More Lidl questions

[Tony Pratt 1]

On Tony Pratt 1 Said:

On Tony Pratt 1 Said:

Well I actually bought the Parkside gasless MIG welder a month ago and from my practice pieces it seems to work ok, as has been said the operators skill is important and there are plenty of videos around to assist your learning.

Never thought about interference from it, why would I as there are pages of bumf on the regulations it complies with? If I ever use it in anger I will report back.

Tony

The manual does say ‘not for commercial use’ and that the welder is a class A device that can be used in all areas except living areas and areas which are directly connected to a low voltage supply that (also) supplies residential buildings. It also does mention in detail about radiated interference. Also it is intended for use in an ‘industrial environment’. so confusing at best?

Exactly, thse welders and plasma cutters are not legally fit for either hobby or professional use. The conducted emissions and harmonics are too high to allow use on a non-industrial mains supply. Their durability and duty cycles are such that the supplier prohibits their use professionally for liability reasons. The only way they could legally be used is if you are doing hobbyist work on a site that has an industrial supply with no connection to domestic premises.
This does not mean they don’t work. Equally just because the user is not aware of ill effects does not mean they are not there.

One effect of harmonic currents is overheating of transformers in the mains distribution system. No I’m not suggesting the Heathrow black-out was caused by a Lidi welder. But the increasing use of electronic power supplies that generate harmonics IS putting additional stress on the electrical infrastructure that was designed and built before widespread use of these devices was envisioned.

Robert.

[southernchapParticipant @southernchap]

Coo, there’s a whole load of ‘grumpy old man willy-waving’/’arguing on the internet’ on this thread. 😀

Nice to see some sensible replies from Tony Pratt1 and OldIron. 😉

I initially was put off by the ‘residential power supply’ thing, but then it occurred to me that perhaps it was talking about 110 vs 220/230/240 voltage supply.  Eh, maybe that was rubbish, but whatever, in any case, I bought one of the B2 models (for about £70) and have used it for a few small jobs.

Firstly, the specs say up to 3mm thickness of steel can be welded.  That’s wrong.  I tried out a few practice pieces and I got decent penetration on a couple of bits of 5mm EN3 at the max 3mm setting (it’s a ‘synergic’ welder, or supposed to be at least, you just set the thickness of the steel and leave it to work out the wire feed and amps).  At the max setting it seemed a bit toasty for 3mm plate (although maybe with my poor welding technique I was dwelling too long).  I should say, I have yet to buy any other wire than what was supplied.

Secondly, it’s a flux core welder, so it’s going to splatter some.  It wasn’t that bad though; a bit of scrubbing and scraping cleaned most of the worst splatter off .  Better quality wire may have reduced this further.

Thirdly, it’s a cheap flux core welder.  The combination of my poor welding technique and the fact that it’s built to a price, means one can only expect so much.  The three jobs I did with it didn’t require a fine cosmetic appearance, nor were they large jobs with long periods of welding; they just required functional adequacy.  The little Lidl welder performed perfectly well.

Fourthly, having used this welder plugged into a 15 amp residential circuit, I can report that no breakers tripped, the local power grid remained stable, no aircraft control systems were affected, and both Radio 3 and TMS on long wave were perfectly listenable on local wireless sets!

Just for context, the jobs I did were:

Welding four 5mm plates to the four corners of a stand for a 3’x2′ cast iron surface plate.  I had to go pick up the plate and stand and I underestimated the size of the stand and so it wouldn’t fit in my car.  So I got the chap at the place I picked up from, to plasma cut the bottom portions of the four legs off the stand.  I wanted to bolt on four machine adjustable feet/casters where those missing leg portions were, thus welding on the four plates.  The surface plate weighs 260 Kg and the stand about 100Kg (thank God for the engine hoist I have!) and I’ve had the surface plate and stand for about 9 months since I did those welds, and I have (with some effort I’ll grant, this thing has some inertia!) shoved the surface plate about my garage workshop not a few times.  There are no signs of any problems with the welds.  Thankfully the aesthetic horror of those welds are hidden undeneath!

