SIP migmate mods

The SIP migmate series of welders are/were an affordable mig but they suffered from a terrible wire feed.

A friend of mine owns one and as I was bored and he wasn't using it he brought it over for some lookin.

There are a few documented mods that they are treated to as can be found on mig-welding.co.uk forum mig-welding.co.uk/forum

To Robs mig i added a 1.5A 24dc power supply as a dedicated wire feed. this would stop the feed stepping up with the welding voltage and varying under load.

lifted from mig-welding.co.uk

Also a relay to trigger it was connected to operate simultaneously with the welding current transformer. This is also arranged in such a way to short out the motor to stop it dead, over-running being oner of the little migs issues.I zip tied it to the heat sink on the card.

 before

 

after

Robs SIP has a metal feeder liner not the plastic one so that doesnt need upgrading. I would like to change the gas hose to accept a normal gas regulator and brace the wire feed rollers together as they do spread slightly when tensioning but Rob wants his mig back!

until the next one

Chewie

Welder maintenance 2

EVERY single welding workshop has a lead like this. Go and look.

Blackened and horrible. But it still works so why fix it?
Volt drop, that's why. The damage on the contact points are creating a high resistance and dropping your voltage at the weld.
Welding is a Low-Voltage exercise anyway so dropping a couple of volts will affect your weld quality.

Usually not a big deal with MMA (stick) but fluctuating voltages will cause issues with your Mig welding especially. Ever had you welder not weld the same even though the settings and material are the same?

The effort spent cleaning the work piece is wasted if the clamp is this dirty.

In this case also the lug connection on the clamp end is slightly loose and corroding as is the cable.
The Dinse plug on the end is very worn and will also result in the voltage drop mentioned earlier.

This is now 3 points on one lead that have a drop. It ads up and can affect your finished weld. Its also likely that the torch end has enough problems to overcome without the earth adding to them.

In short, keep your connections tight and your contacts clean.


TTFN
Chewie

Marshall VS8080

Well, that was a bust.
The tube arrived in the post today. Plugged it into the base and........... it works.

Was hoping for something more exciting I suppose. Just bought a $300 amp for $60.

The volume potentiometer is bad though and a few others too so I'll replace them in time.

A pic of the two tubes. The pink Lines mark points in the Glass where a blackening is on the old but not the new. They are both 12ax7 tubes.

Old           New

Going to have to find some other shit to fix.
thanks for watching

marshall 8080 crispy

Couldnt wait for the Tubes to turn up so popped the box open.
Crispy

A previous repair job has been done. The components (high wattage resisters) all seem fine, this may not be my issue but definately has me scratching my head on how to get around this.

Have dug up, on the Dr Tube  website, the schematics for a JCM800 series 50watt amp running a 12inch speaker.
Thats my new worst case scenario plan

Marshall Valvestate 8080

And now for something completely different.
Having recently sold my huge guitar amp i needed a smaller alternative.
Having basically wasted a pile of money on the huge amp in the first place, the subsequent sale left me needing something cheap.
Up popped this nifty 80watt combo for low-low dollars.
One catch.
It doesn't work.


YAY. Two needs filled.
Didn't even waste time chatting too much with the guy, just dropped him 2 lobsters (Aussie slang) and dragged it home.
Plugged it in and sure nuff, don't work. Some weak output and crackling when the master vol is turned.
At this stage I've ordered a replacement preamp tube. It only has one so i figure for $20 its a worthwhile spare anyhow.
Also downloaded and printed the schematic from Dr Tube so safety net in place!

A welcome change from the Mig welders as all they have needed was reassembly and parts replacement. This is my first foray into Amplifiers and hopefully I don't Fuck it up completely.
All else fails I'll glue the "Marshall" script to my toolbox.

Krank Engineering

A plug for a Kustom Konsiderate Engineer!
Matt Mcleod of Krank Engineering. anyone willing to try designing an adr compliant beam extender for a VW beetle is Mad enough for me!!!!!!!!!

http://krankengineering.com/

ps, Matt, hows my entry?

Small mods, Big difference

A few years ago i bought a band saw, brand new.
It's a vertical/horizontal unit and it does what I need it to do.

One thing I always hated was the Phillips screws that held in the table. Never could get a screwdriver in straight enough to put enough torque on them. The table wobbled and the heads stripped after only a few uses.

Lucky for me the threads were M6 and I got some M6 countersunk cap heads from work and they dropped right in.

Much tighter, more stable and I'm actually happy to use the existing table when I need that kind of thing.

Just shows how a small mod can make  a huge difference to a machine!


Another thing I did to this bansaw was to connect a socket to the output so I could run a vacuum cleaner while its running and stop it when it stops.
I use it to cut wood and plastic at times and the constant running Vac was annoying.


thanks

hobart RC-300

Well finally getting into the "Hobo". When i picked it up, the guy said he never had it plugged in(!) but was told it wouldn't adjust wire speed.
I plugged it in and indeed any speed you wanted so long as it was full speed.
A little metering and the potentiometer was the culprit.
Bought 2 replacements for $10 and now it is regulating wonderfully.

Then it soured. The gas line to the handpiece has perished and the control cable has broken as well.
The unit is a push pull type with a feeder built into the handpiece.
I need to find some options on the hose type.probably just blg some air line from work.

I do have a spare tweco gun and wirefeeder but i like the push pull thing. I'll need it working eventually!

Gumtree ettiquette

a small rant today
had a bloke arrange to meet me yesterday arvo to buy one of my welders.
spent a couple of hours getting a space and a bit of steel ready so he could try it  out
the time came- no show.
waited, cursing, for him to at least call.
NOTHING
is it so hard to ring and let me know?
this isnt the first time its happened. must be three or four wankers who have wasted my time and several of my friends have had similar experiances. it isnt that bloody har dto send a text, is it?
jokes on them. i work nights and someting round 2 am on a wednesday i'll make my call- from a blocked number of course