Problems galore! Day 1 MIG plant rental. False economy?

[secretsmoker]

Very handy to know about the Volkszone offer many thanks! I will try my luck when I go back. I am pretty much at the end of my first bottle after a few day's welding. I went for the smaller bottle because it was cheaper but I suppose the economy of scale is better presumably, the bigger I go?

Renting was an absolutely terrible idea in retrospect. I hadn't factored in the amount of time spent fannying around and tripping power supplies and to get my restoration done in a week was wholly unrealistic.

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[tom-madbiker]

or if there is a dealer near you for freshford garage gas that is by far the cheapest gas source for light use from memory 60 quid for 3 years rental 25 quid for bottle deposit and 30 quid a fill i think the mix is 75 argon 25 co2 i think gasman is on here somewhere he can tell you where your nearest dealer is

 

[secretsmoker]

Interesting to know. I will try to find out more after work. Found their website- http://www.freshfordltd.co.uk/gases.htm

Manc might be a bit far for me to go for refills although it is quite reasonable on the bigger bottles. Already 1/3 of the way through my second little BOC bottle, although the rate of usage has decreased somewhat drastically now that my machine actually works properly!

 

[carlos420uk]

A small bottle will go very quickly when you have a new welder to play with! Once empty and you go for a refill, don't ask for a replacement just tell them you want to do a return and transfer to the Volkszone offer. You will be credited back the remainder of the yearly rental on the existing bottle you are returning.

I don't think you made a mistake renting the welder, it was your cheapest option at the time but look at it this way, you managed to do some welding despite the faulty gear and they refunded your money so all it cost was your time and electricity! Also, you now know you are likely to have problems with fuses and trips that you can sort out now rather than half way through a job and rental time isn't ticking away. Don't forget to unwind any extension leads fully before welding.

Keep a tally of what you have spent so far and any jobs you do for people, you will find the new welder can soon pay for itself. I charged £350 for one job recently, the profit on that is easily half the cost of my new Portamig 215.

This ^^ is good advise and a very good reason to own your own kit.

Good to hear you got up and running in the end. It's a right pain when you first start out researching what machine is best, what type of gas for what application, what size wire etc etc.

Apart from looking better is there much difference in duty cycle or anything else between the Clarke and Eurostar? It does have a good low end like the Clarke doesn't it (30amps)?

 

[secretsmoker]

Indeed a 30amp minimum like you say. Duty cycle on the Xcalibur is published as 100% at 45A, 60% at 55A and only 15% at 115A...

Clarke 160TM shows better duty cycle figures to be honest-

60% Duty Cycle: 75 Amps, 20% Duty Cycle: 130 Amps

I put up an ongoing review thread for the Xcalibur Eurostar 150 with a few bad pictures of example welds to prove it is working now!

Has to be said that the Eurostar does a lovely job on 1.5mm plate with 0.6 wire. Will try to get some pics of what I have been up to on the MX5 project as soon as I get some better light under the thing!