Thread: What is better than Unimig

Hey Commander i had swapped the polarity to DCEN and i maxed out the wire feed and it still welded like bird poo zap.. zap.. zap.. just black blobs of weld

That is when i upped the wire feed and it kept zapping and burning the wire back

I would have tried the synergic setting for flux core but i didnt want to go off the main synergic setting and possibly have the machine remember the off setting rather than reset

Originally Posted by gazza2009au

Hey Commander i had swapped the polarity to DCEN and i maxed out the wire feed and it still welded like bird poo zap.. zap.. zap.. just black blobs of weld

That is when i upped the wire feed and it kept zapping and burning the wire back

I would have tried the synergic setting for flux core but i didnt want to go off the main synergic setting and possibly have the machine remember the off setting rather than reset

You swapped the polarity to DCEN and maxed out the wire feed and it still welded like bird poo zap.. zap.. zap.. just black blobs of weld.
Then having maxed out the wire feed.You then state you upped the wire feed.

Explain to me how is this possible? Maxed out indicates clearly that there can be no further movement left, but you go on to say you again upped the wire feed

Also know that the rest of the welding world is using Electrode Postive on FCAW. The instances where Electrode positive is in very heavy work-ship building and the like.
The problem you describe just screams that there is a burn back defect brought on by your crazy settings you have set on the machine .

A better machine will not help you when you have not taken the trouble to understand the basics of setting and adjustments of the process you are using.

For flux core work WIRE FEED dial settings and VOLTAGE dial are set carefully as create a "sweet spot" where the the wire will burn to maximum efficiency.
As well
Clean the Earth return clamp to job contact,
Ensure you are running the correct drive wheels,
Clean out or replace the liner (usually cleaning and blowing it out with an airline weld is sufficient.
There MUST be an easy flow of the wire through the liner. Check all areas from the spring tension on the rolls, through the liner cable -no bends or dents in the liner to the gun making sure the contact tip is clean and sized OK. There MUST be no drag on the wire feed.

Keep wire stick out at around 30mm

Also Drag the gun for FCAW. The gun is pushed for hard wire and dragged for FCAW.

Also when you are seeking help it sure helps a lot if you give the wire diameter and type being used.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

You swapped the polarity to DCEN and maxed out the wire feed and it still welded like bird poo zap.. zap.. zap.. just black blobs of weld.
Then having maxed out the wire feed.You then state you upped the wire feed.

Explain to me how is this possible? Maxed out indicates clearly that there can be no further movement left, but you go on to say you again upped the wire feed

Also know that the rest of the welding world is using Electrode Postive on FCAW. The instances where Electrode positive is in very heavy work-ship building and the like.
The problem you describe just screams that there is a burn back defect brought on by your crazy settings you have set on the machine .

A better machine will not help you when you have not taken the trouble to understand the basics of setting and adjustments of the process you are using.

For flux core work WIRE FEED dial settings and VOLTAGE dial are set carefully as create a "sweet spot" where the the wire will burn to maximum efficiency.
As well
Clean the Earth return clamp to job contact,
Ensure you are running the correct drive wheels,
Clean out or replace the liner (usually cleaning and blowing it out with an airline weld is sufficient.
There MUST be an easy flow of the wire through the liner. Check all areas from the spring tension on the rolls, through the liner cable -no bends or dents in the liner to the gun making sure the contact tip is clean and sized OK. There MUST be no drag on the wire feed.

Keep wire stick out at around 30mm

Also Drag the gun for FCAW. The gun is pushed for hard wire and dragged for FCAW.

Also when you are seeking help it sure helps a lot if you give the wire diameter and type being used.

Grahame

Settle Grahame, i upped the wire feed just the once to max think it went to 12m/min hence i thought something was wrong in DCEN so i swapped it back to DCEP and it ran nice welds or it was atlease weldable

I used the same wire speed and voltage in both DCEN and DCEP i had just turned up the wire feed on DCEP because it was showing signs of a low feed rate for the voltage hence the zap zap zap

The picture of the spool should show its .9mm wire there is no setting for .9mm wire so i had to enter manual mode like a regular mig welder, i did enter program 188 which is GMAW so maybe that was my problem i just realised that stands for gas metal arc welding.. bugger!!

