Showing posts with label REVIEW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label REVIEW. Show all posts

REVIEW: Telwin Bimax 132 MIG welder review (with tool cart)

After years of services, it's time to review my actual MIG welder: 

Telwin BIMAX 132


If you don't know Telwin, please head to their site (http://www.telwin.com/) and discover which kind of product they have in portfolio. Telwin is Italian based productor from more than 50 years of the finest welders, plasma and more. Their market is Automotive, Industrial, Professional and Consumer, and if you know some of their products, you know the high quality and reliability: especially in the automotive market (you know for sure some titled Italian brand, Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini), so you can imagine the high standard the Italian industry professional requires also from these products.

I own this model from lot of years (more than ten if I could remember), I could say I learned to weld with this machine, without external help. In fact this is the most remarkable feature I would like to highlight from this consumer-grade machine: forgive you for any error.
I never had any trouble, except the fact I had to learn how to setup correct polarity, speed of wire, current setting, in relation to the work. In these years I learned how to improve my skills with wire welders, improving also technical and cleanliness of results.

This little machine, i bought without any expectation from a big of the house improvement distribution chain, is capable to deliver 105 Ampere with duty cycle of 15% (this mean that you can weld with this current for the 15% of time) and 50 Ampere with duty cycle of 60%.
What can you expect with these characteristic? Lower range can solder 0.6 mm sheet metal without distorting so much, with upper range, I created a L shaped steel frame with thickness of 10mm!
I learned also you can fill fill easily holes or separations between pieces of metal.

Just to give you an idea, following a photo of a big steel frame (2.5 meters by 2.5 meters) welded with this little machine without pain and distortion:

You can solder with gas or without gas, I prefer without gas with animated wire, because I don't want to complicate my weldings with Gas refurbishment, and I found with NoGas the results are more than acceptable: simply fill with a spool ranging from 0.6mm to 1.0 mm and forgive it.
Another characteristic I would like to highlight is that this machine can accept 5kg spool of wire.

This beauty can solder Aluminium, Steel, Inox with GAS (mix of CO and Argon) and Steel without GAS (animated wire, or wire with flux inside). Plastics are durable, but most of the machine is made of well power painted metal.

What I could say is not really a portable welder (21 Kg) so I built a small cart, quite different from the ones you can find in the market, because is really simple and designed for earth work (the welding gun start from a lower height), but occasionally you can weld on a higher surface like on a table.

For sure you experimented the dross problem on the tip, especially if as me you are not so expert and use animated wire. Cleaning the drosses is really easy and every consumable tip last from my experience at least 2Kg of wire. Replacement is easy and cost nothing. I never had to change the guard of the tip, always cleaned with metal brush.

More photos:


Taking a low center of gravity, allowed me to pull it in the shop without worry to overturn it.
A big improvement a simple hook to roll over the cables.) Spot-welding can be carried out on overlapped metal sheet with a maximum thickness of 0.8 mm.

I found also after all these years is yet on the market, which is a meaning of lucky and reliable product, so you can find at very affordable price also on internet (actually less more than 350 euros). But I remember I bought ten years ago for lot less, so seems like this machine gained value in these years...

How can you read, I'm very satisfied of this product, despite I tried some modern eletronic chinese product, this welder for me is unsurpassed in quality and price.

Five Star!

REVIEW: Rhino Industrial 5200

I bought an industrial label writer after a bit of research.
My choose was to buy a RHINO INDUSTRIAL 5200 Labelwriter.
The package includes:
  • Rhino Industrial 5200 Label Maker
  • 3/4" White IND Vinyl Label Cartridge
  • 3/8" White IND Vinyl Label Cartridge
  • User Manual CD-ROM
  • Quick Reference Guide
  • AC Adapter
  • Carry Case
  • Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery

Overall impression.

The value-for-money is high, i bought it for 99 euros on Amazon, considering also that are included 2 cartridges. The only missing feature is the usb connectivity, available on the model 6000 for the double of the price.
From the manufacturer description: "It's just as easy to print module and fixed-length labels, horizontal and vertical wire wraps, terminal and 110 blocks and much more. Print Code 39 and Code 128 barcodes. Access 100+ industry symbols, fractions, and punctuation marks with a few quick keystrokes."

Pros

  1. The Rhino 5200 is a rugged object, and the hard case kit is really well made.
  2. I like the rechargeable battery, because i don't have to buy batteries.
  3. On screen illumination is good, and overall ergonomy is fine, features are easily found without the manual.

Cons

  1. I don't like so much the cutting mechanism, because once cutted the label comes sticky to the side channel plastic and is difficult to extract, in particular with small ones.
  2. The label itself requires clean hands to be peeled and is not always pratical.

Update: Multi line labels.
Rhino 5200 can print multi line labels, depending from label width:

Update: Symbols
Rhino 5200 is equipped with a set of symbols printable near text
Rhino 5200 Symbols, click to enlarge

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored to write this review, is a good product and i recommend it because i'm satisfied.

Announcing a new blog: PRO TOOLS REVIEW

I've just created a new blog: protoolsreview.blogspot.com. Extensive review of workshop power tools with interactive charts, deep technical data analysis, photos and comparison.
In the first post: 29 Circular Saw comparison: Makita, Bosch, Hitachi and DeWalt



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