Portamig 405amp inquiry please advise.

[AndyMetalGearSolid]

Hello Everyone. A present once/twice per wk, im very lucky as the Gaffer of a small welding fabriction workshop is letting me loose to learn this wonderfull & very exciting skill, im hoping to learn all types of welding, at present my main one is Mig, im currently using a real big beast, its a Migatronic something, i'll post the watts-amps tomorrow evening as im due in, in the morning. However, at some point i would be looking at puchasingmy own, im leaning towards the Portamig from Weldequip, If You more experienced Guy's on here could advise-comment on my choice, & give Your feedback & any relevent info. I would greatly Apreciate it very much.

My Choice would be the Portamig 405amp HD 400V Package (£1325 inc vat)
My reason for choosing the above Mig is that i want to by good quality machine, wich has ample power output for future projects & thebetter i become, it should I HOPE cater for pretty much all my needs to give good strong commercial grade finish, I would be looking to eventually weld upto around 7mm thickness possibly 8mm without straining the mahine, ensuring a prolonged life span if that make sense,
What would the max this type of machine could weld on a day to day basis without worrying about the longivity, can itweld more that 6mm thickness,
also can it do stainless steel, would this just be a case of changing settings & reel ?
What does the HD tand for, unfortnately for me, the info on weldquip is not enouph,
Thanks for reading, Hope ou can help, Andy.

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Firstly you can weld 6mm with roughtly 170a but not in a professional capacity and the duty cycle will probs be about 75% welding at 200a ish

you can probably quite easily weld 20mm plate with 400a and 1mm wire, the downside is you need 3phase 400v and with a w size bottle will be about 225kg which isnt exactly portable!

put it this way you wont ever kill a machine like that easily eve in a professional environment!

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

Also for stainless you will need pure argon and stainless wire

 

[AndyMetalGearSolid]

Brilliant, Thank You L.B. i have just edited my post (5-6mm now upto 7-8mm)
but more common use would actually be around 5-6mm thickness, Another question if You dont mind L.B. without looking back at the weldequipt site, is the machine in question not 3phase then? Thanks again for explaining in simple laymens terms, much aprieciated. Andy.

 

[AndyMetalGearSolid]

I thought as much, dif bottles& wire, for stainless, i forgot alum, anty takes on that please. hope You dont mind the bombardment of questions lol's.

 

[hotrodder]

Also for stainless you will need pure argon and stainless wire

Pure argon for ally. Correct gas for stainless would be Ar + 2.5% CO2 or one of the specific MIG 'stainshields' which are sometimes a helium, argon and CO2 blend
Ally would also involve a couple of other minor changes. More detail here... http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/aluminium-setup.htm

 

[Ragnarok]

the machine comes in 3 phase 400v or single phase 240v but the single phase would need a huge supply 63amp slow blow, it takes up pretty much the whole domestic supply of some houses, i believe that some houses have an 80amp main fuse, and most have 100amp as far as I know (not an electrician), I wouldn't feel safe running a 63amp slow blow feed of that tbh

and for 7-8mm you really really don't need a 400amp machine, 250amp would be fine, and for the £1300ish you could get a better quality 250amp

good luck and have fun welding!

 

[gavuk]

Welquip sells 240v 400a portamigs ,need a huge fuse though,wozz has a 360amp single phase

 

[the snooper]

the machine comes in 3 phase 400v or single phase 240v but the single phase would need a huge supply 63amp slow blow, it takes up pretty much the whole domestic supply of some houses, i believe that some houses have an 80amp main fuse, and most have 100amp as far as I know (not an electrician), I wouldn't feel safe running a 63amp slow blow feed of that tbh

and for 7-8mm you really really don't need a 400amp machine, 250amp would be fine, and for the £1300ish you could get a better quality 250amp

good luck and have fun welding!

the power companies seem to be doing away with the 100 amp fuses and replacing with 80's

 

[Ragnarok]

the power companies seem to be doing away with the 100 amp fuses and replacing with 80's

really? going the wrong way for us lot I reckon! that means you'd only have to turn on an electric kettle in the house while that 405 portamig was running and you could probably blow the fuse!

