Thanks for the help any help is much appreciated thanksHello and welcome to the Forum.
Those pictures show three cheap-N-cheerful inverters and one overpriced traditional-transformer Sealey.
The latter has no rectifier - the output is AC ! and the minimum current range is 55A ! so that's out.
The "Dirty Pro" synergic at bottom right, at £105, is actually a surprisingly good machine.
50amp min…………mmmm@eddie49
Have you tried the dirty pro on thin panels?
Unless the specs are wrong here
I'd be very interested to knowProfessional 140A Gasless MIG, TIG and MMA 3-in-1 Welder Non Live Torch model 230V No Gas with Mask & Welding Wire
This model has 3 functions, working as MIG, TIG and MMA welding PRODUCT NAME; * 140 Welder 140A With Accessories. For greater welding control the wire is only live when trigger is used Cheaper models have permanent live feed wire making it difficult to set the wire in the correct starting...dirtyprotools.co.uk
Yep , I use one as a portable down and dirty machine , the 50 amp min sounds tragic , but I was welding 0.8 steel , with 0.8 wire and it was cruising along the very best , now granted I do use a lot of joined spots rather than try to run beads , but thats just because it works for me , I bought the version with stick option too , the rohr 200mi I think , and used it yesterday as a stick because I couldnt be bothered to dig out an esab to weld with , the leads for the stinger are a bit short , but it ran 3.2 mm 6013s the very best , it was only a mates garage door so it was just a five min job , but still for the low extra outlay its a handy option to have , easier than swapping wire to gas less or lugging a bottle , and the bottle option wouldnt have worked in the wind anyway.The rohr machines were mentioned in another thread recently, referring to car body work…
New Inverter gas MIG Rohr for £216
Not so long ago my Jasic 250mig I use at work stopped working after a pop and cloud of smoke. I took it round to very helpful electrician round the corner. When we stripped it apart it also had rohr circuit boards fitted inside. It turned out to be a relay had burnt out which he was able to...www.mig-welding.co.uk
50amp min…………mmmm
With the little inverters its probably worth spending a tad more and getting one with a euro torch if you can, "uptime" are still around selling migs in the uk i think for under 200 with a euro torch, theres a couple of threads on those, i've never used one personally so i cant say and i tend to gravitate towards transformer based machines, theres a few threads about them on here, and a video or two on youtube though.
I think generally inverters are going to be easier for a beginner to use than some clunky old transformer box which come with their own inherent downsides, just bare in mind once an inverter dies you have little hope fixing it yourself, and cheap chinese ones often come with little or no real warranty.
For car work you'll almost certainly want gas, or atleast a machine with has the ability to be used with gas, which is its own expense
Uptime MIG160 MIG WELDER MACHINE 160 AMP (IGBT) with 13A Plug Torch and Accessories
MMA/MIG-160(IGBT) INVERTER Control Technology MIG welding high quality MIG welder. High performance, wide range of working piece, comes complete with Accessories and Torch Packing List Uptime MIG 160A Torch Gun Cable Assembly Earth Clamp Clamp Set Ha ...www.uptimewelding.co.uk
@eddie49
Have you tried the dirty pro on thin panels?
Unless the specs are wrong here
I'd be very interested to knowProfessional 140A Gasless MIG, TIG and MMA 3-in-1 Welder Non Live Torch model 230V No Gas with Mask & Welding Wire
This model has 3 functions, working as MIG, TIG and MMA welding PRODUCT NAME; * 140 Welder 140A With Accessories. For greater welding control the wire is only live when trigger is used Cheaper models have permanent live feed wire making it difficult to set the wire in the correct starting...dirtyprotools.co.uk
The "50 to 140A" spec in the advert is incorrect The label on my £105 Dirty Pro synergic welder quotes a MIG range of "40 to 140 Amps", but in fact it goes down to 20A.50amp min…………mmmm
have you tested what voltages your getting at the tip end through each setting,again,just out of curiosityThe "50 to 140A" spec in the advert is incorrect The label on my £105 Dirty Pro synergic welder quotes a MIG range of "40 to 140 Amps", but in fact it goes down to 20A.
The synergic dial is optimistically marked from 0.5mm to 5mm. Like most Chinese sets it is underpowered compared to the calibration numbers, so for 0.7mm sheet you set "0.8" or "0.9". Similarly, in manual mode to get 30A for 1mm sheet, it needs to be wound up to 37A.
Apart from that, it is very stable, controllable, and the size of a shoebox. In synergic mode the preset voltage-to-wirespeed ratios can be "trimmed" with a centre-zero "+V and -V" dial. In manual mode the synergic control ( which is labelled in Amps as well as millimetres ) controls wirespeed.
Well,i just measure the DC from the tip +/ ground - with a meter and take the reading from there,my TecArc 211 at its lowest setting reads 14V(thats at 20amps according to the data sheet on the back)No, I have not tried to measure the voltage. The OCV of most inverters is about 60v, and it reduces a lot under load. I would need a stable load resistor ( load bank ) to get a steady reading, and due to the complex PWM waveform, a DC voltmeter would probably show a spurious value. See the 'scope traces in Post #9 here:
MIG welder torch voltage - general question
I've been using my Uptime160 MIG for a while now and it's working fine (slightly erratic welds recently but solved with a new tip). After reading threads about voltage, amps and wire speed I decided to test the welder to see what the controls actually control and what the voltage is at the tip...www.mig-welding.co.uk