:::RHMT::: Real Home Made Turbo
General Category => Fabrication => Topic started by: malichite on March 17, 2009, 08:24:17 PM
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Any thoughts on the Lincoln Precision 185?
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Not until I get a replacment. I'd probably let the HF go for $50 bucks
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Look at the Thermal Arc Arc Master 185. Its an inverter so it will draw less, has programable settings and a pulser.
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I have a miller dynasty 200dx, it's a great unit, its relatively light and portable, will run on 120v or 240v or 360v ect... All just by plugging it in, which is nice when you drag it to friends houses and shit. The only draw back to it I have found is that if I want to do thick aluminum. Up to 5/16" is ok, 3/8" is really pushing it without preheat. I think the only thing more that I would want is more amps, but then I would loose the portability, so kind of a toss up. The only other draw back is price. For the ~$3000 all you get is the dynasty 200dx box and a cord without a plug. Still have to add a torch, a remote control (hand, foot, whatever) Cabling, ground clamp, bottle regulator, consumables, ect... I was around $5000 Cdn all said and done. Where as my Miller180 autoset mig was like $900 out the door with a cart and wire and everything. Apples to Oranges I know, but the Syncrowave is more like that.
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I have a miller dynasty 200dx,
I priced one of these out a couple weeks ago :-\
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Dynisty might be a little to baller for me. Diversion is nice and cheap, but I think I want a little more.
Needs,
AC/DC (band and welding ability)
HF start
Comes with everything torch, pedal blah blah
Dont need a regulator or bottle
would be nice
pulser
I was oogaling at the Thermal arc. Only reason I asked about the Precission is there is one on craigslist right now for $1200
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kind of currious, I am still knew, but what is the benifit of the pulser? I have heard that they make aluminum way easier, but is that it?
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kind of currious, I am still knew, but what is the benifit of the pulser? I have heard that they make aluminum way easier, but is that it?
People say its because alum takes a while to heat up, this way you can dump full heat half the time and get more penetration w/o melting a hole. 'Real' welding guys tend to say shit about that feature, like its more of a band-aid. Seriously if you can weld with the HF unit w/o a pedal, it shouldn't be an issue. ATM the biggest reason I want a different welder is because scratch start wastes my time.
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In my mind the pusler is for production, as you can run faster travel speeds with less distortion. At home sometimes I fuck with it, if I am welding really thin shit and more on ss and mild thin then on aluminum.
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I don't use my pulser for aluminum at all.
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I don't use my pulser for aluminum at all.
It make's it easier when your showing off to weld beer cans that you cut in half back together. ;)
I think that is the only time I have used it on Aluminum though, if anything I typically want more heat not less for Al.
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i have a miller econo tig, what an og machine, i can tig for hours and hours and it never breaks a sweat. plus pure power to boot, no silly 20 percent duty cycle shit. find yourself an older unit witth a high duty cycle, you will see the difference
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i have a miller econo tig, what an og machine, i can tig for hours and hours and it never breaks a sweat. plus pure power to boot, no silly 20 percent duty cycle shit. find yourself an older unit witth a high duty cycle, you will see the difference
A few people I know have these things. I think they suck. Straight 60cyl is tough to get any sort of decent weld on aluminum. I would never buy one. I certainly hope the diversion is better.
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well, my unit welds aluminum like aces, never had any problems yet
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I have a Miller dynasty 200dx, and I can make it hit duty cycle, if your econo tig, isn't you weld to slow.
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TA185
Best bang for the buck. I've used it for going on 5 yrs now.
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TA185
Best bang for the buck. I've used it for going on 5 yrs now.
I pretty much have my mind set on that machine now. I just have to finish putting the money away for one. Fuck , why are they so spendy.
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the TA185 is priced really really low for all the features it has. when i bought mine the closest welder with the same features was 5K and counting.
you will be happy with it i promise.
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Any thoughts on the Lincoln Precision 185?
ill be using one thrusday on 16ga aluminum.
Just because on the welding OEM websites they tout high speed pulse as *the thing* for stainless, you really dont see it much in the wild. When you do run across pulsing its just to, "get looks from not so good welders" at say 2-8 PPS.
I use it at home when ever I can (i.e. when my DIY pulser isn't busted). It allows me to dump lots of heat - and there-for have high travel speeds on stainless groove welds while letting me walk the cup (at high speed) and use laywire instead of dipping. Without overheating the stainless.