I will try job/program 171 that is for flux core 1mm wire just i'll fine tune it for .9mm wire

OK first time today reading a chart like this pictured.. i got it all mixed up, just reading the chart now the correct way

I have E71T-11 .9mm wire so i need job 172

I have never read a chart like this before so i got it wrong i will update tomorrow

I got the same machine mate, I said it before. Trust me, I'm professional.

Short of the knurled / toothed rollers that you probably are not running with that machine, and having the correct feed roll tension (which doesn't need to be much at all- just enough to feed and no more).
You then need to ensure the correct polarity which would need to be changed to suit the specific recommendations of the wire you are running... Some self shielded wires are to be run electrode positive (electrode = MIG contact tip), some electrode negative. The short pigtail lead on that machine is the mig torch polarity- put it in the correct port, and the earth in the other.

After all that, you should be able to run the synergic job for the 0.8mm wire, and use the right side voltage trim knob to add a bit more heat / volts to the situation. Even run it at 0 volt trim on the 0.8mm settings to get ball-park - 0.1mm is a good difference in the machining world, but welding... not so much.

And if you can manage to weld on something other than scrap, you will get much more acceptable results. Grind, clean, repeat, get a good earth etc.

Set you wire feed speed and then adjust your trim/volts while you are welding till it sounds good.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Yeah i have it all sorted thanks guys i wss reading the whole chart as one but i now see the chart is split into 3 sections, there are no polarity drawing on the chart so that was confusing also hence i tried both ways but where i fell short was i was in GMAW setting and running flux core

I will give it a go shortly and post results

Thanks again

Done around 12 welds on flat bar but kept blowing holes or tge welds were too cold i couldnt find that sweet spot untill the last weld than i ran a open outside corner weld and nailed the settings perfect

Material is 2.5mm steel flat bar, alot of people say flux core is crap because there welds look horrible, well look at this weld from a quality machine very very impressed

Settings were 5.5m/min 17volts

Maybe try.doing a fillet tee joint and post a photo of that.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Hey guys im right in the thick of the lockdown from the virus my area is a hot spot so im unable to go pick up some aluminium i have also ran out of grinder cutting disc i have half a sheet of 4mm aluminum but no way of cutting it up

Can someone recommend a shop thats currently open that does home delivery, i want to order either 6 pieces of 150x4mm square sheet/flat bar or 12 pieces if the cutting fees are cheap

My local guy is in lockdown non essentials so likely closed and a bit pricey 100x100x4mm 6 pieces is $53 delivered from 30mins away

Looking to weld two cubes to dial in my machines one will be tig welded using the AIG 200 TIG ghe second box will be pulse mig welded to see which one im better at before i build a outboard pod for my tinny (will only be holding a 30hp engine)

Originally Posted by gazza2009au

I want something a bit more fancy a machine that can improve my shakey hands and run a better appearing weld kind of more smoother welds with less imput by me

The unimig is great but i have only ever used cheap machines, i had an esab caddy 155 the big transformer box on wheels now that machine was silky smooth welding aluminium but the machine was big and heavy

A

good luck with that, a MORE EXPENSE weld won,t help that, maybe you should be buying a stronger bourbon . calm those shaking hands, only joking mate.

bang for your buck, the uni mig wins. i have the 200 ac/dc plus two more 240v units, plus an old 375 three phase mig, that was flooded and survived, still goes great. parts avalible in Australia. but new machines are chinese now.
but usa brands are great, no question , but very expense.

Originally Posted by mick21

good luck with that, a MORE EXPENSE weld won,t help that, maybe you should be buying a stronger bourbon . calm those shaking hands, only joking mate.

bang for your buck, the uni mig wins. i have the 200 ac/dc plus two more 240v units, plus an old 375 three phase mig, that was flooded and survived, still goes great. parts avalible in Australia. but new machines are chinese now.
but usa brands are great, no question , but very expense.

