Portamig 185 won't play

[arther dailey]

My 181 was perfect for 0.6mm. Went to the 215 and it's useable on 0.6mm just not so flowy. It might just be me out of practice.

I'm selling most of the Renaults this year.

yup it is strange , you can get two welders same brand/model and one will work better that tother , but thats the tolerances in the control board etc either being the right or wrong side I geuss.

 

[miggins]

Maybe later ones did - mine didn't. I opened it up not so long ago - no capacitors, in fact the main thing I noticed inside was dust! Great machine though - it served me very well. Most of the work I used it for was 1.5mm upwards.

HI Graham. When I put the fact that they sell smoothing capacitors on Ebay to TecArc, this was their reply:

This wont work correctly & may overload your machine.
Their new Portamig 186 boasts that it includes a smoothing capacitor bank. My machine is the Portamig Compact 185.
That's that, then. Not a worry as my machine now works fine. If I ever get a new one, it will probably be inverter based and it may well not be a Portamig!

 

[Bobo]

Maybe later ones did - mine didn't. I opened it up not so long ago - no capacitors, in fact the main thing I noticed inside was dust! Great machine though - it served me very well. Most of the work I used it for was 1.5mm upwards.

yes, I think the caps were fitted to 181 machines and up from 2019.

 

[miggins]

yes, I think the caps were fitted to 181 machines and up from 2019.

Thanks for that. TecArc said adding capacitors to my 185 risked overloading it, so I am leaving it alone! I must have had it a good five years.

 

[Bobo]

Thanks for that. TecArc said adding capacitors to my 185 risked overloading it, so I am leaving it alone! I must have had it a good five years.

I asked the question did the smaller 150's have the caps and that was the answer I got.

 

[Burdekin]

I asked Technical Arc about retrofitting a smoothing capacitor bank to my welder, but they say it would not be feasible. They even sell smoothing capacitors on Ebay!

Correct me if I’m wrong but the smoothing capacitor bank is more for larger capacity machines, maybe it won’t actually make any difference to yours?

 

[eddie49]

Not necessarily, the larger manufacturers of traditional machines ( Murex, Migatronic Eland ) fitted capacitor banks to their mid-range machines too. I have an "Eland 130" and it has 6 capacitors, just like it's 200Amp "Eland 175" big brother.

 

[mechman]

Not necessarily, the larger manufacturers of traditional machines ( Murex, Migatronic Eland ) fitted capacitor banks to their mid-range machines too. I have an "Eland 130" and it has 6 capacitors, just like it's 200Amp "Eland 175" big brother.

I have the Migatronic 180 mono it also has a bank of caps, think it's 8 or 10 not sure without looking, got to be 40 years old had it from new.

 

[GrahamGKD]

If I ever get a new one, it will probably be inverter based and it may well not be a Portamig!

I don’t think you will get the reliability and dependability of a transformer machine from any inverter you might replace it with – transformers all the way for me now – MIG and TIG. Not a problem as long as you have space and don't need to lug it around.