Anyone can do it say under 12 or so PPS. When you get into higher peak amps, PPS & travel speeds it can take some getting use too. I still dont like dipping with pulse (I preffer laywire/cupwalking), but Ive seen some people do well with it.
mostly you use it for:
getting increased agitation between the filler & base metal for increased weld quality - if you know whats going on
OR
getting a nice ripple pattern if you are not able to do so by yourself manually through manipulation of the torch and filler
Im not a TA185 fan. Had a chance to use one afew months ago, wasn't impressed with it VS the cost of a dynasty. Still, price/performance is extremely good!
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youll find far more robotic welders using pulsed power supplys than manual welders.
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I have a Miller dynasty 200dx, and I can make it hit duty cycle, if your econo tig, isn't you weld to slow.
my machine never hits the duty cycle since its so tough. to be honest i can tig for hours to the point i cant hold the torch since its so hot, i dont have a cooling system. thats the next project
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if your hitting the duty cycle, your machine is cheaply made. miller sold out and went chinese a few years ago, my machine is about 30 years old, but was new when i got it, it was maybe used 4 times in 30 years.
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Picked up a new Lincoln Precision 225 Tig "Ready-Pak" for $1800 shipped. Works very well.
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"i can hit duty cycle" doesn't mean shit on these baby ass welders. Saying you can trip that duty cycle is like saying you can jack yourself off in two minutes. That's a skill god gave everyone, not you, nor that particular welder's durability.
Thats ONLY 2 minutes of welding @ 200amps, 6 @ 150amps on a dynasty 200. I could trip that shit stick welding with it in a heart beat. What you have to understand is that its a linear scale. say you have a 60%300amp machine, you get 30%@375amps 60%@300amps, 100%@200amps.
That econotig is only 20% @ 150amps on tig. It probably hits 100% duty cycle around 30 amps. which is what most pussies weld stainless pipe at.
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sorry but my econo tig has 100 percent duty cycle at 150 amps, its os my friend, weighs about 200 pounds and eats stainless for lunch. im in it to win it, i wouldnt waste my money on a cheap welder
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sorry but my econo tig has 100 percent duty cycle at 150 amps, its os my friend, weighs about 200 pounds and eats stainless for lunch. im in it to win it, i wouldnt waste my money on a cheap welder
Did you take it off any sweet jumps?
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(https://realhomemadeturbo.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fvhhsmoonbuggy.com%2Fimages%2Fecono_tig.jpg&hash=fbd93938fde3780032574bd4261f54d4def4ff21)
so what econo tig do you have?
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used a lincoln precision 185.
hated that fucking welder. it is EXTREMELY slim on controls for the money.
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duly noted. I was looking at a syncro 200 yesterday and was thinking the exact same thing. Apparently the syncro has a pulser now. Maybe they always did but I didn't think they did.
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used a lincoln precision 185.
hated that fucking welder. it is EXTREMELY slim on controls for the money.
Im going to have to agree with you here and it has nothing to do with the controls. There is something missing in the smoothness.
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duly noted. I was looking at a syncro 200 yesterday and was thinking the exact same thing. Apparently the syncro has a pulser now. Maybe they always did but I didn't think they did.
I like my sync 200 although i wish i had more amps, i i have used my pulser maybe a handfull of times.
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duly noted. I was looking at a syncro 200 yesterday and was thinking the exact same thing. Apparently the syncro has a pulser now. Maybe they always did but I didn't think they did.
The 200 always had the pulse feature, the 180sd did not.
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sorry but my econo tig has 100 percent duty cycle at 150 amps, its os my friend, weighs about 200 pounds and eats stainless for lunch. im in it to win it, i wouldnt waste my money on a cheap welder
Did you take it off any sweet jumps?
funny you said that, i did some jumps, a bit of drifting and it also makes 151 proof moonshine on command
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It probably hits 100% duty cycle around 30 amps. which is what most pussies weld stainless pipe at.
We both know he pulses it at 40A. He definatly needs a water cooler for that welding ;)
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I would suggest the Thermal ARC 185. Big welder for little $. Welds smooth.
I convinced one of my customers to pickup a DYN200 over the TA185 due to our success with our dynastys, and two years later he has had the machine serviced 3 times - last time the entire display went. I don't know if his machine is unique in crapping out, but we've never had any issues with the big dynastys (300dxs then later replaced with 350s).
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I would suggest the Thermal ARC 185. Big welder for little $. Welds smooth.
I convinced one of my customers to pickup a DYN200 over the TA185 due to our success with our dynastys, and two years later he has had the machine serviced 3 times - last time the entire display went. I don't know if his machine is unique in crapping out, but we've never had any issues with the big dynastys (300dxs then later replaced with 350s).
I had alot of trouble with the dyn300 where I used to work. If I welded thicker alum for a long time the arc would start to break up and then it wouldnt actually start at times. All I would get was a PFT PFT PFT and thats it. There was three machines there and they all did the exact same thing.
