Femig T100

[Steve McEwen]

Hi New to the post.
A bit of background first.
I live in Cambodia, where mig's are not represented particularly at the lower amperage models. Cannot purchase core flux wire for small machines, can buy 15 kg rolls of 1.2 mm wire only. I am rebuilding my house, using 1.8 mm Galvanized RHS steel. The termites are horrific hence the choice of steel trusses.
I have a 210 Amp Malaysian Mig, gas. weighs several hundred Kg.
My dilemma apart from poor electrical supply is i need to weld 4 meters in the air.
I have been told that i cannot run a 10 meter wand of of my Wim.

The answer was to purchase a 100 amp 15 kg Femig. All good, Traveled back from Australia with welder in stowed luggage with a few 1 kg rolls wire.
OK now the problem. The welder got bum shoved around by the baggage handlers, when i went to fire it up, found the transformer had come loose and moved around inside the welder body. A couple of connections had come loose, I pop riveted the transformer back into its allocated space. a couple of broken plastic lugs also, but no damage that was apparent. When i fired it up, had arc but no wire feed. The wire feed motor would not turn. I pulled it apart and found that the motor was difficult to turn with fingers I suspect this should be easily turned with fingers.
One more thing, the wire was arcing even if the trigger was not squeezed.


I have only experenced the arc without trigger pull on a gas /gasless/stick welder configuration.
Any ideas how to sort this out would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum:

I don't have the skills to advise on your problem, hopefully someone will be along soon, most will be out and about enjoying the weekend at the moment.

 

[Bill Edwards]

I'll try to help, I suspect that the reason you've not had any replies on this may be because Fema aren't a well known make here, and the people who know about the electrical side of things may not be looking in this part of the forum very much.

From a quick look, it appears that your welder is a low cost, entry level gasless welder. Some of these do have the torch live all the time, rather than only when the trigger is pulled, so I suspect that there isn't a fault with your machine. It will probably take you a while to get used to this.

As to the wire feed motor, I wouldn't think that it should be very difficult to turn with your fingers.
Have you got a multimeter? It would be great if you are able to measure the voltage getting to the motor, which should be able to show if it's the motor at fault or the welder itself.

 

[Steve McEwen]

Thanks for the responses.
The MiG is a re branded weldmate or
Sip. from Italy, via china for sure.
I have looked at the Sip forums same same but different. The manual is copy paste with all the Sip welders.
Yes it is entry level, cost $160.00AU.
I have a gasless mig back in Oz made by CIG, must be 15 years old, has not missed a beat. No juice at the touch unless you pull the trigger.
My WIM also no juice unless trigger activated.
Yes several hundred pounds including the gas bottle.,sorry slip of the finger.
I am old enuff to drop between imperial and metric. Only changed over in 1967 ish.

The reason for the small Mig is to glue the trusses together, which means hanging off a suspect scaffold 4 meters in the air.
One option is using a stick welder, I have not been able to source 1.6mm welding electrodes, not have, so using the 2,5 is a problem especially vertical up.
the trusses weld need to be neat as this is the finished product.

I did not realize this was an AC output, as the manual tells me as below

Tomorrow I will have another look at the Mig.
The wiring diagram , does not even show the trigger switch.
The unit is new, and was tested before it left the factory.
As mentioned above the transformer came loose in transit and flogged itself around inside the body of the welder.
When I went to use it no wire feed but did have juice at the torch, ie arc.
When I dismantled the wire feed, the motor spindle, brass cog, i can only just rotate it with my fingers. seems unusual , thought it would be easy to turn.
This is where it gets confusing, as the unit was tested.
the motor shows no sign of damage, or bent shaft, in fact it would break off from its plastic connection point, before it could bend the shaft.
Only other thing, and this is also where i need help, is perhaps the diode resistor combo, which is a ceramic rectangle, may have cracked and this is the cause .
This can be seen in pic above, top left hand side of the guts of the beast.
Thanks again for input poat and prior to my response.
All the best
Steve

 

[Bill Edwards]

I very much doubt it's AC output - as far as I know, gassless wire wouldn't work on AC.
Additionally, there isn't a separate control for the wire feed speed, which I think means it has the power taken off the transformer for the welding to drive the motor - using the higher welding volt setting to also provide higher volts to the wire feed motor, increasing the speed. The motor will be DC.

