shenion
Tool Pack Rat
- Messages
- 7,586
- Location
- Stone Mountain, GA USA
This is interesting. Dropped of the CP-250 for someone to try. He was using a Millermatic 211 and was hitting the duty cycle limit. He's welding 8' x 8' x 4' 3/16 steel tanks.
The CP-250 did poor welds. Part was the old Hobart wire feeder, but that was resolved.
The arc is real harsh. Lots of spatter. He is welding at about 170 amps.
So, I took the system back. It is 3-phase but I have found a way to run it on single phase. Set it up here and it did the same.
I looked at the schematic and there is a reactor but it is before the recifier and the rectifier has many small caps across it. So there is no inductance to maintain the arc.
It looks like this is a spray-transfer welder only. I had tested it earlier at about 200A with 90/10 Ar/CO2 mix .035 wire, and it did a beautiful weld even on single phase.
So, what to do. It needs a reactor to work in short-arc mode. With short-arc, when the wire hits the weld pool, it literally explodes the wire. To much short-current.
As a test, I took an old crankshaft and wrapped about 12 turns of the ground lead on it. Did some more tests and it was much better. Arc was smoother
, still needed more inductance as it was a bit harsh. Weld pool was more fluid also.
Seems odd that it is spray transfer only. It is a production machine though, 100% at 250A, 60% at 300A. Impressive. Odd it goes down to 17V, maybe that is for Alum welding.
Too bad the guy that is doing the tanks cant use it. As his welds are all positional, spray-transfer is not desired.
So, looks like I'll fab some kind of coil. Then I'll be able to use it with the Airco feeder.
Now I just have to find room for this beast. I could stack the Airco on top of it. Will be nice, about 25-210 amp (single phase gives 2/3 current).
The CP-250 did poor welds. Part was the old Hobart wire feeder, but that was resolved.
The arc is real harsh. Lots of spatter. He is welding at about 170 amps.
So, I took the system back. It is 3-phase but I have found a way to run it on single phase. Set it up here and it did the same.
I looked at the schematic and there is a reactor but it is before the recifier and the rectifier has many small caps across it. So there is no inductance to maintain the arc.
It looks like this is a spray-transfer welder only. I had tested it earlier at about 200A with 90/10 Ar/CO2 mix .035 wire, and it did a beautiful weld even on single phase.
So, what to do. It needs a reactor to work in short-arc mode. With short-arc, when the wire hits the weld pool, it literally explodes the wire. To much short-current.
As a test, I took an old crankshaft and wrapped about 12 turns of the ground lead on it. Did some more tests and it was much better. Arc was smoother
, still needed more inductance as it was a bit harsh. Weld pool was more fluid also.
Seems odd that it is spray transfer only. It is a production machine though, 100% at 250A, 60% at 300A. Impressive. Odd it goes down to 17V, maybe that is for Alum welding.
Too bad the guy that is doing the tanks cant use it. As his welds are all positional, spray-transfer is not desired.
So, looks like I'll fab some kind of coil. Then I'll be able to use it with the Airco feeder.
Now I just have to find room for this beast. I could stack the Airco on top of it. Will be nice, about 25-210 amp (single phase gives 2/3 current).