort-circuit arc. More inductance gives a softer arc, and sometimes a more fluid puddle, as it smooths the current spikes. It's not a setting you really need to fiddle with often.
You need to work around a few things, there are certain amp and voltage ranges for certain gas mixtures where you'll have a nasty spattery spot no matter how you set it.
Some machines are just lovely to use, and you'll come to them and find a nice sweet spot easily and just crack on... some machines just seem harsh no matter what you do. It's not a setting, it's just the way the machine was designed and built. Some MIG sets are simply fantastic, and some machines are simply frustrating.
You need to get a MIG set, some hobbyweld 5, and just get welding
Funnily enough the Miller XMT was another one in my consideration as there's a Miller XMT 400 power source on ebay right now. If it was a Miller XMT 300 I'd have probably gone for that and found/built a feeder to fit as the 300 supports single phase out of the box and the price was low enough that it would have been a no brainer to get me started with a really solid power source.Most MIG sets don't have feedback on the wire feed motor, until you get up to the very best synergic pulse sets. Usually all open-loop. You as a person are responsible for making sure your equipment is running properly and it's putting out the amps it's supposed to... this is why any serious MIG set gives an actual as-welded current readout.
Most MIG sets - all transformers, anyway - are rated up to a certain current, e.g. 200 amps, all that means is that it's physically capable of it, if you run a large enough wire through it at enough speed. Some are capable of more... some are barely capable of running it at all. The current should be fairly steady, plus/minus a few amps depending on how steady your hand is!
Hot start and crater fill are really not important on steel until you're running 300a+ IMHO... and I have them on my current machine, I'd use them if I thought they were useful
They are, however, very very useful on aluminium MIG, due to the way alloy absorbs heat.
Pulse is it's own beast... MIG dynamics are complicated enough, pulse MIG dynamics are so incredibly complicated that it only works properly when the machine has total control over every aspect of the weld process, with feedback loops. The best sets from the likes of Lorch and EWM have multiple feedback loops on voltage and current, every single frequency cycle.
Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.
I've been there and done it, I had an older Miller pulse-mig setup... worked well on aluminium only. It wasn't predictable enough for steel. Now I have a Lorch S3 speedpulse, which is night and day difference... but it's still not a "magic bullet" - it has it's own downsides.
That same Miller XMT set, on standard CV MIG, is still as good a MIG set as I've ever used. Same with the Kemppi step transformers at work. 3 controls - voltage, wirespeed and inductance. Simple.
It's still skill as much as machine, remember!
All good to know anyway thank you, especially that you don't use hot start and crater fill on thinner steel as they seemed really useful from what I had seen in my research. It makes me a lot more comfortable when discounting the Pro 3200.
A Picomig 180 puls TKG? It certainly seems like a nice machine but to be honest I've done very little research into it because it wasn't on my radar due to the price. The list price is so much higher than the other machines that I'm considering that there'd need to be a serious amount off. It sounds like pulse might be wasted on me anyway, I was only really considering the other as it was about the same price but I think I've been put off the Pro 3200 anyway.so to throw a spanner in the works , what about a second hand ewm pico pulse ? would that fit the bill
While they are certainly well rated machines as far as I've seen on the forums, I'm looking for an inverter machine due to the size and weight.If new, transformer Oxford 180-1 from @Tom Orrow L