 

[the snooper]

dont know the reason had ours changed a couple of years ago

 

[Ragnarok]

what happens with the consumer unit RCD? ours is 100amp i guess you have to change that too or risk blowing the main fuse :S

edit: sorry I seem to have taken this of topic.

 

[brightspark]

what happens with the consumer unit RCD? ours is 100amp i guess you have to change that too or risk blowing the main fuse :S

edit: sorry I seem to have taken this of topic.

your rcd is rated at 100 amp current carrying capacity it does not blow at that current just the same as a 100amp mainswitch doesnt

 

[Ragnarok]

is it not supposed to blow if you go over 100amps though? and shouldn't the RCD be the same amps as the mains fuse? i'm assuming we are talking about mains fuses that are not resettable? thats what we have here, cables come in, mains fuse, meter, fused switch, consumer unit, essentially, though there is a feed going to a consumer unit in the workshop somewhere in there too, the wiring system here needs work tbh, it's old and not very well done, you know what old farm houses are like I'm sure.

 

[brightspark]

is it not supposed to blow if you go over 100amps though? and shouldn't the RCD be the same amps as the mains fuse? i'm assuming we are talking about mains fuses that are not resettable? thats what we have here, cables come in, mains fuse, meter, fused switch, consumer unit, essentially, though there is a feed going to a consumer unit in the workshop somewhere in there too, the wiring system here needs work tbh, it's old and not very well done, you know what old farm houses are like I'm sure.

the only thing that will happen if u exceed 100 amps the contacts inside will burn out. it isnt a an overload device its a switch that can only carry the load that is stated on it .the electricity boards cutout fuse is the safety link for overload . minature circuit breakers for domestic use only go up to 50 amp .and will trip at that stated current. most board cutout fuses are rated 80 amp rarely 100 now

 

[Ragnarok]

thanks for the explanation brightspark I'm guessing you'd get in trouble if you did blow the board cutout fuse though huh haha

so basically you won't get the portamig to run full power anyway if the max mcb is 50 amp and it need 62

 

[brightspark]

thanks for the explanation brightspark I'm guessing you'd get in trouble if you did blow the board cutout fuse though huh haha

so basically you won't get the portamig to run full power anyway if the max mcb is 50 amp and it need 62

u can get a 60 amp or an 80 amp switchfuse to run anything larger than the 50 amp mcb they take hrc fuses the same as the boards cutout fuses . if u blow the board fuse they generaly replace it free . if u do it the second time they charge 50 quid . u can readily buy the fuses for £3.50 and change them yourself . just cut the seal off u can buy the seals of ebay if your stuck i can post u one i keep them

 

[Ragnarok]

ahh, is that acceptable though? surely you can easily overload the whole system by doing things like that! haha, I've never needed a mains fused changed even running my 300amp transformer arc at 300amp welding in my workshop about 100m from the house..... maybe worth looking in to getting a spare fuse though hey hahaha wouldn't want to be stuck with no power after all..... no ebay to find a fuse if you have already blown it haha

 

[madkayaker]

The main fuse for the house will stand a bit of a overload for a little while but if you are doing it often you will start to burn out things. Also strictly speaking the only people who can change the main fuse is the electric board (not even a sparkly is allowed) and it can take a bit of explaining why it's blowed and they can refuse to reconnect if they feel the installation is ina dangerous state (and they might if you have blow the fuse with a big welder!) another thing to consider is the close of electricity and when we all get smart meters they are going to have a tamper device that will send a signal if the main fuse is removed to stop people bypassing the meter. If you are wanting to weld that thickness at home get a stick welder

 

[Ragnarok]

well that pretty much confirms what I've always thought about the 405 single phase portamig at least for home use, though tbh I can't see anywhere that it would be used :S I guess thats why all the big brands only go up to 250 or 300 absolute max I have ordered a Lorch 252 myself, I don't see the need for anything bigger and as you say, if the need to weld really heavy stuff arises theres always the arc welder