Stickmate LX...for $425, or Precision Tig 225 for ??

[backbeat]

>>>
i have a miller xmt 304 cc/cv multi procsess welder for sale the unit is in very clean condition and works like mint the price is firm $1000 this is a steal at this price if you are interested please email or call rich at 443-790-8450 just please be serious this sale is for the welder itsself no leads though you come to my shop use my leads weld with it ill take cover off inspect the unit and see what great shape it is in i dont need it i have to many welders now thank you .<<<

I'm wondering what posessed the guy to bother with the "period" at the end.
Sloppy/lazy/unimpressive.

Okay...that was funny.

[backbeat]

Its always helpful to know and only real reason I ask is that there is a tendency for a lot of new entrants to this field to over estimate the real need for a tig. I got a lot of stuff but really could get by without one. I could just about make it with mig as my sole machine. Even a lot of stuff I use sticks on now could be done that way and did at one time, my main use is outside on old farm equipment repair. Occasional mobile or portable work.

I don't recall the details here but if you don't have a wire feed in your shop this is really the place to start in my opinion. Its just the workhorse, the cheapest, the neatest, little smoke and clean up, handles gaps and thin sheet a lot of the world is made up of anymore. I use a mig 9 times to the one I use the rest of it combined and could do with most of that.

Personally the last resort is to have to tig something, I am a career welder, have it all couldulod easily make it on 3 machines, a feeder,,, well,,, 2 of them ha, a used DC buzzer and some kind of small DC portable. I have a tig, a big ole monster and if I was hanging out my shingle would probably have a dynasty but its a rare day I use it, too slow and costly, janotherther layer of tooling. Like most machine tools, I am such a short cut artist and parts collector, have a neighbor with small shop, I just don't fuss with it, there might be the occasion I need it and might use more if I had but parts are so much easier these days, etc that it would be big expense with more tooling to collect, store, kick around that I can get by, battery drills another matter,,, ha I could stand to spend a grand or more there, my stuff is getting old and so highly used it will pay off well.

Those are all good points, Sberry, and you're asking an appropriate question. I've been an O/A hobbyist weldor for a number of years, and I enjoy the process and challenge of making various mechanical items. Stick welding became a necessity for a particular project, and seems like it will always come in handy. I have no interest in MIG, although I know it's a very efficient process. The TIG is not a necessity, and I'm sure I could get by without it, but it's just another challenge, and certainly has some similarity to the O/A welding process. Thanks for your good thoughts.

[backbeat]

I have made my fair share of mistakes with equipment over the years, not so much any more but as you said, a hobby maybe rather than specific use or wanting to learn. I try to be careful and often the point is results vs wanting to be some kind of cracker jack welder, the mig really gives results,,, makes it possible to build what you want or do repairs, at low cost.

If I was doing specialty where I had to have it then its a no brainer for me but tig would be the last on my wish list, I find life almost impossible without a torch, a plasma is used daily, a few grinders, good battery drills, a chop saw omaybeew smalband sawaw although I prefer chop other than the mess for repair work. Some clamps and plenty of common hand tools to go around. Its hard to get too much of that stuff.

Well, if I were earning a living as a weldor, I'm sure I'd have a very different perspective. Perhaps, it would be similar to yours. Hobbies as you know, can often times be impractical.

[usmcpop]

All I know is that my young one won't give up the Dialarc 250 stick welder, despite having the Syncrowave. Looking for a decent priced old Idealarc 250 to add to the collection, just for contrast.

[backbeat]

If you only need DC, there's a Miller XMT 304 on Craigslist in Glen Burnie for a grand.

http://baltimore.craigslist.org/tls/2883343766.html

usmcpop - what am I really getting with this machine? What is the typical environment/application for this class of machine?

backbeat

[usmcpop]

I'm sure owners can jump in here and tell you all about it. Just know I'd like to have one.

[Sberry]

Ok, another curiosity,,, why no interest in mig? Would be ,,, and is my first option.

[Sberry]

Make them forget it isnt tig.

[backbeat]

Ok, another curiosity,,, why no interest in mig? Would be ,,, and is my first option.

Because it's the easiest process to learn, and I don't need the benefit of the high welding speed that it offers. Maybe someday I'll find a reason, but it's definitely not of high interest to me.

[backbeat]

Make them forget it isnt tig.

Very nice, Sberry.

[Wyoming]

Don't count out a used Syncrowave. Should be many more locally available than either the Lincoln or ESAB units. They have a long history of proven performance. As with all the transformer based Tigs, they are being traded or sold off for newer model inverter machines. The Syncrowave will let you do aluminum with its AC Tig, but not as adaptable as the hertz variable inverters. It could be a good machine for a hobbyist that wants to have the ability and proficiency of AC Tig, but not the added bells and whistles of a machine that would cost significantly more for the added parameters. Nothing wrong with either the Lincolns or ESABs, but fewer of them being sold used.

[backbeat]

Don't count out a used Syncrowave. Should be many more locally available than either the Lincoln or ESAB units. They have a long history of proven performance. As with all the transformer based Tigs, they are being traded or sold off for newer model inverter machines. The Syncrowave will let you do aluminum with its AC Tig, but not as adaptable as the hertz variable inverters. It could be a good machine for a hobbyist that wants to have the ability and proficiency of AC Tig, but not the added bells and whistles of a machine that would cost significantly more for the added parameters. Nothing wrong with either the Lincolns or ESABs, but fewer of them being sold used.

I've looked at Syncrowaves, but the 250 is always more money than I want to spend, and the 200 seems too limited in amps. The XMT 304 that was recently mentioned is interesting, but I still don't have a handle on how that machine compares to others. The pricing on those seems low for the output, so are they just short on features? Are there significant compromises with these multiprocess machines? Or maybe because they're DC only, it's less... I don't know... Certainly $1,500 or less seems reasonable for one of these without any accessories, and all I'd have to add is leads for stick and TIG. Thanks, Wyoming.

[mike landrich]

The LWS has a new Thermal Arc 181 for less than $1,000. It can do mig, tig and stick. I just bought a Miller 211 MVP. If I didn't want the 110/220 option of the Miller, I would've given more thought to the thermal arc. From what I know about, which isn't a lot, it seems to be a good machine for all 3 processes, especially at the hobbyist/light fabrication level.

[Sberry]

I am certainly a lot less pretentious about welding than I was in my early 20's and even probably at my best, where my motor controls worked best there was a limit, kind of a ceiling I could hit where a few other people who really had talent could get better. I can do critical highly inspected work, I might have to practice a week or 2 off and on but in general I could care less about being a world class welder.

To some extent,,, well lets just say I have regressed back to where I started, use more 6011 than I ever did. The thing I finfascinatingng about it,,, and some other tools (battery drills and saws) is what it can do for me. Its second nature to find a place I can apply it. I bet I do 10 jobs that take less than a stick for every one that takes 10, maybe 20 to 1

This summer a neighbor comes whirling in the yard with a busted hay baler, he has another man helping him a bit. This thing reallyealy busted, stop it, I was in a hurdidn'tidnt even burn some paint opriedryed some gap open, made a tack or 2 nd burn a couple rods around it, I already had stinger in my hand from one of my own jobs, this guy watching dam near had a tear in his eye, he says, totally fricawesomesome, a failure that stop this machine dead to running again back to work in the time it takes to coffee break, ha.

Some of the very best tig welders I have ever seen were only about 1 step above chimps, 19, 20 yrs old, just got out of some welding school, working on power plants where the only thing they had to do when someone pointed to istrike stike an arc, some of them had gifts and real talent, even as poor as I was could weld circles around them in sticks,, lots of the oldewizardszzards too, not all of them, lots of pro types there from one end to the other too.

I used to hate to fill a gap or crack but its one of those things that if i have struck a couple arc's in a week I can really do better and faster at 50 than I could at 20 and maybe even at 30. There is something kind of gratifying about it on some level, as to the challenging part, I really want none of that if I can help it, I have an easy button, some times some weird out of position deal is the easy solution, if I had to pick a favorite bead though it would be a 7018 overhead fillet, lots of times don't even chip the slag off and look at it.

[usmcpop]

See post #2 regarding the XMT-304.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...-cc-cv-164281/