Happy Birthday to me

Well another years passes and our Vicky has come up trumps (again) I was
having a winge that my little Mig was a bit under powered for chassis work
she comes up trumps with a turbo cooled 160 watt arc set hands up who got
socks for a prezzy
Derek
(making a list of fabrication work to do)

"Derek" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Well another years passes and our Vicky has come up trumps (again) I was
> having a winge that my little Mig was a bit under powered for chassis work
> she comes up trumps with a turbo cooled 160 watt arc set hands up who got
> socks for a prezzy
> Derek
> (making a list of fabrication work to do)
>
>

Ha! It just so happens that I have been looking at welders today as well.
Haven't bought one yet but am looking at the SIP catalogue in front of me
now. Unfortunately the 'summer sizzler' catalogue appears not to have all
the models, just ones on promotion, but I am drawn to the 'inverter 150' 130
amp at £334.99+VAT, down from a list of £502, or a Merlin 210 turbo at
£115+VAT.
It must be nice to have a lady choose for you.

Huw

"Huw" <hedydd[nospam]@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Derek" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> Well another years passes and our Vicky has come up trumps (again) I was
>> having a winge that my little Mig was a bit under powered for chassis
>> work
>> she comes up trumps with a turbo cooled 160 watt arc set hands up who
>> got
>> socks for a prezzy
>> Derek
>> (making a list of fabrication work to do)
>>
>>
>
> Ha! It just so happens that I have been looking at welders today as well.
> Haven't bought one yet but am looking at the SIP catalogue in front of me
> now. Unfortunately the 'summer sizzler' catalogue appears not to have all
> the models, just ones on promotion, but I am drawn to the 'inverter 150'
> 130 amp at £334.99+VAT, down from a list of £502, or a Merlin 210 turbo at
> £115+VAT.

Just noticed in the small print that the promotion ended 1/9/05. Oh well,
you never know, perhaps the new promo is better than the last.

Huw

Huw

"Huw" <hedydd[nospam]@tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Derek" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Well another years passes and our Vicky has come up trumps (again) I
was
> > having a winge that my little Mig was a bit under powered for chassis
work
> > she comes up trumps with a turbo cooled 160 watt arc set hands up who
got
> > socks for a prezzy
> > Derek
> > (making a list of fabrication work to do)
> >
> >
>
> Ha! It just so happens that I have been looking at welders today as well.
> Haven't bought one yet but am looking at the SIP catalogue in front of me
> now. Unfortunately the 'summer sizzler' catalogue appears not to have all
> the models, just ones on promotion, but I am drawn to the 'inverter 150'
130
> amp at £334.99+VAT, down from a list of £502, or a Merlin 210 turbo at
> £115+VAT.
> It must be nice to have a lady choose for you.
>
> Huw
>
Simply the best thx Huw we are having a few beers and chillin online she's
got a downhome US rock web- radio station on. Have you looked at
www.machinemart.co.uk or
http://www.northerntooluk.com/product/default.asp?id=935 (seriously OTT)
for comparison - the M'mart pro page has the cooled ones or if you are
lucky enough to be near Chelford (Knutsford) there is a guy who does all
flavours recon, new and the combi migs pretty cheap along with cutting gear
theres another trader selling airtools at £20 ea the cheaper Amtech stuff
still works ok I go a lttle mad on sundays have to build a bigger garage
sometime
Derek

Huw wrote:
>>
> Ha! It just so happens that I have been looking at welders today as well.
> Haven't bought one yet but am looking at the SIP catalogue in front of me
> now. Unfortunately the 'summer sizzler' catalogue appears not to have all
> the models, just ones on promotion, but I am drawn to the 'inverter 150' 130
> amp at £334.99+VAT, down from a list of £502, or a Merlin 210 turbo at
> £115+VAT.

Go for the inverter - DC is much nicer to weld with. I can recommend
the WECO 150 inverter - I've had one for a couple of years and it's been
faultless (and they're an industrial rated machine so should last well).
http://www.welddirect.co.uk/welding.php/Tools/6_9





--
EMB

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:01:34 +1200, EMB <[email protected]> wrote:

>Go for the inverter - DC is much nicer to weld with. I can recommend
>the WECO 150 inverter - I've had one for a couple of years and it's been
>faultless (and they're an industrial rated machine so should last well).

Inverter stick welders are very easy to use, no faffing about with
bottles or wire feeds, and light. Having said that I'd go for the
biggest I could stick on a 240V 1ph supply (16 amps with a yellow
plug?) otherwise they don't do much that a mig won't.