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Yeah, I am still leaning towards the TA. Although I have never seen one in person, it does look like it is 1/4 the size of the syncro. The syncro is fucking huge! I guess I could actually look up the dimensions and figure it out, but the crane hook on the top of the syncro I felt was a give away.
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Yeah, just looked up the dimensions, way smaller then the syncro
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i remember loving a synchrowave 350 we had back at school. the only welder smoother than it was an ultra old giant transformer welder.
i liked a ta185 the couple times ive sat down on one but if you have the money for a dynasty200 go that route.
only two things you have to hate about those is if you are doing AC welding. Once you've touched one doing 250htz+ you never want to go back to 60htz! the weight and immoveability also suck. definately not a welder you can just toss in your trunk and go to a buddies house / work site.
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why the lincoln precision tig 185 is the worst AC welder i have ever used:
- DC arc quality is no better than my ching-chong 40amp plasma cutter.
- It doesn't run stick electrodes for SHIT. It plays with the voltage WAY too damn much instead of letting the welder just weld the fucking rod.
- AC @ 60htz sucks donkey balls. 120-250htz+ is where the shit is now
- Pulser HAS NO BOTTOM END OR % of input time controls!? What the FLYING FUCK!? If you back off the pedal a hair, it drops the amps like you would think. If you back off the pedal anything mroe than a hair IT STOPS PULSING TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!?!?!?! Meanwhile the average heat input on the workpiece has likely QUADRUPLED when you wanted LESS!
- The Balance control is stupid. Automatic is effectively useless, while it takes an EXCESSIVE amount of cleaning (DCEP) to get close to having a useable cleaning action.
- Because of the excessive amount of cleaning action, you MUST use gay faggoty balled pure tungsten (instead of a trunctiated tip on an alloy tungsten - giving a smoother, more controlled, more focused arc) for welding ALU at even a pissy 100-110amps.
in conclusion, MP350's are baller ass migs, but about any other lincoln welder (short of industrial supplies and feeders) are god damned stupid
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We owned (3) 300dx's, and sold them for (2) 350s. Never had issues with any of the welders expect one of the new 350s came with a bad water cooler right out of the box. Wierd you've had so many problems. Maybe you guys weren't running heavy enough torches and burned them up?
I would suggest the Thermal ARC 185. Big welder for little $. Welds smooth.
I convinced one of my customers to pickup a DYN200 over the TA185 due to our success with our dynastys, and two years later he has had the machine serviced 3 times - last time the entire display went. I don't know if his machine is unique in crapping out, but we've never had any issues with the big dynastys (300dxs then later replaced with 350s).
I had alot of trouble with the dyn300 where I used to work. If I welded thicker alum for a long time the arc would start to break up and then it wouldnt actually start at times. All I would get was a PFT PFT PFT and thats it. There was three machines there and they all did the exact same thing.
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We owned (3) 300dx's, and sold them for (2) 350s. Never had issues with any of the welders expect one of the new 350s came with a bad water cooler right out of the box. Wierd you've had so many problems. Maybe you guys weren't running heavy enough torches and burned them up?
I would suggest the Thermal ARC 185. Big welder for little $. Welds smooth.
I convinced one of my customers to pickup a DYN200 over the TA185 due to our success with our dynastys, and two years later he has had the machine serviced 3 times - last time the entire display went. I don't know if his machine is unique in crapping out, but we've never had any issues with the big dynastys (300dxs then later replaced with 350s).
I had alot of trouble with the dyn300 where I used to work. If I welded thicker alum for a long time the arc would start to break up and then it wouldnt actually start at times. All I would get was a PFT PFT PFT and thats it. There was three machines there and they all did the exact same thing.
WP20 at 125a is not too much to be asked.
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had those problems on afew tig welders doing AC:
sometimes people set them to lift-arc while DC welding instead of setting them back to continuous HF for AC welding. srun across that one too!
ive also seen several welders that had problems lighting arcs on the first try if the pulser was turned on (lincoln precision shit 185, dynasty 300, miller Maxstar 350 on an ABB robot).
either a poor ground that is letting the HF fire, but not keep the main arc going. or the ground itself arced, burned the surface it was clamping too & needs to be re-grounded. ground to the machine lead needed to be re-cleaned.
other times like MB said the torch had been overheated and the collet body had to be changed.
ive seen the first two & ground problems more than anything.
I had alot of trouble with the dyn300 where I used to work. If I welded thicker alum for a long time the arc would start to break up and then it wouldnt actually start at times. All I would get was a PFT PFT PFT and thats it. There was three machines there and they all did the exact same thing.
