CNC Dan
Veteran Member
So I got my new welder last Thursday and over this weekend I got a chance to mess around with it.
The construction is more substantial than I expected. The front and back panels are of a much thicker and stronger plastic than the pictures would lead you to believe. The fit is tight, nothing rattles. The amperage knob is firm and smooth. You won't have any trouble setting the current to what you want, nor will you change the setting by mistake if you turn off the power switch with heavy gloves on.
The input cord has a NEMA 6-50 plug on it, witch was a surprise, as the manual has a whole section on putting your own on. It also comes with an adapter pigtail to convert to a NEMA 5-15 plug. Nice touch. The cord has markings that indicate that it is 12 gauge wire, but when I cut off the plug and switched to what I needed, the wire seemed larger. Perhaps it is the closest metric equivalent.
The welding leads are attached to the welder via 25mm dinse connectors. The cables dinse connectors seem to be made in Germany and are of high quality.
The ground clamp seems a little light to me, but I am used to much larger welders. It will likely be fine for 140 amps. The electrode holder is good and heavy enough, with copper construction. I cant tell what gauge the leads are, but thay are plenty big enough for 140 amps. The only negative thing I can say is that the leads are too short at about 5ft. But you can bring the welder to the work easy enough. But it is easy to change them out too, as I have already done.
When I first got the welder I couldn't wait and I plugged it into a 120 volt outlet and burned a rod of 3/32-7018AC. It did well and then I had to get to work, so I didn't have a chance to do any more with it till Saturday. I checked with Simon and he said that it wouldn't void the warranty if I cut off the plug and put my own on, so that's what I did. Now I can run it on 208 volts and see what it can really do. So I got a 1/8-6011 rod and tried that. I had a hard time keeping it lit. Every few seconds it would go out, then start up again. I figured it was the 208 volt input power not being high enough. So I switched to 3/32 6011 and tried again. Same results. I switched to 120 volts and, still the same. I tried a very short arc length, feeling the flux touching the metal but it still did it. I switched to 3/32-7018 and had no problems. So I went back to 208 volts and tried a 1/8-7018 at 130 amps and it went fine. So it looks like 6011 is out. I forgot that I had some 1/8-6013 so I will have to try that next.
I'm not sure if I can find any 7014 localy, and I don't want to buy a lot online and find out that it doesn't run well. I'll stop by my LWS after work Monday and see what he has.
I also discovered that it can put out 100 amps on a 120 volt 20 amp circuit. 110 trips the breaker right away. I figure you could run 90 amps all day long.
I ran several rods for about an hour trying diferent settings and never got it to reach the auto shutdown point. No wonder, as it has a great fan that moves a lot of air through
the machine.
Also in the box was a little wire brush/slag hammer, and a hand held face shield. I think they have to include the face shield so someone doesn't to weld without one. But I can't imagine using it. The little brush thing isn't very usefull either. But I suppose it is good if you were just starting out. At least you would have something.
The construction is more substantial than I expected. The front and back panels are of a much thicker and stronger plastic than the pictures would lead you to believe. The fit is tight, nothing rattles. The amperage knob is firm and smooth. You won't have any trouble setting the current to what you want, nor will you change the setting by mistake if you turn off the power switch with heavy gloves on.
The input cord has a NEMA 6-50 plug on it, witch was a surprise, as the manual has a whole section on putting your own on. It also comes with an adapter pigtail to convert to a NEMA 5-15 plug. Nice touch. The cord has markings that indicate that it is 12 gauge wire, but when I cut off the plug and switched to what I needed, the wire seemed larger. Perhaps it is the closest metric equivalent.
The welding leads are attached to the welder via 25mm dinse connectors. The cables dinse connectors seem to be made in Germany and are of high quality.
The ground clamp seems a little light to me, but I am used to much larger welders. It will likely be fine for 140 amps. The electrode holder is good and heavy enough, with copper construction. I cant tell what gauge the leads are, but thay are plenty big enough for 140 amps. The only negative thing I can say is that the leads are too short at about 5ft. But you can bring the welder to the work easy enough. But it is easy to change them out too, as I have already done.
When I first got the welder I couldn't wait and I plugged it into a 120 volt outlet and burned a rod of 3/32-7018AC. It did well and then I had to get to work, so I didn't have a chance to do any more with it till Saturday. I checked with Simon and he said that it wouldn't void the warranty if I cut off the plug and put my own on, so that's what I did. Now I can run it on 208 volts and see what it can really do. So I got a 1/8-6011 rod and tried that. I had a hard time keeping it lit. Every few seconds it would go out, then start up again. I figured it was the 208 volt input power not being high enough. So I switched to 3/32 6011 and tried again. Same results. I switched to 120 volts and, still the same. I tried a very short arc length, feeling the flux touching the metal but it still did it. I switched to 3/32-7018 and had no problems. So I went back to 208 volts and tried a 1/8-7018 at 130 amps and it went fine. So it looks like 6011 is out. I forgot that I had some 1/8-6013 so I will have to try that next.
I'm not sure if I can find any 7014 localy, and I don't want to buy a lot online and find out that it doesn't run well. I'll stop by my LWS after work Monday and see what he has.
I also discovered that it can put out 100 amps on a 120 volt 20 amp circuit. 110 trips the breaker right away. I figure you could run 90 amps all day long.
I ran several rods for about an hour trying diferent settings and never got it to reach the auto shutdown point. No wonder, as it has a great fan that moves a lot of air through
the machine.
Also in the box was a little wire brush/slag hammer, and a hand held face shield. I think they have to include the face shield so someone doesn't to weld without one. But I can't imagine using it. The little brush thing isn't very usefull either. But I suppose it is good if you were just starting out. At least you would have something.
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