I am putting an offer in on an ancient P&H (Canadian company) TIG welding rig tomorrow morning. The price is pretty good (around here welding gear is expensive as there is little industry to support it so it gets snapped up quick). The machine is single phase, has 380 amp cap., has an add-on lincoln HF box that's practically brand new, a spot welding attachment, two liquid cooled tig torches, a cooler/roll-around base, yadda yadda. It's a beast of a machine, it measures 30 inches by 36 by easily 40 inches tall. One of the large frame power sources from the 60s/70s with lots of good tooling.

http://kijiji.ebayimg.com/i24/08/k/000/78/42/fec2_18.JPG

I can't afford spending 1500 to 2K on a small size rig, and the inverters scare me. I have at least 30-40 years of welding left ahead of me and I don't want to replace tools because they are broken and too expensive to fix. This pig would likely last me forever with no upkeep.

Anyone else use big ass industrial welders in their home shop? I admit I am a bit worried that it's going to be a major pain in the ass due to the space it consumes and the non-portability aspect, but I like old machines, and this sucker looks babied. I figure I can throw it in the corner, put some cabinets over top of it, and just never move it again.

Should I just suck it up and save my cash and spend 2K on a smaller machine? I need something that does alum so no straight DC machines.

My shop is smaller than most people's trailers, but I get by, just work on one thing at a time (ever seen that Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Sr. Costanza play pool?).



:beer:

I got a large TIG welder a year ago. The price was right and I picked it up. I bought 25' leads for it so I dont have to run it around the shop. But it is defintly a pain in the ass. It is always in the way and takes up a shit load of room.

But I still wouldnt buy a smaller one. This one fits my budget so I live with it for now.

The real question is how much more will you have to spend on the smaller machine

I agree its all about the budget and the welding you will be doing. In the long run it can make sense to buy a older welder for some!..maybe most.

The only regret I have about my miller dialarc 250 is that the current control does not go down nearly as low as new power sources. IIRC, my dialarc only goes down to 15 amps, where new supplies will do 3-5amps. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but for really lite welding, I would like lower current.

I have a massive ESAB Heliarc 352 in my attached 2 car garage/shop. Biggest problem was wiring it. Luckily the box is in the garage and right above a nice corner to keep the welder, and the house has 200A service. I ran 3-0 wire direct to a dedicated 100A breaker that I found used on ebay. The manual calls for a 150A slow blow but they're big $$.
A nice little inverter would be great, but I got the ESAB for 1/4 the price. I'll make do.


Paul

Portability is the big issue. My last duty station I had a welding cart consisting of a Miller dialarc HF, cooler, spoolgun and controller, TIG leads and pedal, as well as gas bottle and extension cords. Damn cart weighed about 600-700 lbs and was a pain in the ass to move around. The other problem is an older machine is going to be missing a bunch of features that make life easier such as square wave, arc balance, etc, mostly useful when Tiggin. In the old machines favor is just plain ole reliability and relatively low cost.

Its up to you.

If its affordable, I would get it. Those older TIG's are tanks for the most part. It should last you a long long time with very little upkeep.

I used to use an old 70's Miller Goldstar TIG on a daily basis... It had the smoothest arc, one of the best machines I've used besides the Dynasty 300. I wish I could've taken it with me when I left that shop :D

If you buy something that is already 30 years old, and it goes bad in 20 are you sure you will be able to get parts and service for it? The way things are going these days we may not be able to get parts in 20 years for stuff that is new now. For an expensive investment like a welder I like my parts and service chances better in the long term future with a newer unit

I just got back from seeing it, I put a decent offer in, the shop that is selling it just needs the space and they pretty much assured me it's mine.

I found a couple of oddities. The machine has onboard HF capability, but there is a brand new Lincoln HF box added on which is included. I am guessing that the onboard HF unit does not work and they added this one on instead of fixing it. Since there isn't too much that can go wrong with the HF side of things, I think that adjusting the spark gaps and cleaning it up might rejuvenate the machine, and I could probably sell the HF box for a few hundred. Bonus.

There was also a piece of welding equipment included that I cannot identify. It's a heli-arc 'gun', looks like of like a garden hose pistol grip nozzle. It is liquid cooled, and has a gas hookup (maybe air) and has a thick leather sheath protecting the cables. I think it might be some sort of crude 'plasma' type cutter based on the setup, but I don't know. It has a tip and the gas appears to come out around the tip somehow. Maybe a carbon arc gouger, don't know. The guy said it was a spot welder, but I cannot understand how such a thing would work.

Any ideas?

There was also a piece of welding equipment included that I cannot identify. It's a heli-arc 'gun', looks like of like a garden hose pistol grip nozzle. It is liquid cooled, and has a gas hookup (maybe air) and has a thick leather sheath protecting the cables. I think it might be some sort of crude 'plasma' type cutter based on the setup, but I don't know. It has a tip and the gas appears to come out around the tip somehow. Maybe a carbon arc gouger, don't know. The guy said it was a spot welder, but I cannot understand how such a thing would work.

Any ideas?

Sounds like a TIG welding torch.

Sounds like a TIG welding torch.

:flipoff2: I know what a TIG torch looks like!! Glad you are feeling better PT.

No, this is completely different. It has a trigger like a gun. It's like a glock handgun with three lines hooked up to it - Gas or compressed air, and a cooling loop. I have never seen anything like it. It's branded heli-arc.

PT based on your collection of old machine tools you would love this thing.

:flipoff2: I know what a TIG torch looks like!! Glad you are feeling better PT.

No, this is completely different. It has a trigger like a gun. It's like a glock handgun with three lines hooked up to it - Gas or compressed air, and a cooling loop. I have never seen anything like it. It's branded heli-arc.

Looks like you'll have plenty of opportunity to figure it out when you get it home!

Thanx for the kind words, getting better everyday. Even spent a coupla hour sin the shop last night! Took two hours to change four sparkplugs! LOL

PT

Sweet!

The unidentifiable tool is actually a spot weld gun.

I was just going to say it is very likely it actually is a spot weld gun. I have a eastwood one I bought at an auction. It takes a carbon electrode and hooks up to a standard arc power source. Pull the trigger and the electrode heats the metal, release and the electrode pulls away. Pretty nifty, but I haven't used mine yet...

Later,
Jason

I bought a very old Miller CP-300 and S-52E wire feeder a few years back for my shop and it was one of the best choices I ever made as far as shop equipment goes, I paid 1,200 bucks for it with running gear on it, a Tweaco gun and a nice gas regulator. I had been looking into a Miller 210 because it fit my needs well but ended up paying less for quite a bit more machine. To date the machine has preformed well with no issues under light to moderate use, only a couple of liner issues. The only down side is that it is large and sometimes in the way or a pain to drag around when the shop is packed.

This was the first time I had bought a major piece of shop equipment used and based on my experience with it I try to buy used all the time when I need equipment.

However, I do have a few rules:

I only buy equipment from large and well established manufactures, I want to know that there will be some form of support for it down the road.

I only do so when there is a suitable financial advantage; I try not to get caught up in the . If I could have gotten a 210 for the same or even slightly less I would have bought it. It is nice to know I will probably never run out of capacity for my needs but being as I did not really need the extra capacity I never would have paid extra for it.

I if even question that the machine has been taken care of by the PO I take pass, I do not want to inherit a problem.

I stick to the 'if it is to good to be true it probably is' rule. If the deal seems unbelievable I pass or look into it very closely, there is always a reason.