Single phase pulse mig

[HughF]

Sorry Hugh I’m a bit lost is that a 250A power source only or has it got a wire feed built in?

Power source only mate... They do make one with an integrated feeder but as I already had my suitcase feeder going unloved since my ranger died, I figured go for the power source only.

 

[HughF]

I had a chance to run a few more beads with this machine yesterday before switching over to running a spool gun job off the might side. It lays a hot weld and doesn't seem to care that I've got it running on the end of 80m of 4mm2 sea off a 6kw Lister diesel... The v/a curve (slope) is adjustable which is interesting and makes for quite an adjustable arc.

Moved onto the aluminium job, 3mm outside corners. Settled on 20.5v, pulse percentage of 35% either side of that and 35% duty cycle on a 75Hz pulse (I think)... Seemed to get some acceptable results with those settings. Outside corners and Ali mig aren't exactly the best joint/process relationship, especially for a rookie like myself with a new machine.

I've got some heavy fillet welds to do next on some 6-8mm, will see how I can get the settings dialled in for that.

So far, happy with the machine for the cost.

 

[matt1978]

So do you have to set a Pulse parameter for the voltage?

 

[HughF]

So do you have to set a Pulse parameter for the voltage?

You set the voltage, with the P.op parameter set to 'off' you get that voltage and the pulse is disabled - set that P.op parameter to a value and you get that value as the percentage of the set voltage above and below the setpoint.

Example:

20v, P.op set to 20%, you'll pulse between 16-24v

It works the same way on CC mode except the P.op value now represents a percentage of the preset CC value as opposed to a CV value

 

[HughF]

In a traditional Pulse Mig the pulse Amperage can be 600-700A at peak for a millisecond. Does this do the same?

I would have to check that with a scope and a shunt to confirm...

 

[bwservices]

I would have to check that with a scope and a shunt to confirm...

Could you put up some pics of the inside hugh?

 

[HughF]

Hi Hugh. Did you pay for delivery? As I see they add a £14 for delivery from Poland which makes it £363. I've found a bit cheaper at a different polish distributor for £360. Does your include a Abicor Binzel torch ? cause the one I've found does and I really need that. Those german torches are brilliant
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202219687665

I did not buy mine from allweld_supplies, as their cart was not accepting PayPal. I bought mine from the seller I showed in the above picture...

 

[HughF]

Could you put up some pics of the inside hugh?

Sure...

 

[Hood]

How are you getting on with it Hugh?

 

[bwservices]

That looks very well constructed for the price

 

[HughF]

That looks very well constructed for the price

It's nice to pay Chinese money for better than Chinese build quality

 

[HughF]

How are you getting on with it Hugh?

Smashed out some outside corners on 3mm, my first time doing that position with mig, seemed to lay a flat weld that punched in well.

Just picked up a teflon liner so I can move back to an mb25 instead of the spool gun. Should get some hood time this weekend

 

[Hood]

Will be interesting to hear how the pulse compares to standard spray.

 

[jrwhalley]

Any further thoughts on the Paton? Especially interested in how it handles pulsed mig and stick electrode. If it works acceptably, it's a bargain as I'm looking at US$570 for the power supply and under US$1000 with the 4 roll feeder, plus duty and some additional bump on the shipping.

 

[HughF]

Any further thoughts on the Paton? Especially interested in how it handles pulsed mig and stick electrode. If it works acceptably, it's a bargain as I'm looking at US$570 for the power supply and under US$1000 with the 4 roll feeder, plus duty and some additional bump on the shipping.

I haven't put many hours on it, but I did do a little pulse aluminium job with it a while back.

What I will say, don't buy a vdi and expect to power an external feeder, the vdi omits the 24v auxiliary drive PCB. You need a psi model to power the feeder.

 

[jrwhalley]

Thanks for the heads-up on that useful bit of info. Since I hadn't seen anything specific in their manuals explicitly mentioning the extra board on the vdi, I assumed that it simply had the power connector accross the board on all the pro series power supplies since it seems like they all have MIG settings available.

 

[HughF]

The vdi has all the settings there but the connector on the rear is wired as a 2pole instead of a 4 pole. It's still a 4 pole CB connector, but it just has the contact closure wiring for the mig wire hot/cold control.

The psi manual shows the 24-28v on pins 1&2, the vdi manual omits the wiring details for the connector.

 

[HughF]

I see you are in Vt. Have you considered an everlast pulse mig, local support and all that.