Ebay Inverter mig welder

[sanger]

Hey all i'm looking at buying a mig welder and i've come across this little unit on ebay that i should be able to get for no more than $700 +$80 postage.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 3DWatching

Seller has 100% feedback and sold over 400 items so he must be doing something right.

My question is has anyone purchased or used this particular welder? If so how does it weld?

Cheers Sanger

[just cruizin']

First impressions are that I don't like the way the wire is left open. If you don't use it often it will get covered in crap and if you weld near it and it get sparks on the wire it would feed properly and will stick in the lead. I saw a thread a while ago with another inverter mig that was similar in price but looked like a normal larger style trolley mig

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-INVERTER-MIG ... dZViewItem

[ROVERNIT]

Are tip universal fit?

[AFeral]

the companys may have 100% positive feed back. They will often have same feed back posted several times. Feedback can only be left for 90 days. How many of those welders go bang after 91 ??? when feed back cannot be left.
then again take unimig and unitig welders. iddentical welders par colour, are avliable from china. So i wonder where they get theres from. there unit preform very well.
sorry i'm not of any help but maybe some food for thought.

[sanger]

i rang the guy who sells them and hes been in the welding trade over 10 years. He backs the unit with full 1 year warrenty and told me that consumables are universal (tips etc). Only down side is that it cant be used for flux core (handy for outside in the wind) as u cannot swap polarity.

As for the lack of cover over the wire spool i seemed to of missed this detail. Thanks for the heads up. i will have to have a think if its worth buying and making a cover for it.

[scuba steve 22]

As for the lack of cover over the wire spool i seemed to of missed this detail. Thanks for the heads up. i will have to have a think if its worth buying and making a cover for it.

just cut the flaps off the box the wire came in and cut two slots in the sides so it can slide over the roll.
have done this before and it works all right

cheers Steve

[sanger]

Cheers scuba steve nice simple solution. i like it

[GoQuik]

You'd think with a nice new mig, you'd booty fab a cover up.

[Mousie]

i got a cigweld transmig 200 for 1100 and its fucking fantastic its the ducks nuts i reccon had no problems with wire feeding ever... works wonders

[scuba steve 22]

You'd think with a nice new MiG, you'd booty fab a cover up.

KISS technology
we were doing it with the shitters @ work
but it works and you get yourself a new one each time you change rolls if you want

cheers Steve

[GoQuik]

Scroll halfway down this page
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-INDUSTRIAL-G ... dZViewItem
and check out the front panel. The orange light is for "Over Hearting". Isn't that sweet?

[V8Patrol]

A little more insight for you......

I know Helen & Graeme personally (the eBay sellers known as ghanglobalimports ) and I can safely say that they are both honest people in life as well as an ebay seller.

Graeme is indeed "in the trade" and does stainless TIG welding for a major company, he and his familly are as local as it gets having been in the area for 3 or 4 generations...... buying from him is not an issue & the 12month warranty he offers is concrete.

I've seen what has come back and its either one of two things
1/ faulty electronic part or failure of the board in general, Graeme carries spare parts to fix the simple breakdowns but replaces the entire unit should the problem be of a bigger issue.
NB: a general board failure is found usually before the unit leaves his place.... as he said to me if it works here then it wont miss a beat once it's delivered

2/ user mistake ..... like the DC inverter welder that was returned after it fell into a horse trough ! ..... & fully replaced under the warranty !



I bought a DC inverter from him less than 6 months ago and have a couple of other items aswell from him too .... still waiting on my new extra long tig torch but


As for the Mig itself..... I've used one of these and as a home handy mans unit they are a good buy & are capable of a good penetration weld on material up to 5mm by a 'learner welder'.
There are however 2 down sides to these units, the first being the exposed wire spool & the 2nd being the increadibly short earth lead.

The wire spool can be covered fairly easily when the unit is stored but in 'work mode' I found that sparks from the grinder managed to contaminate the actual wire being so exposed..... long term storage is also an issue in that the wire will .... I repeat WILL.... become rusty on its surface.
The only real way of fixing the problem is to make a steel cover from some 1.6mm sheet and fix it to the unit thus sheilding the spool and giving a good rotection from both natures and the w/shops enviroments.

The short earth lead is a real pain in the left testicle.... right one too for that matter !!!
The mains power lead is longer
A quick trip to the local autopro shop ( or other automotive store ) and a replacement length to one better suited will fix the problem for around the $70 mark.... ( heavy duty earth lead for a car/truck is as good as you'll need .... dont buy the std earth lead tho, not flexiable enough & generaly wont handle the job well ).

The short leads are common on 99.99999% of the China imported welders, be they mig earth leads, tig earth leads, plasma earth leads, or both the work and earth lead on the DC inverter welders......

As I said at the start, I've got one of Graemes "Firewelder" DC inverter welder..... first and only mod it has had is the dumping of both leads and new long ones fitted in their place...... other than that.....

Cant fault it or ghanglobalimports


Kingy

[GT60]

A piece of lightweight leather or denim works well in covering the wire spool in this kind of system also helps to clean light surface rust from wire, just need to attach it somehow.

[sanger]

V8Patrol you have a pm.

[toaddog]

A piece of lightweight leather or denim works well in covering the wire spool in this kind of system also helps to clean light surface rust from wire, just need to attach it somehow.

what about a small piece of emery cloth wrapped around the wire before it goes into the feed tube.

[V8Patrol]

Rusting wire isnt generally an issue except in some enviroments, generally its the long term storage that becomes the issue when rust and other comtaminates get onto the wire.

We can all do the simple task of removing the spool & storing it away in a dry and contaminate free container for those long periods when the welder is not in use, the reality however is that it will simply be left out in the elements.


My first welder ( 160amp ac peerles) had a handle that was an ideal height for a pigmy, first job for that welder was to make a new handle and include hooks on which to hang the leads onto.
My big SAF welder is that heavy it couldnt be moved by 2 blokes.... first thing it welded up was a trolley to sit on so it could be moved around the shed with ease.
My Unimig had a weak bottle restraint ( I use the big gas bottles only ) so its first job was to make a more suitable bottle rack.
My tig's first job was to make up a cover that protected the unit better so I could place other tools ontop of it and I included a storage area for the plasma/ tig leads when not in use.
My little inverter DC tig's first job was to weld up a cast hub for my dad... It didnt need anything made for it except new leads!

You buy a welder with an exposed spool...... then job number 1 should be to make a steel slipon cover for the spool

Kingy