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I'm a novice but I'm also a complete nut case when it comes to research and assessment. When I research something I go further than the "thing", I look at the people that design, make, sell and maintain it and the range of stuff you can get in connection with that "thing". Being in Australia, Unimig is a strong local brand with very good support and warranty and a head office that doesn't hesitate to respond quickly and supportively. Feature for feature the machines are good value and often come with attractive promotional bundles.

As stated, I'm a novice and the promo bundle Viper 185 was very attractive. Until you dip your foot in the water you don't even know what water is like .. so I very quickly realised that the Viper 185 isn't the welding machine I'm going to want mowing forward, in fact no one machine is going to do everything I want. that said, set up for flux core MIG and stick and dedicated to the "out of workshop" jobs, the Viper 185 will still be loved.

My early ignorance/innocence of TIG sophistication vanished as I learned about the different characteristics of TIG and the massive range of "stuff" available. After looking at TIG from a number of angles I targeted the Unimig Razor 200 ACDC TIG. The new T2 torches and the long life consumables recently released were also a contributing factor to the decision.

I'm going to get a bigger MIG/Stick machine that will live in the workshop and for this I'm probably going to go with the Unimig Razor 250 Compact. It'll support push-pull as well as spool guns and it has enough headroom to weld the thickest stuff I'm likely to want to tackle. Obviously I'd like a dual pulse MIG machine as a fully featured MIG monster .. but I do not believe you'll find dual pulse MIG features in a 250amp machine at a modest price. One thing I'm certain about .. a dual pulse MIG machine doesn't make a person a better welder and if I one day grow in skill I may be able to justify $5K+ on a dual pulse MIG.

Something that should be blatantly obvious in this thread .. if you have shakes, TIG will be a disaster relative to MIG, with MIG you can still steady the gun with both hands in most circumstances. I've seen a few clever techniques using supports and rollers/glides that may be advantageous on bench work. I've also noticed that people set themselves up to fail often through a combination of poor preparation and awkward work positions. Introduce poor gas flow, welding outdoors, incorrect settings and the wrong run rate and you are screwed.

One last thing I'll throw in and this is an opinion I've developed and I could be very wrong in this. I believe that trying to mimic a "stack of dimes" in a MIG weld to imitate the look of a TIG weld is a potentially dangerous thing to do. My understanding is that playing with the weld pool to mimic a stack impacts the weld penetration and may result in a poorer weld - particularly if the welder isn't extremely experienced. I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions on this.

Originally Posted by kevpun

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I'm a novice but I'm also a complete nut case when it comes to research and assessment. When I research something I go further than the "thing", I look at the people that design, make, sell and maintain it and the range of stuff you can get in connection with that "thing". Being in Australia, Unimig is a strong local brand with very good support and warranty and a head office that doesn't hesitate to respond quickly and supportively. Feature for feature the machines are good value and often come with attractive promotional bundles.

As stated, I'm a novice and the promo bundle Viper 185 was very attractive. Until you dip your foot in the water you don't even know what water is like .. so I very quickly realised that the Viper 185 isn't the welding machine I'm going to want mowing forward, in fact no one machine is going to do everything I want. that said, set up for flux core MIG and stick and dedicated to the "out of workshop" jobs, the Viper 185 will still be loved.

My early ignorance/innocence of TIG sophistication vanished as I learned about the different characteristics of TIG and the massive range of "stuff" available. After looking at TIG from a number of angles I targeted the Unimig Razor 200 ACDC TIG. The new T2 torches and the long life consumables recently released were also a contributing factor to the decision.

I'm going to get a bigger MIG/Stick machine that will live in the workshop and for this I'm probably going to go with the Unimig Razor 250 Compact. It'll support push-pull as well as spool guns and it has enough headroom to weld the thickest stuff I'm likely to want to tackle. Obviously I'd like a dual pulse MIG machine as a fully featured MIG monster .. but I do not believe you'll find dual pulse MIG features in a 250amp machine at a modest price. One thing I'm certain about .. a dual pulse MIG machine doesn't make a person a better welder and if I one day grow in skill I may be able to justify $5K+ on a dual pulse MIG.

