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Well me hearties!! - Uh, no thats ivanhoew  Stuff,......STUFF arrived!!  R-Tech welder. Box seems nice & sturdy and it arrived with no damage   Nice thick box walls;  A fair bit smaller than my SIP 150.  And lots of acc came with it.  So, approx 4.7 seconds  later it was all set up to try some side by side comparison welding against my old SIP - which I have modified a bit for better welding. **there was an issue with the SIP that I found later** 1.2mm steel sheet, top weld is the R-Tech, bottom is the SIP. R Tech was a million miles better 'crackle' and has welded deeper into the metal, also just welded better.  5mm plate steel. Top is the R Tech and the bottom with the SIP. R Tech has a lot more spatter for some reason? It again has welded far deeper into the steel, the SIP sitting more on top.  Tried 3 different settings with the SIP and 1 more run with the R-Tech. Top 2 runs are the R Tech and bottom 3 with the SIP at different settings.  At the end of this I realised the power cable to the gun for the SIP had frayed all but about 5 strands of the cable where it exits the welder! So this may be a bit unfair as a test. I've repaired the cable and found a slight leak in the hose (strands had gone hot and melted it a bit) so once the repair to that has cured I'll do some more comparisons tomorrow. The SIP still seems to hold up fairly well considering it's about 30 years old! but I do like the big adjustability of the R Tech, I'm sure its a lot better on thinner steel from how it felt on the 1.2mm test. It's certainly going to use less room in the workshop, my mrs is buying me a welding trolley to go with is as a late birthday present |
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You will need a new project now |
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yummy ! |
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logicaluk
Posted a lot
Every days a school day round here
Posts: 1,373
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The R Tec 180 is at the top of my welder list too.
I'm planning on getting the ally spool gun too.
Dan
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Nice - Try it on some 0.8 > 0.6 sheet and see how it performs tomorrow (I already know what the result is) |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,351
Club RR Member Number: 64
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I’ve just bought a plasma cutter, and been given a fairly basic (but new) DC scratch TIG by my brother-in-law who’s decided he won’t use it. I’m quite tempted with the idea of replacing my similarly ancient Sealey 180 amp MIG with something new, more adjustable and critically, physically much smaller. It will be interesting to see how you get on.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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samta22
Club Retro Rides Member
Stuck in once more...
Posts: 1,276 
Club RR Member Number: 32
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The difference was night and day for me compared to the snap on machine I was using, particularly on the thin Japanese metal.
Think as chris has already said, when you get to the thin stuff the difference will be even more apparent.
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'37 Austin 7 '56 Austin A35 '58 Austin A35 '65 Triumph Herald 12/50 '69 MGB GT '74 MGB GT V8'73 TA22 Toyota Celica restoration'95 Mercedes SL320 '04 MGTF 135 'Cool Blue' (Mrs' Baby) '05 Land Rover Discovery 3 V8 '67 Abarth 595 (Mrs' runabout) '18 Disco V |
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I think the thinnest steel I have is 1.2mm It will be interesting to see how well the SIP performs tomorrow now the cable is repaired - it's obviously been very frayed for a long time. I suspect the welds will sink into the metal far better now it's fixed. Lucky really as I have somone lined up who wants to buy it, at least it will go to him in 100% order. |
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,967
Club RR Member Number: 71
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I think the thinnest steel I have is 1.2mm Try a drinks can or bean tin It will be interesting to see how well the SIP performs tomorrow now the cable is repaired - it's obviously been very frayed for a long time. I suspect the welds will sink into the metal far better now it's fixed. The older SIP's aren't bad at all - it's when they cheapened them up for "box moving" that the rot set in - my cosmo branded one was bloody awful and despite a metric ton of mods it reached a just acceptable std from a welding point of view so I bought a portamig and I love it Maybe in 10 years when the "modern" welders have proved reliable I'll buy one ;-) Lucky really as I have somone lined up who wants to buy it, at least it will go to him in 100% order. It'll probably last many many years more |
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I think the thinnest steel I have is 1.2mm Try a drinks can or bean tin It will be interesting to see how well the SIP performs tomorrow now the cable is repaired - it's obviously been very frayed for a long time. I suspect the welds will sink into the metal far better now it's fixed. The older SIP's aren't bad at all - it's when they cheapened them up for "box moving" that the rot set in - my cosmo branded one was bloody awful and despite a metric ton of mods it reached a just acceptable std from a welding point of view so I bought a portamig and I love it Maybe in 10 years when the "modern" welders have proved reliable I'll buy one ;-) Lucky really as I have somone lined up who wants to buy it, at least it will go to him in 100% order. It'll probably last many many years more Modern welders are reliable providing you don't purchase junk* - needs to be branded and something that has been proven in the market - ideally built in Europe and not in the far east* R Tech build very good units that come with all the right back up / warranty - has do Parweld (which is what I run - a bit more industrial than the R tech units) * I'm pretty sure that the far east welding manufactures can build a reliable good quality invertor based MIG / TIG - but I've not come across one yet - its also quite probable that a lot of units contain technology sourced from the far east - its just that some use the better quality parts / technology than others do |
