Electro-Beckham mig welders

[fsusteve]

Just bought a Electro-Beckham 180 mig welder at a garage sale for $35, just needs a tank. Anybody know anything about these? Apparently they're West German and supposedly good quality. Also preference on gas, argon or argon/c02 I believe are the choices right?
Seems nice, time to play.

 

[tltaylor22]

i haven't heard of the brand before. The gas you use depends on what you will be welding. I've got an argon tank for aluminum and a co2 tank for mild steel. Straight co2 tends to make the weld splatter so i would suggest a co2/ argon mix at 25% argon. Other people might be of more help.

 

[thorvald]

well, was curious, did a search for electro-beckham, only thing matching was this thread

so instead of posting that link, typed in beckham, came up with link to elektra beckum, must be the same thing?http://www.metabo.com/eb/com/en/produkte/migmagweldingmachines/

let us know how it works. wouldnt mind finding a $35 welder

 

[photogod]

CO2 more splatter and deeper penetration and we all like that. Argon/ CO2 much less splatter but not as deep a penetration. You just need to up the amperage a bit.

 

[Junk]

Post up on the hobart forum site and ask if anyone knows anything about them. There's a few guys over there that probably would know.

congrats on the pickup. For mig you'll want C25 unless you're doing aluminum (then you'd want 100% argon).

FYI, you should be able to run that with flux core and no tank to learn, then add gas later on with solid wire.

 

[White Shark]

Don't buy Forney flux core wire. That stuff bites. Tons of splatter and smoke. I like the Lincoln .035 flux core wire NR-211-MP and it welds almost as clean as some of the mig setups I've used. With a 180 unit, you might look into the .045 wire of the same make. Good stuff.

 

[honk]

Don't buy Forney flux core wire. That stuff bites. Tons of splatter and smoke. I like the Lincoln .035 flux core wire NR-211-MP and it welds almost as clean as some of the mig setups I've used. With a 180 unit, you might look into the .045 wire of the same make. Good stuff.

White Shark, you might have advised that he look into the cost/availability of a liner capable of using .045" wire - the machine comes capable of running .6 - .8 mm wire.

fsusteve,

Great score! If the website linked above is showing your new welder it's able to run at full power 3.5 minutes of every ten minutes (35% duty cycle at 180 amp) which indicates a well built machine. Probably costs over $1300.00 new.