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250A Mig Welder with Remote Traveller

September 5th, 2014 Comments off

Ok, I admit it, I have this bizzare fascination with welders and can’t stop buying them, amongst other tools also. This is my latest purchase, a Cigweld 250 Amp Remote Wire Feed Welder. As usual the first thing I have to do is pull the damn thing apart and give it a thorough clean. I can’t beleive it was in such a dirty state. It seems it’s previous owners failed to respect it.

If you are going to own any tools then it is best to respect them and this is shown by regular cleaning and maintenance. Now the reason I purchased this unit is that it was a great deal. Secondly I was looking around for a remote wire feed model as I generally weld outdoors and get annoyed dragging the MIG outside. The remote unit is easy to carry and it comes with 10 metres of cabling. More than enough length to go outside and weld some stuff. You can also get all welding supplies for these machines from CIG.

Cigweld Transmig 250
Primary Input Voltage
240V 1-Phase
Current Range
20-250 Amps
Duty Cycle
25% @ 250 Amps 24V
50% @ 180 Amps 24.8V
100% @ 127 Amps 21.6V
Welding Voltage Range
15.5V – 26V
Voltage Steps
Sixteen
Wire Sizes:
0.6 – 1.2mm Ferrous
0.8 – 1.2mm Stainless
0.8 – 1.2mm Aluminium
0.8 – 1.2mm Flux Cored
Specifications and features

Adjustment of timers for stitch/spot welding.
Precision, high quality wire feed unit ensuring a smooth, reliable delivery of wire
2 x Multi-positional switch for precise voltage settings. Fine and Coarse.
Efficient fan cooling for increased duty cycle.
Thermal overload protection ensures low maintenance performance.
Reverse polarity for self-shielding wires.
Industrial steel/rubber castors for ease of movement.
Accommodates 1Kg, 5Kg and 15Kg wire spools.

Utterly dispicable. Years of neglect. Many welder failures can be avoided by simply cleaning out the dust.

Would you beleive this is the same machine. A quck blow with the air compressor and then a wipe down with WD-40 and a rag.

This is the other side. This MIG has filter caps to give a smoother DC waveform when welding. If you do not have filter caps then the waveform ends up looking like a series of pulses.

Ahhhhh, that is real eye candy. All the innards look like they are new.

This is a close up shot of the caps and the rectifier. The fan blows a hefty draft and expells rather than suck.
This is a close up of the voltage selection switches and control contactor.
This is the remote wire feeder, gear drive side. It wasn’t all that bad. I gave it a clean anyway.
This is the sealed side of the remote wire feeder. It had some weired dust on the bottom. This thing must have been kept in one heck of a bad environment.
Just like new again. Cleans up easy with a bit of elbow grease.
This is the base unit re-assembled. Unfortunately the outer casing has some scratches and surface rust. I will need to spray it down the track.
Now then, this thing in the picture is the end of the welding cable that feeds the gun. This type of connection is known as a TWECO connection. The TWECO connection requires the manual connection of the gun trigger wires to the remote wire feeder. Euro connection torches have the gun trigger connections built in so there are no extra wires to connect after the gun cable is fitted.

The Transmig remote wire feeder has adjustable burn back, spot weld timers, dwell timer and continuous welding mode. The wire speed runs between 1 and 17 metres per minute.

The welding power source has 4 coarse and 4 fine voltage settings giving a total of 16 voltage steps.

CIG Transtig 150 Cigweld Tig Welder

September 5th, 2014 Comments off

CIG Transtig 150 TIG Welder

The Cigweld Transtig 150 is an AC DC Tig Welding Machine that is based on a transformer, the old school type unlike the modern inverter welding machines. AC DC Tig Welding or DC TIG welding is achieved by swapping the orange leads polarity by either allowing them to go straight through or criss cross each other.

The welder can handle the following duty cycles. 60 Amps at 100%, 120 Amps at 25%, 150 Amps at 17%. Duty cycle is calculated at % of time in a ten minute repeating period. 100% weld all day at that setting, 70% weld for 7 minutes at that setting then rest for 3 minutes, 40% weld for 4 minutes rest for 6 minutes etc.So at 120 Amps, the welder could run for 150 seconds, rest for 450 seconds then repeat.

Straight off the trusty trailer. It weighs about 90 kilos.

This gives me pleasure. Involving kids in the active participation of pulling stuff apart. Alek(6) is turning into me ever so slowly. He just needs to grow taller and lose his hair.

The ratchet was too boring, apprentice needs some action. In comes the power assisted ratchet.

No mouse wheels in here, just hard core copper with a lot of electrical things.

A close up the heatsinks reveals a lot of built up dust. I quick blow out with the compressor and we are clean.

This is the electronic control board that sits behind the front panel. It was clean as it is sealed in it’s own box.

Finished with the clean up. The front panel has pre and post gas control timers, Current selector, arc force selector, TIG or manual ARC switch. The AC / DC is selected by crossing over the orange leads.

Alek and Marcus(4) pleased with the result. They then set about like a couple of raptors insisting I power it up and start welding. Look at ’em, anyone would think it was theirs the way they pose.

Here is a shot of the foot controller and TIG gun. The foot controller also varies the current.

Here is a shot of the unit with the argon attached. The power source is clean and shiny. Almost like new.

Spare collets, electrodes, gas shrouds and a “feed wire holder” on the right.

Here is the manual arc electrode holder. Note the small hand held push button.

Categories: Tig Welding, Welders, Welding Aluminium Tags:

Bench Grinder with engraving head

September 5th, 2014 Comments off

The grinder is bolted through the bench. It has rubber feet to absorb most vibrations.

Here is a shot of the flexible shaft attachment that screws into the side of the grinder.

 

Here is a shot of the small hand held chuck. There is a small 3 slotted collet on the inside.

 

Plenty of length to reach the milling table.

Categories: Workshop Tools Tags:

Belt Drive Air Compressor

September 5th, 2014 Comments off

There are some things in life that you can get a great a great price on, but it was just wishful thinking buying a cheap compressor for $160 thinking it was going to last.

My little direct drive 2 Hp unit just could not cut it any longer. Every time I required large amounts of air, it would run continuously at a less than satisfactory pressure. My advice is to spend a lot on a decent machine, it will save you money in the long run.

I decided to bite the bullet and dig deep for a reliable and powerfull compressor. I purchased a 3Hp Eagle with a 50 litre tank.

The continuous rated supply ability of this unit is 273 litres per minute at full pressure.

Now I am finally able to run the die grinder, spray gun and plasma cutter not all at once of course.

This compressor has an aluminium head, twin pistons in the one housing, 50 lite tank. 3 Hp 2800 RPM single phase motor, a water trap and one outlet.

 

Here you can see the twin air inlets on the filter mounted to the head.

Categories: Air Compressors, Workshop Tools Tags:

40 Amp Inverter IGBT Plasma Cutter

September 5th, 2014 Comments off

40 Amp HF Plasma Cutter

I have been teetering on the edge for some time deciding what kind of plasma cutter I require, the decision came down to the 40 Amp New Asia model with HF arc initiation.

The plasma cutter ships with 10 reversible electrodes, plenty of ceramic cups, diffusers and other bits and bobs including the air dryer and regulator. Max cut is 12mm.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: Plasma Cutters Tags: