MIG-250 Inert Gas Inverter Welding Machine, MIG MAG + E-Hand IGBT, 250 Amp, 230 V

Took a chance buying this NTF machine after a lot of research and I'm so glad I did. This welder is VERY similar to the R-Tech MIG250 and the similarities are not just in the look of the machine. They both use Siemens IGBTs, will weld at 250A (about 8mm steel thickness max) and although I have not done a detailed comparison of the innards I suspect they are suppplied from the same source. There are differences however - the R-Tech has a digital display of welding amps (which is only displayed when actually welding so hard to see the use of this) and has excellent customer service and warranty. (I own an R-Tech plasma cutter and I have to say it's excellent!) I have used 5kg spools of 0.6mm and 0.8mm wire but not tested with 1.0mm wire. (Note you will need another guide roller for 0.6mm wire as the unit only comes with a roller for 0.8/1.0mm wire). I can't fault the unit in any way (owned it for a couple of months now) especially the all metal wire feed and robust drive motor, which is usually the bane of cheap welders. The unit came from Germany, and I made sure I chose the buying option to have it supplied by Amazon in case it arrived faulty or whatever (I've never had any problem returning items through Amazon). I tried the stick (MMA) welding option and it seemed to run 3.2mm 6013 rods very smoothly but haven't spent much time on this as I don't really do much outside work and bought it for MIG mainly. I use it with Hobbyweld15 gas which seems perfectly suited. You would probably be OK for most jobs from a 13A outlet but if you want to make full use of the 250A using 1.0mm wire on thicker materials you should run it from a 32A supply. What I would say is that the user manual is not great and there is no guidance on settings for power/wire speed, although as another reviewer mentioned, the settings in the R-Tech MIG 250 manual (available on the R-Tech website) work fine as I have used them. If the German supplier NTF got their act together with a better written, more comprehensive manual I'm sure they would sell a hell of a lot more of these welders. Seems a silly economy IMHO. I guess if your priority is warranty and customer service then go for the R-Tech but at over £300 less I'm very happy I chose this NTF machine.

Not set it up yet because I am concerned about the power lead. It has come fitted with a 2 pin continental plug so I think earthing will be a problem. Can anyone advise on what to do?

I have been using this welder now for >1 months for 0.8mm wire for mild steel/Argon5 and ocasionally 3.2mm 6013 & 7018 electrodes (After getting very fustrated with a 1980's 100A SIP buzzbox). After some initial experimentation with settings / stock thickness etc. is is running beattifully...but it took a while.. don't expect to get things right straight away with settings with this machine, as documentation and support(?) for this unit is limited. i.e. mma rods tend to run a little hot and blow holes in thin stock if potmeter is cranked. Mma anti-stick at start is great. IMHO a VERY good solid unit for the price and if you are prepared to do a little experimentation & tweak for ~1/2 price for a similar branded unit then go for it. By the way I don't know how much more robust the inverter technology (IGTB) vs the old style heavy transformer / copper weight units would be in the long run...Only time will tell

Very pleased with welder has a lot of power for a little welder, burns in nice. Would say best value for money welder on the market

its all right so for i keep hearing bad things i about them sort of welders saying they dont last long

good welder ,but the hand book is useless no info on welding parameters or wire speeds to material thickness . haven't found any info on line .

Really good well made. Not had any trouble with the roller mechanism nor the gun. Came from Germany.

You can find a weld setting chart on the r-tech site as they buy there machinery from the same source