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MTS 211Si wire feed speed / voltage
This post picks up where the EverLast forum with the same subject left off.



Hi Kevin and Mark,
First thank you for the responses. I am not trying to ruffle any feathers or bad mouth the 211Si. I was just trying to understand what to expect from the welder. I sent this data and more to EverLast tech support on Oct 28. I ended my email with the following - "any suggestions would be most welcome. Also, I would not be insulted if you say my data is crap and suggest a different way to test". The only response I received was to send the unit back. So I assumed it was defective.

The reason I started testing at all was the poor results I was getting in Synergic mode (also info I sent to EverLast). The settings were just too hot using 030 Lincoln ER70S-6 on 1/4" mild steel. It appears others may have also reported this. So I went to Standard mode and was going to use the voltage and wire speed charts from Miller, Lincoln, Hobart, ... to set up the welder. But first I thought it best to determine how well the display setting corresponded to the actual performance. As Mark noted machine to machine differences should be expected.

First, for the wire voltage. I did indeed use a cheap meter but compared it to my lab meter at 20V and it was set within .05 volts. I also added an RC circuit to help smooth out the modulated output from the welder. I would have connected my oscilloscope but the meter and display voltage correlated fairly well so I did not bother. My concern with the data I collected was not the absolute value of the voltage but the voltage variation. I have no problem blaming my welding technique for the voltage variation. I was just trying to figure out what offset I should use for the display setting versus the welder output. In the testing my standard deviation averaged about 0.4 volts. If EverLast feels that better technique would flatten out the variation I would accept that.

Second, for the wire speed. I think my data is fairly accurate and the wire speed on my unit was significantly higher than the display setting. Reference counting feed roller rotations and correlating that to speed. To determine the "effective diameter" of the feed roller I set the tension while feeding wire with the gun angled against a piece of wood. Then with the gun still against the wood I ran the wire thru 10 rotations and measured the amount of wire feed (I did this twice). The calculated diameter from the test was 1.154" while the measured roller diameter was 1.165" (within 1%). But Mark raised some good points on what would effect wire speed, although I would think increased back tension or jamming of the wire at the tip would put a strain on the motor and slow it down. The rotation to rotation and run to run data consistently shows higher than displayed speed.
I scrubbed all my feed speed data and collected it below. The difference from the previous data is at 400 in/min, where the scrubbed multiple run data also shows the speed is higher than the display.

Name: Wire Speed 1.jpg Views: 388 Size: 157 Bytes

So with all that said, I would still like to have the 211Si over any other welder I have looked at. All I need to know is what to expect for the settings in relationship to the actual so I can set it up properly.

Thanks again for any input.
Gene