Moggie
New Member
- Messages
- 9
As I've been using this forum quite a bit for research, it's only right I 'payback' a little and give some feedback.
I've previously owned a SIP Topmig 150 Turbo and really didn't get on with it. I ended up fitting a Euro torch and getting the feed mechanism reinforcement bar and although this helped a bit, I didn't really have any faith in it. I'd used it to make a bedstead and some curtain poles for the house. My welding would be best descibed as agricultural, but it looked okay once it was ground down and the only thing in danger if a a weld failed was a rude awakening or the curtains falling down! Also, a friend of mine had done some welding on a car with it and got on fine. That said, he's very experienced.
Anyway, I'm about to start work on an old Morris, so decided to get a new inverter welder. After reading reviews and watching the highly informative/entertaning 'Doubleboost' vids on the R-tech site, I plumped for the R-Tech I-Mig 180.
I had an issue with ordering (my fault!) but the service from R-Tech and Dylan inparticular was excellent and the stuff arrived the following day and was well packaged. Set up was very straightforward and it was possible to get it up and running in 30 mins or so. Pretty much all my welding on the Morris is going to be car panel thickness, so I gave it a trial run on some 1.2 mm steel.
Below are the first three beads I ran.
First welds with R-Tech 180
I can't remember what each of the settings where now, but power level was 2 and then I kust fiddled with the wire speed a little. Although it doesn't really show, the first bead was quite high, so I think I must have lowered it for welds 2 and 3. They were a lot flatter and penetration was fine.
The quality of the unit, the torch and the earth lead are excellent - they feel really substantial.
All in all, I'm really pleased. The only thing that might be a bit of a drawback to anyone who is a newbie is the lack of any sort of table for power/wire speed for different thicknesses of metal. However, there's plenty of info out on the net and I've had a go at measuring wirespeed this morning and I got the following:
R-Tech I-Mig 180 settings
Apologies it's so rough and ready, but it was only meant to give me a quick figure.
The first column (0-6) are the wire speed settings
The second column is in inches and the third colum is in CMs. (Ignore the S and PS bit! lol)
The first figure in each column is per 6 seconds, the figure after is multiplied by 10 to give the figure per minute. So, if you were to look at wire speed 5, it would be 24.5 inches per 6 seconds and 245 inches per minute. The second colummn for wire speed 5 is 62 cm per 6 seconds and 620 cm per minute.
Any and all comments welcome.
I've previously owned a SIP Topmig 150 Turbo and really didn't get on with it. I ended up fitting a Euro torch and getting the feed mechanism reinforcement bar and although this helped a bit, I didn't really have any faith in it. I'd used it to make a bedstead and some curtain poles for the house. My welding would be best descibed as agricultural, but it looked okay once it was ground down and the only thing in danger if a a weld failed was a rude awakening or the curtains falling down! Also, a friend of mine had done some welding on a car with it and got on fine. That said, he's very experienced.
Anyway, I'm about to start work on an old Morris, so decided to get a new inverter welder. After reading reviews and watching the highly informative/entertaning 'Doubleboost' vids on the R-tech site, I plumped for the R-Tech I-Mig 180.
I had an issue with ordering (my fault!) but the service from R-Tech and Dylan inparticular was excellent and the stuff arrived the following day and was well packaged. Set up was very straightforward and it was possible to get it up and running in 30 mins or so. Pretty much all my welding on the Morris is going to be car panel thickness, so I gave it a trial run on some 1.2 mm steel.
Below are the first three beads I ran.
First welds with R-Tech 180
I can't remember what each of the settings where now, but power level was 2 and then I kust fiddled with the wire speed a little. Although it doesn't really show, the first bead was quite high, so I think I must have lowered it for welds 2 and 3. They were a lot flatter and penetration was fine.
The quality of the unit, the torch and the earth lead are excellent - they feel really substantial.
All in all, I'm really pleased. The only thing that might be a bit of a drawback to anyone who is a newbie is the lack of any sort of table for power/wire speed for different thicknesses of metal. However, there's plenty of info out on the net and I've had a go at measuring wirespeed this morning and I got the following:
R-Tech I-Mig 180 settings
Apologies it's so rough and ready, but it was only meant to give me a quick figure.
The first column (0-6) are the wire speed settings
The second column is in inches and the third colum is in CMs. (Ignore the S and PS bit! lol)
The first figure in each column is per 6 seconds, the figure after is multiplied by 10 to give the figure per minute. So, if you were to look at wire speed 5, it would be 24.5 inches per 6 seconds and 245 inches per minute. The second colummn for wire speed 5 is 62 cm per 6 seconds and 620 cm per minute.
Any and all comments welcome.