Fabricating a table (also using 5mm plate, and a couple of pieces of 40mm box section) that can be clamped in the vice to give my Warco 5″ portable horizonal band saw, the ability to convert to a vertical bandsaw.  I’ve used that table a fair bit and again, no signs of any weakness in the welds (although I have had to learn not to look at the welds; it’s not easy to make a straight cut when you’re retching at that level of ugliness!  Ought to get round to getting the little battery angle grinder (also Lidl) on the welds to tidy them up a bit).

11 little tack welds on a piece of 2mm plate to make a hanger for screwdrivers to get them up on the wall (holes drilled in the plate, 3mm dia ‘pegs’ welded into the holes; you know the kind of thing).  I had to turn the controls down to just over 1mm to avoid burning through the 2mm plate (again, maybe that’s my technique, though).

By the time this little welder breaks (and I dare say it will eventually), I’ll either buy something of a bit higher quality or, if the Lidl B2 units happen to be available in the middle of Lidl during the period between when mine breaks and when I need to do some welding, I’ll just buy another one.

Now, I like to buy my metrology new by Mitutoyo (or lightly used, by the likes of TESA or Compac), spanners by Wera, hex keys by Bondhaus, files by Pferd (or even better, Stubbs new old stock, when I spot them on eBay), new old stock or ‘ground once’ HSS tool stock by the likes of Osborn or Cleveland and slot drills/end mills new by the likes of Clarkson.

All that said, I’ve got an almost certainly Chinese, perfectly good MT3 ER32 collet chuck that produces cuts as accurately as my very well looked after Osborn Titanic II chuck.  All the ER32 collets are from China too (and yes, I cleaned and checked for any swarf or debris in the slots before using).  My multimeters are all Chinese apart from one Fluke that I was given by a friend, and they all produce the same results.

If I were doing a lot of welding, I’d might well have spent high hundreds on a welder, (and my welding would be probably be much improved by the practice!) but as a hobbyist who doesn’t do much welding at all, even mid to long term, that would be a waste of my money.

Not every one needs a Deckel FP1, and can get by perfectly well with a cheap Chinese mini-mill (or as I have, a used Taiwanese Warco Minor).

If we wonder why there are far fewer people interested in hobby machining/model engineering these days, I’d posit one of the contributing factors is almost certainly threads like these, on forums like this, where old blokes who have never used a budget (in other words accessible to people who don’t have £2000 to spend on a ‘proper quality’ brand) bit of kit, ignorantly dismiss it out of hand.

 

 

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

By the way they have a “rivet nut” tool at the moment. Not seen that before. Didn’t think I wanted one until I got home which is probably a good thing.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

In my defence I’ve never said Parkside tools don’t do the job, they do. And I buy them. Just this week I bought a planer. £29 and perfectly good for the light work I have in mind. A “value” planer from B&Q/Screwfix is 30% more expensive and doesn’t have the park rest or rebate guide.

The thing wth EMI hazards is that while rare they can can have high consequences. Additionally the person causing it is generally unaware of the resulting havoc.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I bought another Lidl Parkside tool today, a 4V soldering iron, £8. According to the book, it can work for 30 minutes, and being only 30 seconds heat up time, with no cord, it looks like being very convenient for small jobs. I used the long supplied cable to charge it from an old USB charger.  I already have the 20V soldering iron, but that still needs a cable between the iron and the battery stand.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Southernchap –

Regarding spatter, there are preparations for preventing the droplets from adhering. You’d probably only find them sold by stockists of welding materials; but it may be worth a try.

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

Southernchap –

Regarding spatter, there are preparations for preventing the droplets from adhering. You’d probably only find them sold by stockists of welding materials; but it may be worth a try.

The can of anti-spatter spray I keep with my welder came from Lidl….

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