EWM Phoenix 330 Expert

[Hood]

Thanks Henry, I think 4mm here is suitable for 34Amps but I think also there is possibly a de-rating needed as the core numbers increase. From what I have seen it seems 5 core has to be de-rated by 25%, never saw numbers for 4 core so possibly it is fine. I know the armoured cable I put out to the steel container was 4 core and was fine at 4mm for the 32 amp sockets so likely the SY cable is the same.

I was probably over estimating the length I need, will measure out tomorrow to see for certain.

 

[bwservices]

Armoured cable (swa) has a different material coating each conductor ,not the usual pvc in almost all other common cable types.
i cant remember what it is,polyprop or similar. It increases the current carrying capability of the conductor in respect of pvc,so swa and sy cant be directly compared

 

[Jim Davey]

He won't be using swa that's for sure.

 

[bwservices]

I know the armoured cable I put out to the steel container was 4 core and was fine at 4mm for the 32 amp sockets so likely the SY cable is the same..

i was referencing this

 

[Hood]

The 4mm SY cable I was looking at said 34Amps but specs had additional info.
No mention was made for below 5 core but 5 core had to be de-rated by 25% but then there was another rating which was for temperature which likely would have brought it up to 32-34 Amps again.


Anyway I measured the one I am using at the moment and it is 25M which is long enough so that will be the length I go.

Never got a chance today to try the EWM out Too busy fitting hydraulic steering and a few other things to the Cheetah.

 

[Jim Davey]

Do Catapult Catamarans have any boats up your way? They make fibreglass Cats near me.

 

[Hood]

Do Catapult Catamarans have any boats up your way? They make fibreglass Cats near me.

There are two that I know of, Ultimate Predator and Ocean Predator. They are used for angling trips and crew transfer, one is in Arbroath (Ultimate Predator) and the other was originally Arbroath but is now Stonehaven or Aberdeen.

Hope you weren't responsible for the stainless welding on the rudders of one of them

 

[Jim Davey]

No never, I don't do welding for customers, we aren't that kind of operation.
I do think some of them could use a bit of tuition, but I better not say any more.

 

[Hood]

Used the EWM again today, was doing 3" x 3" x 1/8" 6082 and 3mm thick 5083.
Starting to get the hang of it I think and certainly no way I could have done welds with the standard mig on 3mm Alu like I did with the EWM.

First off I set the welder to all default and 3.2mm but it was way to cold so would up the wire feed to about 4mm and it was much better but ended up adding almost 2 volts.
Was getting coldish starts but I think I was just starting to move too quickly, later on I seemed to be getting things better by pausing slightly at the start.
I am happy with the welds but would be interested in hearing what others think.

Here are the settings I ended up on.

 

[Jim Davey]

I think your main setting is almost hot enough, but you now need to be thinking about a 130% hot start for a second at least and 2-2.5 seconds downslope from hot start to main current then 2 seconds at 70% for crater fill.

 

[Hood]

The Hot start was on 130% and I upped it to 0.8 seconds but still a bit low I think, will try it longer tomorrow. Not sure what the downslope was, never changed it so will have a look tomorrow and see. Will also have a look at the crater fill and see what it is set at.

Very happy with it so far though, would have been struggling with the standard Mig on 3mm.

 

[henry Kadzielski]

The Hot start was on 130% and I upped it to 0.8 seconds but still a bit low I think, will try it longer tomorrow. Not sure what the downslope was, never changed it so will have a look tomorrow and see. Will also have a look at the crater fill and see what it is set at.

Very happy with it so far though, would have been struggling with the standard Mig on 3mm.

.

Good morning hood.
From the first pic, yes it does seem cold you may need to increase the hot start to 135% or greater. There is also an advantage of the higher the hot start the shorter the duration required, this is still a balancing act. The warmer the material gets then that may need to be reduced later.
I have not worried about crater fill as I finish on a previous tack and so far doing thicker material.

 

[matt1978]

The Hot start was on 130% and I upped it to 0.8 seconds but still a bit low I think, will try it longer tomorrow. Not sure what the downslope was, never changed it so will have a look tomorrow and see. Will also have a look at the crater fill and see what it is set at.

Very happy with it so far though, would have been struggling with the standard Mig on 3mm.

Do you have the option to control the Hot Start and Crater Fill time via the Trigger in 4-step mode? I find this far more reliable than a pre-set time because you can read the weldpool and decide when to stop the hotstart and begin the usual welding current.

 

[Hood]

A

Do you have the option to control the Hot Start and Crater Fill time via the Trigger in 4-step mode? I find this far more reliable than a pre-set time because you can read the weldpool and decide when to stop the hotstart and begin the usual welding current.

I think that may be possible. It was set on something like that when I first switched it on but put it to 2t whilst I got used to it. Doing a job that needs finished soon so not got time to mess about too much at the moment but may have time at the weekend for it.

 

[Hood]

Whilst waiting for some glassing to be done I decided to try it out. Works great and is doing like I was expecting it to do. Will take a wee bit of getting used to but so far I am liking it. Ramp down way too long now so will change it back. In fact even the start is too hot, almost as if it wasn,t working properly in 2T, maybe not meant too, will have to study the manual.

 

[Jim Davey]

Or watch the video

I cover this.

 

[Hood]

Or watch the video

I cover this.

Not sure what you are meaning Jim, is it the programme options you are meaning?
If so then yes I had been adjusting them although they didn't seem to be making a huge amount of difference when I was in 2T.
When I switched the trigger to the lowest of the trigger options the difference was immediately noticeable.

 

[Jim Davey]

The hotstart and crater fill only works in the lower two trigger modes Robin.

 

[Hood]

Ah ok, was that in the video? I need to pay attention more if it was. My excuse is my head has been spinning the last while with all these bleeding boats.
Rushing to get this one finished yesterday

Because this arrived today

 

[Jim Davey]

No worries, the first two modes are trigger normal and trigger latched. The second is timed hot start and crater fill trigger two step, then the fourth is manual hit start and crater fill but trigger latched. In the last mode you pull and hold the trigger for the whole time you want extra heat, then let go and it will ramp down to main current, then pull and hold the trigger to initiate crater fill, then let go to stop.