Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Old welder advice

So even though I weld all day at my real job with the company's machines I have an opportunity to do some jobs on the side to make some quick money and I need a machine. I don't have the funds to spring for a new machine at this time so I've been shopping old stuff to get me started. Budget is around $1k but I obviously have a helmet, gloves, and such as well as a oxy/act setup, grinders, chopsaw and all that. Budget will just be for a machine, bottle, TIG torch, pedal and filler.

I need a machine with HF and AC/DC capabilities for doing steel and aluminum. I TIG welded for a long time at my old job and in college but only used a Lincoln Square Wave 200. Those aren't common in my price range so I've been looking at older Miller Dialarcs, Lincoln Idealarc 300/300s, Miller 330s, and Aircos which I understand were just orange Millers. Research I've done kinda has me shying away from the older Lincoln Invertec machines as I understand they weren't known for reliability and parts can be hard to come by.

Anyone with more experience have a preference on any of these older machines? Anything common to any one of them problem wise? Anywhere besides Ebay and CL to shop for a used machine?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

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Sounds like you are looking for an older machine or a newer Chinese inverter. Longevity(sp) seems to get good reviews. Kinda like the vortex of welders.

You didn't mention if you're set up for 3 phase 480. Might wanna look at a gently used trailblazer to start with and add on a hf-250 when you make some scratch with the trailblazer.

As it's said if it plugs in a wall buy a miller...if it has an engine only Lincoln....in the old days if you showed up with a miller in your truck they wouldn't even let you test...I hav had a miller dialarc hop for years and it has been a really good machine....the squair wave I have welded with and they trig real nice.....
For stick welding my 300 d can hardly be beat....mostly I park the truck outside the shop and run the leads in just because it welds sooooo smooth....I have a short hood also but haven't got around to getting it going yet....as far a engine drives go....i#1 would be a short hood #2 would be red face SA 200 # 3 would be the 300d.....4 th place could be covered with a lot of different machines
Actually if I were to buy a shop machine today it would be an Xmt 350 miller I think you can put a HF box on it....they are small and powerful...I had a 6 pack of them running off a Koehler Jen set ....we could burn 1/4 inch jet all day with them and some arc gouging to boot..

Where are you located? I've got a mint Lincoln 250/250Tig in your price range.

That's gonna be 3x his budget.

I'm in Oklahoma.

And no 3 phase at this time

Have a Miller Bobcat 250 that Dad and I share for outdoor stuff but I need a TIG for some aluminum and various small precision type steel projects. The ability to run 6010/6011/6013/7014/7018/7024s for heavy steel parts and repair would be a nice bonus too, lots of farm stuff around that needs fixing and it's nice to work in the shop, on level concrete, under the heat and AC.

I have seen some really nice plug in millers go pretty cheap over the years....no one wants them as they are big and take up shop room..everyone is going to the inverter type machines...
If you find one of those old miller gold star machines they weld darn good....I think they are all copper wound...I ran them in a nuke plant years ago...they were switching to pow-con bac then for the portability..

Take a look at Big iron...there are some welders coming up at auction...

I have an old Lincoln 300/300 up in dad's shop.

Never got around to hooking up a torch to it......have read on the internets that they can be problematic to get the tig side to work properly. Simple to work on though.


Hell of a nice stick welder though.

Fabricator friend of mine bought a Lincoln Garage pack. It the MP 210 and the affordable tig welder...forgot the number....for a couple grand.

They dont offer it anymore but you might be able to find one on EBAY.

He likes it.

I have an old Airco 250 amp square wave machine...it was easy to hook up argon and a water cooled torch to it. It works fine for aluminum. ..I've welded a swim step onto my boat, fabled a shrimp pot pulling davit, rodholders, etc. Fixed a cracked folding lawnmower loading ramp, stuff like that. Not as polished as a high frequency machine, not as pretty, but it works. I burned up a big bottle of argon, shortened a few electrodes and melted a few pounds of rod on scrap plate before diving in on the boat.

You're probably too far away. Look for a Syncrowave 300. The rectangular one. Occasional good deals can be had on single phase machines. They're the size of a refrigerator w the freezer cut off the top.

I have an XMT304. It's a great welder, but CC/CV DC only. I have the Optima Pulser, a Spoolmatic, HF-251, a couple feeders, and a suitcase.

I have a Miller with high frequency, but have never used it.

How far away are you Kingston? I might be up for a road trip.

Anyone use a Dialarc? They seem to be pretty inexpensive but looking around the web seems to suggest they're as reliable as a claw hammer.

I run primarily a new XMT 350 with the same feeder Kingston has at work or an Invertec 350 with an old LN7 on it, both using dual shield for structural fab work. They're both nice machines but out of my price range and not really what I need anyway.

How about old Lindes, LTecs, and Hobarts. They all come cheap but my gut tells me there probably aren't any parts available if they go down.

I think that with a cooler / water cooled torch set up, and old M. Dialarc would meet your needs,......assuming that the transformer insulation hasn't been fried,.......and a lot of the used ones will evince that malady.

GTC

Syncrowave 250 by Miller...

You can tig steel using your bobcat. Scratch start and you're good to go. Make some money this way and then decide what else to buy.

And the miller dialarc is a dandy machine. I use one occasionally at work, and it runs 5/32 7018 clean and crisp...

There is not one in single phase at this site right now but it changes all the time..

http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/all,ok/browse/cataucs?catid=6

Buy one of the Chinese inverter imports, bang out the jobs to get cash for the machine you want, trip the inverter machine on Craigslist for nearly what you have in it.

Where are you located
I have a Lincoln 300/300 Square wave I have been trying to sale.