Portamig arrival

[wrinx]

0.6mm wire, 0.8mm wire, good stuff, cheap stuff, correct groove on the feed roller? All feedback welcome then issues can be sorted.

Quality 0.6 wire bought from your good self, rollers set up correctly afaik but I guess the angle is at fault...I did think it was a bit on the limit

wrinx

 

[octo0072000]

ironic my mig all that holds the 5kg reel on is the cover i added a 4 inch nail
so i could use it without the cover it's worked like that for the last 24 years as the old girl
the wire feed motor is a bit of a beast though

 

[gordon stephenson]

Weldequip is right, Totally cack handed design, to any engineering brain it just appears to be a completely out of line,that is cured by a simple low cost spacer, ( I made one by cutting the centre out of an empty 5Kg spool and fitting a drive pin in one side)

 

[Wallace]

My Portamig 215 arrived today factory fresh, this 5kg adaptor came in the parcel from Weldequip. With a fresh 5kg roll the wirefeed centreline is about 8mm off mid roll and gives no problems. However, my OCD may make me fit a pair shims to compensate.....

 

[brewdexta]

Snap - my 185 arrived today and had the adapter in the box of bits from Weldequip

I haven't had chance to fire it up yet - maybe tomorrow

 

[Wallace]

It's like a Portamig Plague, they're more popular than a Playstation! I've been doing back to back comparisons with my old machine, the lowest setting is much less so I'm going to try and find some 0.6 steel tomorrow and a couple of tin cans for a laugh.

 

[brewdexta]

Got some time to put together the welder today - here she is

I can say that she works fine which is more than I can say for my welding however I was just playing as I just had 5 mins to try everything out before the usual SWMBO weekend commitments , I have some time tomorrow to apply a bit more science to gas/current/feed/wire/plate size and see if I can lay a decent bit of weld

 

[Wallace]

I took photos of the spindle on my 215 today, at first sight I thought the bolt and washer beneath were there to hold the spindle at an angle but the base plate moulding is angled. There is a very slight gap where the base plate touches the washer that may be adding to the base plate angle but I doubt it would be worth worrying about so I will make a couple of plastic shims to go on either side of the 5kg space to bring the wirefeed unit central of the drum to satisfy my OCD.


Spindle & baseplate viewed from underneath


Viewed directly from above you can see the wire roll angle

 

[brewdexta]

I'm glad you mentioned that Wallace, it was on my to-do list to check if it should be at an angle

I can spend the time saved practising welding which I think I need although today I did do a little better.

Going have to do a lot better before I build a stand for the millling machine........

 

[Wallace]

Looking at those weld photos was the gas turned on?

 

[brewdexta]

On my first attempt you may be right - I checked gas was leaving the torch then fiddled with the regulator before giving it a quick try so may have turned it off. Main thing I wanted to check was the welder worked as there had been quite a few failures recently - faulty board it seems - mine was fine.

The following day I had more time and made sure gas was leaving the torch and striking an arc, about 15 lpm according to the regulator. I think I was just getting somewhere close to something vaguely resembling a weld when I had to stop - kids back from a day out with the grandparents

Maybe a cage for the kids could be my first project

 

[mirafioriman]

Interesting they are now supplying a 5Kg reel adaptor with them. I guess that means they have now decided that there is a problem using a 5Kg reel without an adaptor!

 

[cumbriasteve]

10 lpm for indoor welding is usually sufficient and will obviously make your bottle last longer.

 

[brewdexta]

Thanks Steve
I've put a peashooter flow meter on the regulator now so can adjust it more accurately.
Cheers
Andy