 

[Steve McEwen]

Hi pdg, here is the wiring diagram as such. it does not show a switch fr the trigger mechanism. I agree with you about soggy string, but it is as it is. If I can crank it up for the job, then it is well worth the small money I paid. My WIM I like, it appears to be a well made machine.

I have my workshop, Koh Okgnar Tie, on an island in the middle of the Mekong, about 7km from CBD of Phnom Penh. The electricity is provided by a local with a couple of old generators. Not enuff amps to run even small stick welders. My friend had the local police come around to his building site and threaten to jail his roof welder if he did not stop using the local power.
I am a little out of sight so the attempt was to use local power with a small amp machine, also the height above ground that I want to weld.

I explored the idea of a longer torch, but was told not have, cannot.
If I had found your website I could have resolved this for sure.
I think 10 meters would be ideal, 5 meters would be a tad short for the torch.
I do have an 8KVA generator, recent acquisition, so using the WIM not so silly.

I will be on the island today, so will get some more pics and test the diode/rectifier as well as the motor. as much as I am able to do.
as mentioned earlier i can purchase 1.2mm core flux wire in 15 kg spools in Phnom Penh. the 1 kg coils of 0.8mm for the small welder I carried from OZ.

 

[HughF]

Why don't you move somewhere where you can get proper power and build a proper house with proper kit...?

I've been to PP, it's a right ****hole...

 

[Bill Edwards]

It is indeed AC output, the data plate shows AC in and AC out from the transformer and there is no rectifier shown on the "schema" nor is there a unit inside the case. What there is from those pictures is: a "big" transformer, 2 switches, a motor, some wire and at the outside there is a possibility of A diode.

The wire feed motor is indeed driven straight off the main transformer. If the motor is being fed DC it's going to be getting abused by a half wave rectifier - a single diode hidden in a bit of heatshrink...

It's the cheapest of the cheap. I said in another thread that I wouldn't have a go at a person for owning a non-big-brand machine, but really, this thing is dross.

I wouldn't be surprised if the transformer is wound with soggy string in lieu of even aluminium windings it's that poor quality.

My advice -- get a 5 metre torch for your WIM to do your 4-metres-up-in-the-air welding.

Well I'm quite amazed at this. I guess you really can learn something new every day.

 

[Steve McEwen]

Why don't you move somewhere where you can get proper power and build a proper house with proper kit...?

I've been to PP, it's a right ****hole...

HI Hugh F,
Yes PP is a **** hole, however I have never traveled to India or Africa, suspect same same.
Most of my work is in the provinces, different completely to the cities. a bit like England I suspect.
What Cambodia offers me

• is a stable warm climate, has a 10 to 15 degree spread. Coldest is around 24 degrees, hottest nudges 40 degrees. Mostly hovers around 30 degrees. sounds hot but when you get used to it the weather is fantastic.

• It is a cheap place to live, a good feed of fish and chips, or a meat pie/bangers and mash is around $4.00US. Beer is $0.75US a pint.
• Fuel is $1.00 a liter for petrol, and diesel $0.75. Lpg about $0.40 per liter.
• The country is safe, and you can run a muck with out being nobbled by the police or gangs of thugs
• Housing is cheap, and building does not require any approvals or inspections. Pluses and minus on this one.
• I have a business which fabricates and install high end mechanical, hydraulic and electrical systems, pays the bills and enables me to live in this beautiful part of the world. Its also a lot of fun. Wouldn't do this in the west, to much compliance.
  
• I am married to a Cambodian lady and have an extended Cambodian family which I look after.
• I ride a dirt bike, plenty of interesting trials and countryside

Ground beams for a pumping station /dam for irrigation


Screw pump installed last year, imported from Holland




View from my land looking towards Phnom Penh City.



Riding with some mates in Kulen National Park. The lost city.



Middle of Cardomom mountains

 

[Steve McEwen]

[

If you put a meter onto the motor wires you can verify if it's getting power that far and if it's being switched by the torch switch.

Got to be happy poking things in the case when it's live though...

Put a multi across the drive motor, 2v and 1.6v when torch trigger pulled on high and low.
Removed motor , will go to markets and buy new one to replace

 

[HughF]

My company builds seabed mapping sonar systems (sidescan) and I was in PP this march teaching a new customer how to use the equipment. The Mekong has an incredible geology to it's riverbed, I got some fantastic images. Still,it was like being in a fan oven.