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had those problems on afew tig welders doing AC:
sometimes people set them to lift-arc while DC welding instead of setting them back to continuous HF for AC welding. srun across that one too!
ive also seen several welders that had problems lighting arcs on the first try if the pulser was turned on (lincoln precision shit 185, dynasty 300, miller Maxstar 350 on an ABB robot).
either a poor ground that is letting the HF fire, but not keep the main arc going. or the ground itself arced, burned the surface it was clamping too & needs to be re-grounded. ground to the machine lead needed to be re-cleaned.
other times like MB said the torch had been overheated and the collet body had to be changed.
ive seen the first two & ground problems more than anything.
I had alot of trouble with the dyn300 where I used to work. If I welded thicker alum for a long time the arc would start to break up and then it wouldnt actually start at times. All I would get was a PFT PFT PFT and thats it. There was three machines there and they all did the exact same thing.
Its not the setting of the machine. This started to happen 8 hrs into a shift of welding aluminum all day long. It is a problem with the design of the machine. We had power company test everything,we had electricians check everything out. we even had techs from miller flown in to figure it out. Nobody ever was able to do so.
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that's fucking shitty.
so noone ever called a tech to come check it? maybe a board fried.
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i would look forward for one better tig, what tig should the best for cheap/quality in the market?
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that's fucking shitty.
so noone ever called a tech to come check it? maybe a board fried.
We had techs from miller out to fix them and they couldnt do it. They replace all kinds of shit inside the machine and we had the same thing happen. This was a dynasty 300 BTW (actually all three had the same problems).
It has to be a design flaw in the machines. One machine would start acting up and then you would just switch machines and continue welding so its not a shop power supply issue. Its the machine.
It kinda acts like a bad ground but if you stop welding and dont touch anything on the machine you can start fine the next day and weld till it happens again.
Also the higher the amperage the sooner it happens.
Other than that the machine was a dream.
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I would suggest the Thermal ARC 185. Big welder for little $. Welds smooth.
I convinced one of my customers to pickup a DYN200 over the TA185 due to our success with our dynastys, and two years later he has had the machine serviced 3 times - last time the entire display went. I don't know if his machine is unique in crapping out, but we've never had any issues with the big dynastys (300dxs then later replaced with 350s).
That is strange, my 200dx's and my 300dx are reliable as sin, my 300dx hasn't skipped a beat and it is used daily for the last 7 years or so. The other fab shops I deal with all use dynasty's as well with no issues.
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ditto. like i said ive seen alot of tigs do that, but ive never seen one that had a habitual problem with it. always wound up being just some little thing that got looked over and was quickly (sometimes) found & addressed.
maybe a fucked up thermal protection schemes or sensors?
worst i saw was a maxstar. you had to keep the robot reprogramed about weekly (arm was worn like a hoe & they wouldn't replace it). it just couldnt deal with any size arc gap. wasted alot of material & had alot of down time from decided it would only light some arcs. wasn't even programed for some blazing fast speed, just abit faster than hand welding. :\
if it was my money id still buy a dynasty over a TA185. just one of those things. used alot of them. dont get me wrong. can't go wrong with the 185's, they've probably been the most popular AC welder since they came out & undercut everyone else's price. just more comfortable with a miller tig.
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I still like my old sync 500. Who gives a flying fuck about thermal protection 8) Ear protection was more like it.
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what's that fucker weigh?
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The thing I hate about thermal arc machines is their lack of quality sequencer, which miller has built in with a timer and everything, so a Miller is super easy to automate, where a thermal arc is a joke, you need three extra boxes just to do a basic automated weld. They aren't bad power supply wise though, but if miller made a PAW welder I'd sell my thermal arc PAW and buy the Miller version, all my tigs are Miller and I love them.
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To many god damn acronyms
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what's that fucker weigh?
Better yet, how long does it take to fatigue your hands with the monster torch on that fucker?
Lol.
I love love love my old Miller MIG. I unfortunately does not have a nice variable voltage, only taps, but the arc is wonderful on it.
I agree on Lincoln welders in general. I learned to weld on them, and I hate them with a passion. I learned to TIG, no was all that good at it, on the old 175 square wave. I hated that goddamn machine.
The Power Mig 255s we had to learn on seemed at least somewhat decent though.
I really wish my eyesight was better so I could really get into TIG welding.
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to me, AFA what ive used thus far
#1 tig miller - any size, process, etc
#1 wire based welder feed (any process, any size range, seperate wire feeders included) lincoln - worst miller
#1 plasma hypotherm by a fucking mile. lincolns are always broken, millers just suck.
