Portamig wire feed

[ozzman]

as above ^^^^ just get used to tweaking the knobs abit untill it does what u want, cuz when there working right they produce a nice smooth n controllable arc, and im comparing that against the fronius migs we've got at college, the porta knocks the spots of the older machines at college, there absoutlely horrible to weld with!!!

so just start playing with it more, and by that i dont meean trying to weld car body work with 0.8mm its just 2 thick to do a nice job! .6 is far superoir for the thin stuff, just a hassle changing reels thats all.

 

[snowcat]

PS a pic of the sort of kit i used to weld back together with a oil cooled triangle 200 amp stick

A beat havester ehh... I almost until I thought better of it got involved in building a 6 row self propeled spud havester...proto type useing a havester like that as some of the donor gear, I think Grimme have now taken over the concept...I had a fealing they wanted a fabber to do all the leg work, and recieve zero credit, So i declined..

 

[zardoz]

Because there's a darn sight more of it on the reel!
I worked it out roughly as this;

15kg reel of 1.2mm has 1685m on it
15kg reel of 1.0mm has 2427m on it
15kg reel of 0.8mm has 3750m on it
15kg reel of 0.6mm has 6579m on it

75% more 0.6 as there is 0.8 W/W!

Maths was my worst subject at school, but even i can tell 0.6 is only 25% more than 0.8. So how come it its over 75% more ?! Now thats just weird. I'll take your word for it though. Seems like one of those strange things. (mind you anything involving numbers is strange as far as my brain is concerned)

 

[malcolm]

Maths was my worst subject at school, but even i can tell 0.6 is only 25% more than 0.8. So how come it its over 75% more ?! Now thats just weird. I'll take your word for it though. Seems like one of those strange things. (mind you anything involving numbers is strange as far as my brain is concerned)

Got to think area rather than diameter so there's a square in there somewhere.

Have the same problem with squares when trying to power tune Renaults to overcome areodymamics.

 

[dcocks]

hi snowcat
as i said the little portamigs are good machines for the money you pay then again welding is not my livelyhood just a small part of it
What i do costs much more cash spraying golf greens you mess that up it costs £30 g per green no second chances
it has to be right first time every time you can not sling it in the skip and make another one
We need to have 30 millon libilaty insurance before we can even start spraying
thats my life David

 

[snowcat]

Maths was my worst subject at school, but even i can tell 0.6 is only 25% more than 0.8. So how come it its over 75% more ?! Now thats just weird. I'll take your word for it though. Seems like one of those strange things. (mind you anything involving numbers is strange as far as my brain is concerned)

Technical al has given the real % somewere on this forum in the distant past...

 

[Drains]

Maths was my worst subject at school, but even i can tell 0.6 is only 25% more than 0.8. So how come it its over 75% more ?! Now thats just weird. I'll take your word for it though. Seems like one of those strange things. (mind you anything involving numbers is strange as far as my brain is concerned)

Er, Zardoz, maths is still your worst subject, I think.

FYI, 0.8 happens to be roughly double the size of 0.6 (in cross sectional area). Hence there's roughly twice the length of 0.6 wire on a reel as 0.8 wire. Don't know where you got the 75% from.

 

[dcocks]

I hope Zardos don't start working pipe flow out for us we will be f--ked

 

[Wozzaaah]

Don't know where you got the 75% from.

I had just got up off a night shift but 6579/3750=1.7544, therefore 75% more or is that not right? I must admit to maths not being a subject I was too clever at

 

[zardoz]

Er, Zardoz, maths is still your worst subject, I think.

FYI, 0.8 happens to be roughly double the size of 0.6 (in cross sectional area). Hence there's roughly twice the length of 0.6 wire on a reel as 0.8 wire. Don't know where you got the 75% from.

Hmm? Well maths may still be my worst subject, but maybe for you chaps it is english ?
I was actually asking where Wozzaaah got 75% from And for all I know 75% is correct. The post above looks right to me. But then like i said...
(looks around for Technical Al to clear up this math stuff)

 

[t'rusty duck]

Wozzah and Simon,
taking the question from first principles, I think it goes something like this.
The length of wire needed is inversely proportional to the square of the diameter of each size of wire, so a 15kg roll will have (8x8)/(6x6) more 0.6 wire than 0.8 wire.
That's 78% more, so today's winner is....
Ken

I had just got up off a night shift but 6579/3750=1.7544, therefore 75% more or is that not right? I must admit to maths not being a subject I was too clever at

 

[Wozzaaah]

Hehe, well done Ken, have a beer on me

Do I get a Brucie bonus for working out the actual length on each reel though?

 

[t'rusty duck]

I thought you'd already claimed the star prize for that...
A gallon of ale, wasn't it? ;o)
Ken

Hehe, well done Ken, have a beer on me
Do I get a Brucie bonus for working out the actual length on each reel though?

 

[t'rusty duck]

Hi folks,
just been out to the shed to check what happens with the Portamig 211 which I've been (ab)using since early this year and its wire feed behaves much the same as Zardoz's.
However, I've found that to be of no significance, whether welding 1mm zintec panels into car body shells at the minimum settings (1C/1 or2 F), or when using a kilo of wire a day welding 3mm thick sections of chassis together with the power settings at 2C/2 or 3F.
For the majority of that time, the wire feed has been parked at 5 (+/-0.5) on the dial, so I've got to agree with Ozzman that your best idea is probably to get stuck in and lay down some welds with the machine before worrying too much about achieving _very_ low wire feed speeds which will never actually be required.
As you will have gathered, I'm more than happy with my Portamig 211 (and that's got nothing to do with it being yellow...)
Ken
( Thanks also to Weldequip for the next day delivery of consumables, btw. That'll stop me getting bored over Christmas. ;o)

Zardoz im not being funny, but i think you should get out there and lay a good bit of weld down with your portamig, u seem to be expecting Fronius standards for portamig money.

now i know what your saying about the the wire speed, but if you lay a good few meters of weld down you will soon realise that you wont play around with the wire speed that much,

you'll just turn it low for the thin stuff and high for the thick but generally youll find that you will just change your welding speed, as its far easier than changin poxy settings all the time.

 

[Wozzaaah]

I thought you'd already claimed the star prize for that...
A gallon of ale, wasn't it? ;o)
Ken

Ah, I see, It's your sig! It looks like 'today's winner is....Ken'
I thought you were claiming the prize for being more accurate.

 

[weldequip]

Why is 0.6mm more expensive than 0.8mm anyway ?

Because it costs more to produce. It is drawn from 1.6mm down to 1.2mm, 1.0mm, 0.8mm and then 0.6mm. + there isn't the volume used compared to the other diameters.
weldequip

 

[Codafile4]

Maths was my worst subject at school, but even i can tell 0.6 is only 25% more than 0.8. So how come it its over 75% more ?! Now thats just weird. I'll take your word for it though. Seems like one of those strange things. (mind you anything involving numbers is strange as far as my brain is concerned)

It is more expensive to produce 0.6mm wire than 0.8, 1.0 etc you will also notice that Electrodes work the same,
1.6mm against 3.25mm. The manufactures of wire and electrodes are made from a standard wire gauge, this runs through rollers to the size required, 0.6mm has to go through the rolls a lot more times.

 

[shenion]

Yes, the smaller it is, the more dies it has been forced through. That is what wire/sheet gauge was originally defined as: 16ga wire had gone through 16 dies.

Also, remember the wire is copper plated. Copper is expensive these days. the 0.6 will have a larger total surface area so more copper needed to coat the wire.

Codafile4, yes, my 1.6mm rods were pricey over 2x the price of 2.5mm rods.