Something that should be blatantly obvious in this thread .. if you have shakes, TIG will be a disaster relative to MIG, with MIG you can still steady the gun with both hands in most circumstances. I've seen a few clever techniques using supports and rollers/glides that may be advantageous on bench work. I've also noticed that people set themselves up to fail often through a combination of poor preparation and awkward work positions. Introduce poor gas flow, welding outdoors, incorrect settings and the wrong run rate and you are screwed.

One last thing I'll throw in and this is an opinion I've developed and I could be very wrong in this. I believe that trying to mimic a "stack of dimes" in a MIG weld to imitate the look of a TIG weld is a potentially dangerous thing to do. My understanding is that playing with the weld pool to mimic a stack impacts the weld penetration and may result in a poorer weld - particularly if the welder isn't extremely experienced. I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions on this.

what are you welding?
stack of dimes is just show boating, but people think its great, it might have certain uses, but i,ve not seen it in industry.
dual pulse mig, is that for aluminum? sounds like a specialized welder.
i just made a 3.2t tandem axle tipping trailer, i used my old uni mig, its seen better day though. not running to good in lower settings, but hot passes are good.
time for a new one. https://www.cigweld.com.au/product/t...-remote-plant/
is a multi process, plus has programable settings memory (im not affiliated with any welding company etc). comes in well under 5k. but even multi process 240v welders ive used on jobs, welders have come a very, very long way from the 1980,s, back then SIP brought out a 240 mig for diy,ers didn,t even work properly.
i checked out the uni mig compact, it looks good, the limiting factor for me is that its 240v, it will struggle with heavier sections over steel, it all depends on the work your doing.

Just going to unpack some of this for a well rounded discussion on these ideas:

Originally Posted by kevpun

Unimig is a strong local brand with very good support and warranty and a head office that doesn't hesitate to respond quickly and supportively. Feature for feature the machines are good value and often come with attractive promotional bundles.

I like to see welders as coming in 3 tiers:
Cheap and nasties
Chinese manufactured imports (rebranded, sold under licence)
Premium 'integrated' brands with pedigree
Ebay machines would be the cheap nasties- they all look the same, sometimes different colours, flimsy accessories / hardware. Usually come with a ping-pong paddle style welding hood and plastic chipping hammer
Unimig sits in the middle, same as cigweld, weldclass, WIA, boc red machines, rossi, tokentools, etc etc etc... these companies buy the rights to a machine model in a market based off a contracted volume of sales. The manufactures are the likes of Jasic, otai, CEA, Telwin. They paint it your colour, give it a flash name and sell you the inventory of spares (which you hope the importer keeps an inventory of).
Premium brands with a pedigree - design, manufacture and sell their product. From a staff of electrical engineers, to production lines, to the sales guy in a van - they own the brand. This is the ideal IMO - they know the products inside out, and they have the pereformance history to back it up. For those in the know who want a premium machine, brands like this are Lincoln Electric, Miller, Fronius, Lorch, Kemppi, EWM. These brands alone have over 500 years of collective welding design and manufacturing experience... and still going strong.
A mechanic will buy quality tools, a welder who relies on their machine for meeting their mortgage should also invest in proper machines to get the work done.

Originally Posted by kevpun

My early ignorance/innocence of TIG sophistication vanished as I learned about the different characteristics of TIG and the massive range of "stuff" available. After looking at TIG from a number of angles I targeted the Unimig Razor 200 ACDC TIG. The new T2 torches and the long life consumables recently released were also a contributing factor to the decision.

TIG equipment is like Lego - so many ways to mix and match the torches and consumables when you know how they work together. I'm not sold on the unimig T2 gear - I see what they are doing, and it's a push into a proprietary consumable range to lock in their users to their own gear. For me, the trusty old 3 series CK consumables for the 17 or 26 series torches will do me just fine. If I feel like getting fancy, I sometimes crack out the 2 series stubby gas lenses, bigger cups etc.

