I-MIG 250p Low Wire Speed

[zoama]

I've been out in the shop this morning measuring wire speed on my I-MIG 250p at every setting. I'm making myself a chart since there's nothing on the machine to indicate wire speed.
I've found that max wire speed is way below the 700ipm spec at 432ipm. I have an 11Lb roll of .035 steel wire on the machine, there's no tension on the roll since you can only tension a 33LB/44LB roll due to design.
The drive roller tension is set to 3 front and rear. This is the minimum tension for consistent feed (no slippage of the feed rollers) tested by pulling the trigger with the gun against the table at a 45 degree angle.
With the "amp" dial pointing straight up to 140, I get 210ipm. Pointing to 250 I get 380ipm. Turned fully to the right (max) I get 432ipm.
The machine is running on 240v measured at the plug.

Any ideas ?

[geezer]

I've been out in the shop this morning measuring wire speed on my I-MIG 250p at every setting. I'm making myself a chart since there's nothing on the machine to indicate wire speed.
I've found that max wire speed is way below the 700ipm spec at 432ipm. I have an 11Lb roll of .035 steel wire on the machine, there's no tension on the roll since you can only tension a 33LB/44LB roll due to design.
The drive roller tension is set to 3 front and rear. This is the minimum tension for consistent feed (no slippage of the feed rollers) tested by pulling the trigger with the gun against the table at a 45 degree angle.
With the "amp" dial pointing straight up to 140, I get 210ipm. Pointing to 250 I get 380ipm. Turned fully to the right (max) I get 432ipm.
The machine is running on 240v measured at the plug.

Any ideas ?

I cannot explain why that spec say's 700 ipm, nobody needs that kind of wire speed, you need faster wire speed when you have thinner wire, however you must keep in mind that a wire has a certain useable limit range....023 wire has a range of between 30 and 90 amps that's 100 to 400 ipm,,,,thicker wire requires slower speeds for it's useable range ...example...045 wire goes from 75 to 250 amps and only requires a wire speed of 70 to 270 ipm,,,well within you machines ability to do that.....so not to worry about having 438 ipm....you have plenty of wire speed to use all the wires available to their practicle limits.

[Ray]

Zoama,
The published spec is wrong, I think it may have been originally mis-converted. And should have been corrected, but mat have been missed somewhere.
The actual spec is 12 Meters per second. Which is close to what you’re getting. This should be enough for any proper combination of wire size and voltage. I’m not sure what the display is intended to represent but is mostly just for reference.
Personally I agree with geezer, 700 ipm, is just crazy speed for anything, even spray transfer.

[Ray]

FYI.

655-Spool-Spool-Roll-Adaptor-for-Power-IMIg250P-DYI

[zoama]

FYI.

655-Spool-Spool-Roll-Adaptor-for-Power-IMIg250P-DYI

Thanks for the info... I havn't had any problems with backlash but I'll make a spacer just in case.

[performance]

As you know wire speed and amps are two sides of the same coin. The panel as you see it, is in actual amps. I believe, though when you set the wire speed, it will display in "rough" IPM. Then when welding it converts over to amp display. Or at least that is how it was on the early models. If you are going to measure it, measure it with the wire running free.

The mistake was mine early on in some of the literature, and discussions from the factory, a mistake was made or a misunderstanding took place somewhere. We had originally specified all of our welders to be able to run with .023 wire. That type of wire speed is needed for that size wire. The reality is that for a heavy duty enough wire feeder, you sacrifice RPM for torque. Our choices on quality wire feed mechanisms are limited to Binzel, which makes a good one. I can't to date remember any serious issues with them. The problem is that the feeders won't put out that much speed from Binzel that will handle a larger wire diameter, up to .045. So, all our units instead of running .023 are limited to .030 for a minimum, which requires a lower wire speed. But the interesting observation I have made, is that the .030 in our machine runs nearly as good if not the same as .023 in other machines, so far as the thin metal capability I have experienced, especially with using the arc force control.

[zoama]

It's fine, the machine runs well, I was just curious about the specs.
I'd really love to see some video of an experienced user setting this machine up and running some beads.

[Jake98]

It's fine, the machine runs well, I was just curious about the specs.
I'd really love to see some video of an experienced user setting this machine up and running some beads.

Me too, I'd really like to see one of those in action. Why is it that thinner wire needs more speed? Seems sort of backwards.. or is it that thinner wire needs more speed to develop the amps you'd need for thicker metal, rather than switching to a heavier wire?

[geezer]

Me too, I'd really like to see one of those in action. Why is it that thinner wire needs more speed? Seems sort of backwards.. or is it that thinner wire needs more speed to develop the amps you'd need for thicker metal, rather than switching to a heavier wire?

You almost answered your own question,,,,think of AMPS as the heat or ability to melt a certain weight of wire,,,,the same amount of wire by weight ,,,would be longer in a thinner wire than a thicker wire,,,,hence the need to run faster to get that amount of thin wire out of out of the gun... the amps are the same the wire length is different in each thickness to produce the same amount of heat/AMPS.