Rtech 250 mig

[Domdom]

It was right on the point of spray at 220 amps which is fine horizontal but I don’t have the skill to do that vertical. The vertical runs were turned down a fraction but the test pieces I did showed 4mm of penetration.

It’s safe, not pretty but safe. If there was any doubt I would have farmed it out. And all those beams have concrete block walls underneath them except the centre crossbeam.

But my point was that the machine is capable and in the hands of someone more talented than me it should be fine for many things. I think they are given some fairly harsh reviews for what they are. They don’t purport to be all things to all men, just a well priced and very capable machine which doesn’t need 3 phase power.

Oh, and I don’t like the earth clamp either. Can get a bit hot.

 

[Munkul]

I like all of the above ^ except, never have we ever used 2 stage regulators on welders ever, and never had an issue. A half decent single stage works fine on a MIG set, and we use single stage + flowmeter on TIG sets.

I've never heard of all this 2 stage regulator hype apart from on this forum.

 

[Dcal]

My experience of two 250's belonging to two different people is thus:

They are a good welder with decent reliability, but you do need to be aware of there pitfalls which are,

The standard MB25 torch (3m) supplied as standard is a below par and they wear quickly, on both machines I have seen and used they were swapped when worn for a quality replacement.

Standard supply regulators are best stood on concrete and repeatedly hit with the largest sledge hammer you can beg steal or borrow, replace with a decent 2 stage unit and fit a pea shooter.

Earth clamps should be treated the same way as the gas regulators and repeatedly hit with a large sledge hammer and replaced with a decent 400 amp type.

As far as welding performance goes, well, a lot comes down to the skill of the operator, they are no better or worse in there welding ability of those in the same price bracket and those in the price bracket above them, they all need fine tuning and fine tuning is the key as with all MIG's and its easy to get them to operate in dip and spray mode and again this is operator skill. I have welded plenty of U/C with them when one of the owners wanted a small portal frame and they do a decent job of attaching base plates and various other support brackets with plenty of penetration.

One owner has had his for 5 years, the other 6.5 years without issues.

My advice is thus, learn how to set them correctly, replace the original gas regulator and earth clamp as above, and use the original torch until worn and replace with a quality replacement.

That's exactly what I did on the Rtech MTS250 I got from Hood.
The Rtech regulator that came with it (unused in the box) was carp and squeaked and wouldn’t adjust properly and was just a bad cheap regulator.

I use mine mostly for car bodywork with a MB15 torch and can get away with very low gas flow.
In my situation a two stage regulator does use less gas as I am doing very short runs and pulsing all the time.
I only have a small bottle on the hobby deal so it all helps.
For decent runs in structural steel it won't be the same issue and I’m comparing a bad single stage with a quality Harris two stage so not really a fair comparison but my point still stands.
A quality single stage will be much better I'm sure but then, they are pretty much the same price.

It look me a while to get on to the Rtech after using a transformer welder but I like it well enough now.
Only takes 5kg rolls which doesn’t help if you want to run dual shield or 1.2 wire.
It sprays 1mm very nicely but a roll seems to last about 5min when you are doing that.

 

[Dcal]

Totally agree, you have already swapped to a 15 and got a 2 stage regulator unless yours is a 180 and not a 250 I believe they came with a 15 as standard, but I could be wrong, they only use 15Kg spools on there machines so you have taught me something.

The Mts is a multi-process machine so different from the straight migs.
I must put a caddy for the 15kg rolls on it to try dual shield but I'm not sure the feed system is up to it.
I've a 25 and 36 torch as well, the 15s do not like spraying 1mm (don't ask me how I know)
I did wind some 1.2 dual shield on a 5kg roll but it did not go well, it was full of worm holes which I think was down to me keeping too short an arc.
I must set it up properly and get a few pointers.

 

[Hood]

I like all of the above ^ except, never have we ever used 2 stage regulators on welders ever, and never had an issue. A half decent single stage works fine on a MIG set, and we use single stage + flowmeter on TIG sets.

I've never heard of all this 2 stage regulator hype apart from on this forum.

I just recently got a 2 stage Esab reg and the saving in gas has been quite dramatic. Press the trigger and the gas goes to the flow rate set instead of a second or so surge at a much higher flow rate.

The customer pays for the gas so it is not a saving for me in that respect however it does mean I don't have to go and collect a refill as often which does save me time/hassle.