Originally Posted by kevpun

I'm going to get a bigger MIG/Stick machine that will live in the workshop and for this I'm probably going to go with the Unimig Razor 250 Compact. It'll support push-pull as well as spool guns and it has enough headroom to weld the thickest stuff I'm likely to want to tackle. Obviously I'd like a dual pulse MIG machine as a fully featured MIG monster .. but I do not believe you'll find dual pulse MIG features in a 250amp machine at a modest price. One thing I'm certain about .. a dual pulse MIG machine doesn't make a person a better welder and if I one day grow in skill I may be able to justify $5K+ on a dual pulse MIG.

There is merit in 'bigger'. To a point. Bigger machines will not be working as hard to meet the output for a larger weld / melting a thicker rod or wire. Usually people will be limited by their power source before anything else- most industry level machines are 3 phase. This is similar to putting about it a V8 just off idle, or screaming the tits off a honda civic to get the same effect...

On pulse migs / double pulse migs:
A quality machine CAN and DOES make a less than proficient welder 'better'. Quality machines have beter feedback loops between changes in voltage (stickout / resistance) and welding machine output ton compensate. So a shakey hand can be offset to some degree.
Add to this features like a MIG hot start, ramp up times, full adjustability of crater fill time (with our without a pulse)... and the benefits of a top tier machine can be huge. Business huge, not joe-blo in a shed huge...

Originally Posted by kevpun

One last thing I'll throw in and this is an opinion I've developed and I could be very wrong in this. I believe that trying to mimic a "stack of dimes" in a MIG weld to imitate the look of a TIG weld is a potentially dangerous thing to do. My understanding is that playing with the weld pool to mimic a stack impacts the weld penetration and may result in a poorer weld - particularly if the welder isn't extremely experienced. I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions on this.

Pulse plays a big part in production welding. For example:
Aluminium welding with double pulse can create 'MIG like TIG' appearance of a weldment through properly set peak and base voltages and wire speeds. Like anything- if it isn't set correctly, you'll get the usual defects like undercut, lack of fusion in the toes, crater cracking/ fisheyes, etc.
Pulse can be used to limit heat input to a weld, allowing less distortion of thinner materials, while maintaining proper wire melt rates.
Pulse can also be used to allow Spray transfer OUT OF POSITION. Non-pulsed GMAW in spray is used in the horizontal position only... HUGE productivity advantages if your weld arc on time directly affects your business' bottom line.

I'll top this all off with the obvious fact that most of the home gamers out there will baulk at the idea of a $20K dual pulse, 3-phase, water cooled MIG machine from a pedigree brand. I get it. Most home users will be playing with the single phase, sub 200A chinese machines, and that's OK. Industry is a whole different proposition though.
...A business who can look at some of their costs like power consumption, labour costs/ wages, filler material bills, timelines for jobs and linear meters of welds, can have a 20K machine paid for itself in under a year. on an asset that will last many more to come. The cost of being slow, doing re-work, spending extra time on weld prep bevels etc... it's a no-brainer.

Originally Posted by kevpun

I'm going to get a bigger MIG/Stick machine that will live in the workshop and for this I'm probably going to go with the Unimig Razor 250 Compact. It'll support push-pull as well as spool guns and it has enough headroom to weld the thickest stuff I'm likely to want to tackle.

I have a unimig 250MTS. I really love it. I give it a hard time. Running 1.2mm hard facing wire at high feed speeds and voltages. Probably put 50kg of 4mm, 8018 stick electrodes and recently carbon arc gouging with 6mm carbon rods.

I bought a tig handpiece for it and while I am not a good tig welder. For the odd jobs it is great. I also got a push pull gun for it and mig welded to repair some aluminium.

At this point in time for the price I can not fault it, in fact I am surprised I have not managed to kill it. Could it be better? For sure it could be, but probably not at that price point.