#1 stick super old miller transformers or newer lincoln MP power supplies.
#1 saw lincoln (only miller i ever ran for abit stayed fucking broken - boards fucked)
AFA esab. the only esab welders ive EVER used were all gigantic 50 year old transformers and either tig/stick welded peachy, or sucked from their age. swear to god, i just never see esab shit down here in the south. (tho they did mail me a free heat treated skull cap lol)
thermal arc... every now and then i might see a TA wire feeder, but lincoln dominates them.
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to me, AFA what ive used thus far
#1 tig miller - any size, process, etc
#1 wire based welder feed (any process, any size range, seperate wire feeders included) lincoln - worst miller
#1 plasma hypotherm by a fucking mile. lincolns are always broken, millers just suck.
#1 stick super old miller transformers or newer lincoln MP power supplies.
#1 saw lincoln (only miller i ever ran for abit stayed fucking broken - boards fucked)
AFA esab. the only esab welders ive EVER used were all gigantic 50 year old transformers and either tig/stick welded peachy, or sucked from their age. swear to god, i just never see esab shit down here in the south. (tho they did mail me a free heat treated skull cap lol)
thermal arc... every now and then i might see a TA wire feeder, but lincoln dominates them.
What did you dislike about the Miller wire feed units? I am sure you have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more experience on different machines thatn I, so I am curious.
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they suck and nearly noone industry uses them.
first the controls are really fucking retarded. its an exact opposite of a dynasty VS precision tig (worst tig ever). the dynasty does everything well and has as much programming as you can nearly come up with needed.
the controls are fucking terrible and unintuative. i dont want to have bullshit knobs with made up numbers on them that have no meaning to me. i want the control to tell me how many inches a min the machine is feding, and what voltage its doing at.
even if the controls are wrong! ballpark is good enough! first thing i do on any wire machine i sit at is clip the wire, grab a tape & run out 5-10 seconds worth of wire. pull the tape out, measure it & see what it's actually feeding (wire feed rate = amperage) from there i can trim controls whatever i want.
please dont get me started on having to pull out an add-on bullshit pendant control to set one up for pulse welding. since noone ever has one & unless you do it every day - now its time to take a trip to the tool crib to find a manual - that can't be found - so you google a pdf. :\ just to figure out what the dumbass settings mean.
the lincoln PT-185 tig fails it's pulsed tig welding for not giving you enough control over what's going on. the miller pulse pendants fail because they give you every fucking parameter under the sun. yet even when you tweak them out - they still wont weld as good as the lincoln MP's that only have one trim setting that does everything else for you in software.
they're just retarded to use. every one ive ever touched has a very jerky / large amount of slack feeling in the wire feed. doesn't cause a trained or experianced welder any problems. but if you're new, it reeeeeally fucks with you until you simply correct for it on the fly without even noticing it. they feel like they're worn out when new.
now ive welded with ALOT of shitty ass lincoln big time wire welders. but only because 95% of any of them you find are going to be lincolns in the first place lol
im just not a fan of the miller at all on wire-feed. ugh. gemmie any lincoln from the power mig MP line (I still CRAVE a power mig 350MP... one of these days im telling you!), invertec or CV line.
CV's are the migs you see in industry 95% of the time. walk into a shop that does production work, look around for very long and you'll see big red CV's sitting in the floor.
just opposites. miller = tig, lincoln = wire & stick.
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OK guys i was looking for a better pulsed tig in Germany, i found some of those , what do u thinks?
http://cgi.ebay.de/WIG-200A-DC-TIG-E-Hand-Inverter-Schweissgeraet-HF-230V_W0QQitemZ310138423226QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSchwei (http://cgi.ebay.de/WIG-200A-DC-TIG-E-Hand-Inverter-Schweissgeraet-HF-230V_W0QQitemZ310138423226QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSchwei)ß_Löttechnik?hash=item310138423226&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1229|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318
http://cgi.ebay.de/SCHWEIssGERAT-WIG-TIG-INVERTER-200-P-HF-u-E-HAND-DIGTAL_W0QQitemZ370193605870QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSchwei (http://cgi.ebay.de/SCHWEIssGERAT-WIG-TIG-INVERTER-200-P-HF-u-E-HAND-DIGTAL_W0QQitemZ370193605870QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSchwei)ß_Löttechnik?hash=item370193605870&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1229|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318
what do u guys think?
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what's that fucker weigh?
900-1000lbs? Its a heavy fucker :yes:
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looks like a pair of chinese tig boxes.
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looks like a pair of chinese tig boxes.
the question is. are those better than HF TIG? :-\
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ya most, if not all of them have a basic HF circuit in them.