Got one of these 150s in an auction when I bought a load of tooling. Sat unused for a while but thought i’d give it a go before getting shot of it. Pretty much as expected; wire feed erratic, erratic start, fair weld when it got going but meh. Wouldn’t give it away working like that.
Nice to take my mind off things every now and then so had a couple of hours spare between jobs and phone calls this month so got a Euro adaptor off eBay for £11.34 posted from China.. Lovely quality. Check out the filed-off wire tube and quality contacts.
Anyway, next problem was the front panel of the supermig is angled, meaning the adaptor points down into the wire feed. Not good so changed the angle of the wire feed to suit, which worked well as I wanted it to use 0.9kg spools. Note the wire guide tube is too short really. With the cover on the wire feeder it was tricky to get the wire fed in but not too bad.
Note the missing m8x1.25 grub screws as the holes were not even tapped in the plastic body of the Euro adaptor to clamp the socket. Filed a flat and put the screws in.
Swapped out the 10mm sq. earth cable which meant clamping the new 25mm sq. cable to the aluminium wire straight off the transformer. Replaced the puny wire from the rectifier to the torch adapter with 25mm sq.
Had to fit a 240v gas solenoid (£19 off eBay) and swapped the 1/8 bsp tail to 4mm q/r. Wired from the start contractor for the live and supply neutral.
Quick break to rebuild a 29 spindle head and back to it. Problem now is that the old torch had the gas valve in the torch trigger so you could pre purge. With this setup you can’t do this as pull the trigger and everything starts at the same time. Not good so installed an ON delay relay in line with the wire feed motor so I can pull the trigger, gas comes on, power on but wire doesn’t feed for 0.1 second up to 30 hours (hehe). £20 from RS.
So how does it weld and was it worth it? It’s not bad, I guess this sort of welder’s mainly car body & stuff so gave it a go on some 1mm I had kicking around. 0.8mm chinesium wire, power Min, setting 2. Wire feed 3.5.
Welded a butt weld, albeit badly fitted up and it was okay, vice & lump hammered it and it stayed welded. Penetration not perfect but I wasn’t looking to get it x-ray’d.
Fortunately I have a workshop full of ferrules, wire, crimps, tools etc so not too bad a job. If you don’t have all the bits it may take a bit longer or be a bit frustrating. Makes a difference, wire feed a lot better, but if you can afford it, put the money towards a better welder would be my advice.
Nice to take my mind off things every now and then so had a couple of hours spare between jobs and phone calls this month so got a Euro adaptor off eBay for £11.34 posted from China.. Lovely quality. Check out the filed-off wire tube and quality contacts.
Anyway, next problem was the front panel of the supermig is angled, meaning the adaptor points down into the wire feed. Not good so changed the angle of the wire feed to suit, which worked well as I wanted it to use 0.9kg spools. Note the wire guide tube is too short really. With the cover on the wire feeder it was tricky to get the wire fed in but not too bad.
Note the missing m8x1.25 grub screws as the holes were not even tapped in the plastic body of the Euro adaptor to clamp the socket. Filed a flat and put the screws in.
Swapped out the 10mm sq. earth cable which meant clamping the new 25mm sq. cable to the aluminium wire straight off the transformer. Replaced the puny wire from the rectifier to the torch adapter with 25mm sq.
Had to fit a 240v gas solenoid (£19 off eBay) and swapped the 1/8 bsp tail to 4mm q/r. Wired from the start contractor for the live and supply neutral.
Quick break to rebuild a 29 spindle head and back to it. Problem now is that the old torch had the gas valve in the torch trigger so you could pre purge. With this setup you can’t do this as pull the trigger and everything starts at the same time. Not good so installed an ON delay relay in line with the wire feed motor so I can pull the trigger, gas comes on, power on but wire doesn’t feed for 0.1 second up to 30 hours (hehe). £20 from RS.
So how does it weld and was it worth it? It’s not bad, I guess this sort of welder’s mainly car body & stuff so gave it a go on some 1mm I had kicking around. 0.8mm chinesium wire, power Min, setting 2. Wire feed 3.5.
Welded a butt weld, albeit badly fitted up and it was okay, vice & lump hammered it and it stayed welded. Penetration not perfect but I wasn’t looking to get it x-ray’d.
Fortunately I have a workshop full of ferrules, wire, crimps, tools etc so not too bad a job. If you don’t have all the bits it may take a bit longer or be a bit frustrating. Makes a difference, wire feed a lot better, but if you can afford it, put the money towards a better welder would be my advice.