Fabricators and welders whats your weapon of choice?

[Garage Dog 65]

I have the Miller Diversion 165. I don't do Tig welding of thick materials - I use my Mig for that work.

Jim

[gearheads78]

Originally Posted by Garage Dog 65

I have the Miller Diversion 165. I don't do Tig welding of thick materials - I use my Mig for that work.

Jim

The Diversion looks pretty nice but I am afraid of outgrowing it too soon.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by gearheads78

The Diversion looks pretty nice but I am afraid of outgrowing it too soon.

Good thinkin' !!

I bought a Lincoln 175 SP -- used it about twice - gave it to a buddy - and bought a Miller 210 -- bigger tank - can weld real stuff... and once you have a great welder - there's "other things" you can do with it beside sheetmetal on a car -- like building yourself a real work table etc...

Thus my advice about skimping on the TIG machine - YES they're ridiculous - but even my Dynasty 200 can't weld the gauge of aluminum that I'd LIKE it to be able to.... which is anything above 1/4". Well - you don't think you'd do anything thicker than that -- but you will...

[gearheads78]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Good thinkin' !!

I bought a Lincoln 175 SP -- used it about twice - gave it to a buddy - and bought a Miller 210 -- bigger tank - can weld real stuff... and once you have a great welder - there's "other things" you can do with it beside sheetmetal on a car -- like building yourself a real work table etc...

Thus my advice about skimping on the TIG machine - YES they're ridiculous - but even my Dynasty 200 can't weld the gauge of aluminum that I'd LIKE it to be able to.... which is anything above 1/4". Well - you don't think you'd do anything thicker than that -- but you will...

You are not allowed to answer my posts any more. You are just going to cost me more money

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by gearheads78

You are not allowed to answer my posts any more. You are just going to cost me more money

FINE!!



My wife always tells our "non-car" friends - that I spend $10,000 to do a $1,000 job....

She's not far off!

[ccracin]

Originally Posted by gearheads78

You are not allowed to answer my posts any more. You are just going to cost me more money

Greg will do it to you every time!

[E.rodz]

I myself was on this fence you are on to .I was at a local welding shop and was loking at the new miller inverters and asked the guys at the welding shop what tig machine that they would buy and both the guys pointed to the miller syncrowave 250 and both replied that machine is tried and true and if anything goes wrong with it they could fix it in nothing flat but they could not even remember the last one that was in to be serviced. I looked around on the service benches and saw 3 new miller inverters and asked whats the most common thing that goes wrong with theese i wanted one because of the physical size was alot smaller with more options and after he showed me the stack of circut boards inside and told me they just keep throwing boards at it until they are fixed.needless to say i bought the oldskool syncrowave 250 the only thing that i don't like is the size of the welder but it is awsome.try this before you buy though.alot of contractors rent machines like this all the time and you can buy them for what ever the asking price minus the rental fees.i bought mine after the contractor that i work for rented the machine for 9 months and i bought it for 1200 bucks ask your local welding shop if they have any rental returns.remember if you want to weld aluminum you want nothing less than a 200 amp machine.

[gearheads78]

Wow you stole that thing. The least expensive 250 I have seen is 2500.00.

[Streetwerkz]

I love my Lincoln welders.
no problems to speak of.
parts are almost always 20 minutes away if a repair, or maintenance item is needed.

[GregWeld]

I spent a bunch of time today at both LINCOLN and MILLER booths at SEMA -- discussing technique and machines with the WELDERS that were there demoing stuff -- NOT THE SALESMAN... who probably never turned on a machine (LOL)... Got lots of good tips and tricks... but in the end - it's like golf - you can either hit the ball or you suck.... and that is true in welding. The brand makes little difference despite the fact that they do have differences.

I do sometimes wish my inverter TIG machine was 'larger' as in 300 amps -- but again - in the end - I'd use that much heat so seldom that it's not worth getting my panties in a knot over.

I did NOT like the new Lincoln 205 Inverter machine - they have a new front schematic to use for settings - and despite a thorough explanation - I still had NO CLUE what the settings 'diagram' was telling me. I suppose you'd get used to it - but to me - it was anything but intuitive.