I'm pretty fed up with cheap mig wire feeds but the decent ones are
all on machines I cannot lift, why not a mig+inverter-stickwelder in
one machine. I guess its because you need the coils and iron to give
the right droop characteristic. BTW the cheap CO2 bottles from the
civic amenities site seem to work fine.

AJH

AJH wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 09:01:34 +1200, EMB <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Go for the inverter - DC is much nicer to weld with. I can recommend
>>the WECO 150 inverter - I've had one for a couple of years and it's been
>>faultless (and they're an industrial rated machine so should last well).
>
>
> Inverter stick welders are very easy to use, no faffing about with
> bottles or wire feeds, and light. Having said that I'd go for the
> biggest I could stick on a 240V 1ph supply (16 amps with a yellow
> plug?) otherwise they don't do much that a mig won't.

My WECO 150 will happily burn 4.0mm low hydrogen rods with decent
penetration and is fine on a 16A supply.

>
> I'm pretty fed up with cheap mig wire feeds but the decent ones are
> all on machines I cannot lift, why not a mig+inverter-stickwelder in
> one machine. I guess its because you need the coils and iron to give
> the right droop characteristic. BTW the cheap CO2 bottles from the
> civic amenities site seem to work fine.

If you've got a spare 1000 pounds or so you can get a WECO to do exactly
what you want. Buy the 150A torch - the 250A one's are too big for
panel work.

http://www.welddirect.co.uk/welding_info.php/products_id/32


--
EMB

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 17:12:47 +1200, EMB <[email protected]> wrote:

>If you've got a spare 1000 pounds or so you can get a WECO to do exactly
>what you want. Buy the 150A torch - the 250A one's are too big for
>panel work.
>
>http://www.welddirect.co.uk/welding_info.php/products_id/32

Looks interesting and only 12kg, still a bit low current for heavy
stuff but the 200amp welding genset will do that with ornery rods.

If it all works well it does look decent value for money.

Oh and I think I meant blue plugs for 16amp. the yellow ones are
55-0-55 for site work.

AJH

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:12:00 +0200, AJH <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 17:12:47 +1200, EMB <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>If you've got a spare 1000 pounds or so you can get a WECO to do exactly
>>what you want. Buy the 150A torch - the 250A one's are too big for
>>panel work.
>>
>>http://www.welddirect.co.uk/welding_info.php/products_id/32
>
>Looks interesting and only 12kg, still a bit low current for heavy
>stuff but the 200amp welding genset will do that with ornery rods.
>
>If it all works well it does look decent value for money.

Am I missing something? but at close to a grand it looks pretty
expensive to me?

On Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:41:33 +0100, Tom Woods <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Am I missing something? but at close to a grand it looks pretty
>expensive to me?

More than a thousand when you add in two euro torches (mig and tig).
You get a MIG able to weld continuously at 110 Amps and in bursts up
to 160A. A stick welder with the smoothness of an inverter supply and
rated at 140A peak 100A continuous and a TIG (for aluminium or ss)
140A peak 100A continuous. All in a package that weighs only 12kg.

With conventional copper coil and iron core machines each would weigh
more than this and each would be designed for only the electrical
characteristic for the type of welding (MIG has very low open circuit
Volts stick has a higher open circuit Volts but then drops as the arc
is struck IIRC). This device looks like it handles the characteristic
electronically with semiconductors and little or small hf
transformers.

So for someone that has to travel to fabricate things on site it would
pay quite quickly.

I was on a site a couple of weeks ago where a 16 gauge pneumatic duct
had to be shortened (mig), a channel section had to be welded in to an
auger (stick inverter) and a ss pipe leaked water at a bend (could be
done wit tig but we cut the section out and replaced with copper and
compression joints).

I couldn't justify the expense as I have stick, mig and Oxy Acetylene
which covers most things but the wire feed on the mig, which I rescued
from a skip and grafted a new euro torch onto, drives me to
distraction. I'd love to try a "professional" model just to see how
good the wire feed may be.

AJH

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:12:00 +0200, AJH <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 17:12:47 +1200, EMB <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>If you've got a spare 1000 pounds or so you can get a WECO to do exactly
>>what you want. Buy the 150A torch - the 250A one's are too big for
>>panel work.
>>
>>http://www.welddirect.co.uk/welding_info.php/products_id/32
>
>Looks interesting and only 12kg, still a bit low current for heavy
>stuff but the 200amp welding genset will do that with ornery rods.
>
>If it all works well it does look decent value for money.

Am I missing something? but at close to a grand it looks pretty
expensive to me?