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Last Edit: Jun 9, 2020 5:45:03 GMT by Deleted
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Edit - double post
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Last Edit: Jun 8, 2020 22:07:27 GMT by Deleted
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,967
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Try a drinks can or bean tin The older SIP's aren't bad at all - it's when they cheapened them up for "box moving" that the rot set in - my cosmo branded one was bloody awful and despite a metric ton of mods it reached a just acceptable std from a welding point of view so I bought a portamig and I love it Maybe in 10 years when the "modern" welders have proved reliable I'll buy one ;-) It'll probably last many many years more Modern welders are reliable providing you don't purchase junk* - needs to be branded and something that has been proven in the market - ideally built in Europe and not in the far east* R Tech build very good units that come with all right back up / warranty - has do Parweld (which is what I run - a bit more industrial than the R tech units) * I'm pretty sure that the far east welding manufactures can build a reliable good quality invertor based MIG / TIG - but I've not across one yet - its also quite probable that a lot of units contain technology sourced from the far east - its just that some use the better quality parts / technology than others do Don't get me wrong Chris - I agree with all of your points - a mate has bought an R-tech unit and he's very pleased with it and they aren't cheap compared to "box movers" in fact anything at the £500 price point should not be curse word But having made the mistake of initially buying a cheap welder from a company which did have a good reputation (that they ruined) and spending a stupid amount of time trying to improve it (I think my thread on the MIG welding forum runs to 16 pages) - I narrowed down the choice to either parweld or Portamig/Oxford/Tec Arc all of which seem to have very little traffic on the migwelding forum - I bought something that was British made (with proven to be reliable components and wire feed) and would last me a long time because I hate buying twice!! I have no regrets it's been superb Now occasionally I would like something that takes up a little less space and could be thrown in the car should I need to help out a mate but I'll wait a while till the "modern" tech has been fully proven |
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Old welder now fixed so I tried running some beads on the 5mm plate again with the same settings. Improved, but not as good as the R Tech. Grabbed a few bits of rusty, dirty 3 & 4mm angle and a bit of clean roll cage CDS tube in the scraps bin and with no prep whatsoever did some welds on them. Not sure how the SIP would have performed but the R Tech just........welds. It's a perfect crackle every time and just.....welds. No sticking wire, wire burning back, odd crackles or anything. Good penetration even without a V prep (though I left a 1.5mm gap) the weld has pretty well gone all the way to the other side all along the joint. I'll have to search for some thin metal to play with now One thing that's really nice is the crib sheet that comes with the welder, I'll print it off and laminate it to keep with the welder for reference. You just pick the type of weld, metal thickness and it tells you the correct power & wire feed settings - which so far seem to be absolutely spot on. Anyone need anything welded? |
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Old welder now fixed so I tried running some beads on the 5mm plate again with the same settings. Improved, but not as good as the R Tech. Grabbed a few bits of rusty, dirty 3 & 4mm angle and a bit of clean roll cage CDS tube in the scraps bin and with no prep whatsoever did some welds on them. Not sure how the SIP would have performed but the R Tech just........welds. It's a perfect crackle every time and just.....welds. No sticking wire, wire burning back, odd crackles or anything. Good penetration even without a V prep (though I left a 1.5mm gap) the weld has pretty well gone all the way to the other side all along the joint. I'll have to search for some thin metal to play with now One thing that's really nice is the crib sheet that comes with the welder, I'll print it off and laminate it to keep with the welder for reference. You just pick the type of weld, metal thickness and it tells you the correct power & wire feed settings - which so far seem to be absolutely spot on. Anyone need anything welded? Mark - Good quality invertor based welders really are a great bit of kit but try convincing others that they are worth the investment - they would rather struggle on with the old out dated transformer based MIG's - thing is they don't know the difference because they have never used / seen the difference that a invertor based machine makes - but I most certainly would not be without mine |
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I agree Chris, the weld ripples are very regular with the R Tech, with a much lower weld bead (so far less grinding back required) whereas the old welder was a lot more inconsistant.
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One thing that's really nice is the crib sheet that comes with the welder, I'll print it off and laminate it to keep with the welder for reference. You just pick the type of weld, metal thickness and it tells you the correct power & wire feed settings - which so far seem to be absolutely spot on. ....buy a Kemppi and it’s built in, not on an external piece of paper 🤣🤣🤣 |
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a fair wedge of dough ..worth every penny 😉 |
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Last Edit: Jun 9, 2020 20:29:34 GMT by Deleted
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Hmmm...had a search, so expensive they don't list a price anywhere! If you have to ask, you can't afford it |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,351
Club RR Member Number: 64
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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later it was all set up to try some side by side comparison welding against my old SIP - which I have modified a bit for better welding. **there was an issue with the SIP that I found later**
