MX350

[Munkul]

Demoed a mx350 and wirefeeder setup yesterday, as well as a micorstick 180 controlpro multivoltage, for work.

Pulled the trigger on the micorstick straightaway... the lads in the shop "needed" it it's replacing a venerable kemppi minarc 150, which is starting to fall apart after 10-12 hard years. Having the digital readout on the front is a welcome upgrade too... I wouldn't buy a welder without one now, even if it bumps the price up a bit.

I got the go-ahead this morning to get the MX 350 package as well. We're building a new production line next year, so a portable MIG/stick set will be really handy.

We've went for the full package - feeder, 5m interconnects and the proper trolley, sack barrow style with the bottle on the front.

The wirefeeder isn't made by Lorch, but it's a hefty, well built unit. The only downside of it is there are no digital readouts in the feeder. Not a problem for us, since we'll leave the setup on the trolley 99% of the time.
The unit has a synergic line built in, in fact it's a bit tricky to get out of synergic and into manual. The synergic line had wayy too much voltage the way it was set up, but I was told it's possible to tweak the line in the backgroud? It was useless, as it was. Solid 1.0mm wire, argoshield light.... actually, thinking about it, it probably would have been a lot better on argoshield heavy.

Should all arrive in time for Christmas and I'll get some pics of the package all set up... I haven't seen the trolley setup in person yet.

 

[James1979]

Following for trolley pics. Sounds like what I need.

 

[Brad93]

I will have to pick your brains as I’m also considering a X350

 

[Munkul]

Was looking for a way to get out of the office this afternoon... Helped the shift fitter with some handrailing, and welded up the tubes using the micorstick plugged into the mosa genset.
I already feel vindicated for buying the thing, it's superb, and flattered my mediocre stick skills

 

[Tangledfeet]

Was looking for a way to get out of the office this afternoon... Helped the shift fitter with some handrailing, and welded up the tubes using the micorstick plugged into the mosa genset.
I already feel vindicated for buying the thing, it's superb, and flattered my mediocre stick skills

Drums fingers and waits patiently for @Munkul to share photies on Insta...

 

[Munkul]

Drums fingers and waits patiently for @Munkul to share photies on Insta...

Haha nah, can't take pics of work stuff. I will share a few pics of the mx350 when its here and set up though

 

[Munkul]

Received our nice new machine this morning, had an hour or so playing about with it setting it up pictures as promised.

Initial impressions:

Pros
- The MX350 is usual Lorch quality.
- The 2 wheel trolley is a pretty decently made bit of kit, well balanced with or without a bottle on it. Not so keen on the coarse steel strap holding the wire feeder, but that's ok - it's not designed as a static feeder anyway. Plenty places to stash tools, rods, cables etc.
- The feeder isn't made by Lorch, hence the different design language, but has a 4 roll feeder (2 driven rolls and 2 flat faced idlers) and is nicely made. I like the big gas purge and wire inch buttons.
- has crater fill options, and is adjustable in background menu, along with run-in speed, burnback, inductance, and a few other things

Cons
- In MIG mode, there is no way to display voltage in manual CV mode. This is really annoying me, because the demo unit DID display voltage. @matt1978 can you help with this? It HAS to be an option.
- The numbers on the feeder wirespeed dial are meaningless... but it DOES display wirespeed in m/min on the MX350 when you adjust it, for a few seconds. Why not put a scale on the feeder dial as well though?
- The synergic lines are preset for solid wire sizes of 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2, and has two gas options - CO2 or "mix". It's not tweakable, so none of the 6 lines work with argoshield light properly - too much voltage. This is a real shame - even just an arc length/voltage offset parameter in the menu would have helped here for different gas mixtures. We've ran out of argoshield heavy, so I can't see if that fixes the issue yet or not, but a voltage parameter would make all the difference. As it is, the synergic mode is pointless.
- The MX350 defaults to displaying OCV in mma mode. Not a huge problem, because it displays amps as soon as you adjust it, but goes back to OCV after a few seconds. Why?! The demo unit didn't seem to do this.
- The voltage dial on the feeder is VERY sensitive. 1/4 turn appears to jump about 15 volts or more. It takes the tiniest of tiny nudges to tweak the voltage for fine tuning.

Overall, it's a nice package, and welds nicely on MIG and stick. It'll be a great machine for repair or site welding in our factory, as we have 3 phase available in most areas. In the workshop, the two Kemppi Kempomats will still be king of MIG, and that's fine, the MX350 wasn't bought to replace them

But it just seems a shame that the MIG feeder setup has had a load of development put into it, and still can't display or fine-tune the two most basic parameters for MIG.

Hopefully we get the CV voltage display sorted out, I'm hoping it's a basic setup menu that the manual doesn't tell you about.

 

[Brad93]

That feed mechanism looks similar to the one in the S3 Mobil so you’ll have no issues with the feeder

 

[Munkul]

So I talked to Express Weld and of course, it was something super simple right under my nose

- In CV MIG mode, you tap the main power unit knob to cycle between wirespeed, amps and volts readouts. Simple, does everything you need/want it to.

- The voltage knob sensitivity isn't an issue when you have a dial to check what you're doing with it.

- The synergic mode swaps the feeder dials around to what I thought - so your main control is the voltage knob that varies voltage and wirespeed, and the wirespeed knob is your fine control (it trims wirespeed rather than voltage, but at least you have a trim function)

- Again, in MMA mode, you tap the main power unit knob to cycle between amps and volts readouts. Simples.

So basically, that's all of my main criticisms dealt with, and they were all through user error

 

[Brad93]

They’re well thought out machines and certainly more user friendly than Miller XMTs.

I didn’t think there would be settings missing from the machine

 

[Munkul]

They’re well thought out machines and certainly more user friendly than Miller XMTs.

I didn’t think there would be settings missing from the machine

I still prefer my Miller XMT on MIG

Maybe because I've spent more time with it, but I can instinctively set the XMT for a job with barely any fine tuning. The MX350 seems to take a bit more fiddling to run smoothly, and it's still not as nice an arc as the XMT. I need some more time with it... maybe some more/less inductance too.

The other thing is, my Miller feeder is a proper "shop" feeder with volts/WFS knobs and digital displays, and I have a separate knob on the power unit for inductance/arc force. It's all right there, no need to go into background menus.
And I love the Miller feeder control knobs... they're ten-turn potentiometers, so fine tuning is really easy. That's my main complaint with the works Kemppi's too... less than one revolution of the WFS knob to go from zero to supersonic!

But... the MX is certainly a lovely bit of kit. It's a lovely compact, lightweight portable setup with loads of flexibility.

After a bit of use, our lads will take to it no bother.

And the stick mode is just perfect, which is it's primary purpose anyway. We're only running 2.5s and 3.2s so got nothing to actually test out it's higher capabilities... but take it that it's as smooth as the micorstick which it is, basically... a 3 phase micor inverter!

 

[matt1978]

The XMT is a very nice bit of kit.... But also a lot more expensive it’s a very different Animal. From a Mig welding point of view would of been better to compare to the MicorMIG.

The Feeder on the MX is very much a budget thing, it’s not made by us as you point out and very much priced to reflect that. I think the list price on the feeder is only around £400 to put it into context.

Anyway, glad your getting on ok now, give me a PM or call if your stuck