I need a new welder. I was thinking a tig as I only use it for personal use. I have to weld body work on my cars and truck. I also do frame work on the truck and will be doing alot of welding on a new project car I got from the cl***ifieds. I'm Not sure what size or model to get. I always thinks there's an angle with the sales guys at the local shop. Different day different reccomendation. I would also possible look at a used unit.
Miller or lincoln. My advice would be to not go with a flux core set up either. Also you can look on craigslist, there are usually some good deals on migs and other tools.
If you are thinking about a Tig I would reccomend checking out Millers line of inverters. They are a bit more expensive but are awesome little units and now they are capable of AC.current so you can weld aluminum without having to have a "big" welder. They also run off of 120v or 220V power! Thermal dynamics also makes a nice inverter unit but I am not sure if they are capable of AC. I used to be a Lincoln guy but after using Miller welders especially their Tig welders for the last several years nothing compares to Millers arc stability. Ultimately when it comes to buying a welder - Any welder don't cheap out you will only be dissapointed with the results.
i have a miller 210 and a lincoln 180... i myself like the lincoln better.... it can do up to 3/8 on one p*** and down to like 24 ga dont quote me on that though... i know it will do some thin ****... and NO FLUX CORE
Go miller. Miller has a lot of different options for the tig. If you want a basic tig that will do AC and DC then you could go with the Miller Syncrowave 200. Nice machine for under 3 grand. For double the money the Miller Dynasty series is awesome! Highly recommend this TIG.
For every weldor, there's a welder they prefer. I started out with a small 110 Mig, quickly outgrew it, went to a roll-around 110, and it couldn't keep up. I was constantly waiting for it to cool down. Finally after a number of years, I bought a Hobart 220 Mig welder that had been dropped new, and repaired back at the factory. It was a big discount, so I bought it. A 220 Mig is pretty much what every garage needs in it. The next up is a 3-phase 100% duty cycle rig, that only commercial outfits can afford. Unless your doing chrome-molly tubing, or metals other than steel, the Tig will sit around unused. Frame work and body panels are usually done with a Mig. Disclaimer: I a hobbiest, not a professional.
The Dynasty is Da bomb!! You can weld ****in gum wrappers together with one of those babys! I must admit though that I own A Lincoln 255 Mig and a Square wave 175 Tig and they are both Sweet units but I use a 400 amp Miller Synchrowave at work and it blows the doors off my Lincoln!
Thanks guys I have narrowed it down to the lincoln preccision 275 or the synchrowave 250dx. there are good deals on used units on kijiji and one privately locally. I am doing my dream traditional hot rod and what to take my time and lay down some nice clean *****in welds. I am going to use the tig for 98% of the welding and only use my mig to tack things in place. Thanks for all the feed back and opinions.
Anything with , "The Power of Blue", I didnt know there were even any other brand of welders out there, well except Hobart, sister company to Miller.
just got a synchrowave 200 off of the cl***ified section on here ...nice machine... your gonna need a huge bottle of pure argon it really goes through it ..and dont expect to lay down b*** style welds for a while its gonna take a while to get em laying down nice and looking good
As a hobbyist at home and a having worked with four different wire machines at work, I really like Miller. I prefer a unit that has a amperage low/high power level switch, sheetmetal to nuclear war, along with the manual amperage selector switch. I thnk the digital stuff is neat as hell, but not necessary for what I will do. Miller has a rig that has the spoolgun option. Good if you want to weld aluminum, etc, as a built in "secondary welding rig".
I have a Lincoln 185 and like it. Rod and Custom did a pretty decent article on welders I think last month. Do a search on their website. It should have the whole article on it. There was a nice Miller in the article (don't remember the model) that I would consider buying if I were to do it all over again.
Can't go wrong with a Miller, I have a 180 millermatic mig, and miller syncrowave 185sd, I used to have a lincoln 175 squarewave untill I used my friends miller 185sd, put my lincoln up for sale the same day.
When I ran my fab shop building Oval track suspension and roll cage products i used Miller and completely wore out two Miller 135 Mig machines and was working on a third when an industrial accident brought my productive years to an end. I had just bought my first Hobart 220 machine just to see what the compe***ion had to offer. I did everything I asked of it and I still own it today using it for all of mig work I do. I also have an ancient Lincoln 300/300 power unit for my tig requirements. It has High frequency and covers everything I need. If I were to buy anything today I'd be sure it had the square weave feature. I'll struggle along with what I have and feel privilaged to still have my shop intact. Frank
I picked up an HTP InverTig 201 AC/DC a few years ago and absolutely love it. It's very similar to the Miller inverter machines, but much less expensive. I got the welder, Torch, cables, water cooler and cart out the door for about $3500. Granted this was a few years ago and the prices might be different, but ****, the Miller equivalent is over $6500. The HTP has a built in pulser, does AC and DC, on A/C setting has variable balance AND frequency... I haven't used my Miller Synchrowave 250 since... B
I've got one of those Precision TIG 275's, and they are a fine machine. Not as adjustable as other machines, but that's not necessarily a drawback. I like it, but I'd not try to weld up sections thicker than 3/16" or so. Maybe 1/4" done in multiple p***es, but that's pushing it. If you're gonna do a lot of thick hot work, spring for the water cooled torch (and/or maybe a bigger machine). Mine has an air cooled torch, and while the machine itself can work me into the ground, the torch gets hot and goes limp long before I'm done, if I don't let it rest some between long hot beads. I will be swapping out the torch when I can spare the money for the chiller and all that. If I was buying again, I'd only look at models that had water cooled torches on them already. It's worth the extra money if you do much heavy work with them. That all said, while I love my TIG, I find it too slow for most ch***is work. I can do in an hour with the MIG, work that would take me all day and then some with the TIG machine. I have an L-TEC wire feed, which is now made by Hobart, and it has been a wonderful welder. Good for material up to about 1/2" thick or so (but that's a very slow moving bead). I also have a Lincoln power supply (multi-use, forget the name, it's big, cube shaped, and red ), with an LN-7 wire feed on it. That machine welds very well too, but it's a lot bigger machined to drag around the shop, so it generally defers to the L-TEC. If you're just doing bench work with the TIG, you'll like that Lincoln Precision TIG machine. It's plenty big to do anything you can get up on a bench, and it should work out to be less than three grand all told.
Thanks for all the info. I got a smokin deal on a precision tig 275 with water cooler and pulse fuction that was only 1 year old. The miller looked really good but got a super deal so I went with the lincoln.
I have a Lincoln Powermig 255C and a Lincoln Square wave 175 TIG pro here and at home a Miller 250X mig.....I can't tell any difference in useing any of them.
Man I am a hobbiest as well and since I got my tig I have barely touched my mig. Only use it to spot things together. So much more control with the tig on heavy and thin stuff.
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