No auto wire speed on a Britweld

[dafydd]

Hi everyone.

Joined the forum about a week ago and think it's brilliant, lots of useful info .

I spent all day yesterday going a long long way to collect a 195A Britweld Multi/Mig I bought off ebay. When I got there, I was surprised to discover that switching to different voltage settings doesn't automatically change the wire speed to roughly where it should be.

I had already paid for the machine so really had no choice but to take it home. Not sure I can get used to this though as I am so used to it on the two sip's I have (this was meant to replace one of them which has an unstable wire feed).

My question is: Is the auto wire speed a feature only found on sip's or is it on most modern mig welders and simply isn't on the Britweld because of it's age.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Dave.

 

[weldequip]

Most modern machines don't have auto wire speed (apart from fancy synergic systems) so it's normal on the Britweld.
You say "a 195 amp Britweld/Multi-Mig"; Multi-Mig is a different brand altogether to Britweld. Got any photos?
weldequip

 

[morph]

I have never seen a welder with auto speed ajustment! Addmittedly i've only used industrial units but you will soon get the feel of the speed needed.

 

[dafydd]

Hi Steve,

The battery in my camera needs charging so this is the photo that was used on ebay by the seller.

 

[weldequip]

Definately a Britweld then. I got confused with the Multi-Mig part as there used to be other machines on the market under the same name.
weldequip

 

[dafydd]

Definately a Britweld then. I got confused with the Multi-Mig part as there used to be other machines on the market under the same name.
weldequip

You seem to be familiar with these machines, someone told me they were the dogs b****** in their day. How well would you rate them?

I am also a little confused as the plate on the back says it is 195 amp @ 35% duty cycle but the main fuse should be 13amp - surely that can't be right

 

[irondarren]

It will run on a 13 amp fuse, but its going to blow often if your running it full power. The best answer would be to have it running on a 16amp plug or 32amp one and have a socket set up to power it (similar well almost exactly the same as the yellow 110v plugs but they are blue)

 

[Drains]

I am also a little confused as the plate on the back says it is 195 amp @ 35% duty cycle but the main fuse should be 13amp - surely that can't be right

The 13A refers to the input current - at 240v. The 195A refers to the output current - at a welding voltage of somewhere under 30v.

As Darren says, it'll run on a 13A plug/fuse, at maximum power, but not for long. The fuse will blow soon enough. If you're not welding 5/6mm plate you won't have any problems as you'll be working on lower settings. If you are on the high setting often you might have to put in a dedicated supply (lots of threads on this site about that).

The machine should work at better than 35% duty cycle as that was probably rated at 40 degrees C, and that's not going to happen this summer I reckon!

btw, a 35% duty cycle means the machine will do 35% of a ten minute run and have to be left to cool for the other 65% of those ten minutes. A 100% duty cycle would mean non stop (obviously)

Si

 

[dafydd]

What doesn't make sense to me is that the sip topmig turbo 196 I have says it needs a supply current fuse rating of 35A, where as the Britweld says it only needs a 13A supply.

They are both rated at 195amps max. I used to have the sip196 on a 13A plug - total waste of time at full power - spent more time changing fuses than welding. Same story on the MIgmate Pro 170 I have.

 

[weldequip]

The Britweld will knock the spots off the SIP (assuming it's all in good working order). You will need a dedicated 16/32 amp supply to be able to use it on higher power for extended periods; and that's true off all welders, whatever make.
weldequip

 

[shenion]

If all MIGs were 100% efficient, then they all would draw the same power. Like weldequip said, the SIP is a lower rated box. It will waste more power as heat and need to stop and cool down. Better efficiency gives higher duty cycle and less wasted heat (and reliability).

There is also power factor issues. Some units will have a better power factor (amount of power going through the machine vs the amount that just oscillates between the unit and power source.)

There are also peak currents. My Clarke is rated at 15A but it trips 20A breakers.

There is also the issue of current ratings. One 200A machine may be capable of 220A out while another may be able to do 300A (at short duty cycles.) Weldequip will tell you; there is no "universial standard" for machine ratings. One may rate the current at 60% duty, another at 100% and a Chinese one at 15%. I bet his 211A PortaMIG would be rated at 300A by other manufactures ratings.

You will need to see how much current you need. My big beast is 107amps input at 240V. But that is 470A out (it is rated as a 300A unit). I have no real needs for anything much more than 200 amps or so. So, a 50A breaker is fine (wiring a 100A plug would have cost plenty in copper and I only have a 150A service). I ran it on a 20A for testing and never tripped it (was only doing test welds on 3/16" steel.) I bet it is much more efficient at <300 amps.

 

[Hitch]

I didnt know any small older machines had any form of autowire adjust
Especially not hobby welders.

 

[shenion]

In the case of the SIP machines, it is because they are cheap. They power the wire feeder off the main transformer. It is a poor design that sometimes works.

Most decent machines have a separate power transformer for the motor and control circuits. That allows more accurate control and speed is independent of the current

Some of the Miller machine have automatic speed and voltage. You dial in the metal thickness int he front and it sets the voltage and wire feed. The dial setting is a fine-tune adjustment. Sounds interesting.

 

[classic2cv]

I didnt know any small older machines had any form of autowire adjust
Especially not hobby welders.

my old Butters machine does

and has a small amount of adjustment for fine tuning

 

[diggerman]

britweld

Nice tidy britweld if you don t like it would you sell it?

 

[Bergonzi237]

Hi Dafydd, I have the same welder and have a problem that although the electric bit works- feeds wire and melts it, the gas is not coming out of the nozzle. Apart from turning on the gas at the bottle valve is there somewhere else I have to open a valve in the welder machine?