Multiprocess Welding Machines. Purchase advice needed.

[Corbet]

Why is “Blue Sean” not rigging a bell for me?

And to further the discussion I’m currently leaning towards the Syncrowave 212. As I understand it, that machine will have more features for TIG than the Multimatic 220. As I already own a Millermatic 211 to cover MIG I feel like the dedicated TIG is a better decision, I just need to deal with the additional footprint in my garage.

 

[brian]

miller 215

 

[Malleus]

 

[Malleus]

 

[Malleus]

I own an HTP Mig; I'll never buy a chinese welder.

 

[Malleus]

If you want a true multiprocess, their Revolution is the way to go.

 

[mrsleeve]

Not sure if you have seen this yet but ToT just did a pretty good review and is running a give away right now for the HTP independence, I am going to be lazy and just assume the HTP is more feature rich in the optimization and controls and settings than the Big Blue in this match up. Both would make fantastic additions to your home shop .
Edit: ToT did a thing on the revolution last year

 

[PIP]

When I was 15 in the mid 90's I bought a Lincoln 250a MIG welder for $600 and an old 300a Lincoln TIG for $300.

Those used 1980's welders treated me well for a long time until they died. I bought some new Lincoln welders after that and I'm sad to say I will never recommend Lincoln products. Ever. After those experiences.

Starting out again today, I would look for a Syncrowave 250, 300 or 350 and a well made 250a MIG or a newer inverter machine like an XMT304 or 350.

I try to buy low hour used industrial welders. They usually cost about the same as buying the homeowner grade machines new. But they're quite a bit better.

TIG welders are fantastic for stick. Inverter MIG supply is also great for stick, but an inverter MIG will not TIG aluminum, only steel. Hopefully that makes sense.

I've never met anyone who was frustrated they bought a bigger welder. But everyone with a lighter machine that I know is regularly coming against limits or goes through machines all the time.

I welded some 1/8" 5052 pieces in a hurry last week with my Syncrowave 350. Ran it at 100%, full pedal. 6" of weld in as many seconds. 405 amps on the current display and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I had a 180 Miller inverter TIG I bought new when I was 17. I hated that welder. Never enough balls for anything I was doing.

 

[Corbet]

I get the philosophy of buying larger used machine. I don't have anything more than a home dyer like power supply. My detached garage only has 50a running to it from the house. I don't want to go down that path also. Those HTP machines do look nice but It's really looking like a Miller Syncrowave 212 at this point as my son uses blue machines in the classroom. I just want to keep it simple for him at this point.

 

[Malleus]

Lincoln and Miller only make industrial machines in the US, and even those have chinese parts in them. Every other machine is chinese, except HTP. I have no idea where the current HTP electronics come from, but mine are Taiwanese.

 

[gonzopancho]

When I was 15 in the mid 90's I bought a Lincoln 250a MIG welder for $600 and an old 300a Lincoln TIG for $300.

When I was 15 in the mid 70s, I learned on a (set of) Lincoln SA-200s. I think dad and grandpa had 8 of them. Rebuilt a few over the years. Super reliable, easy to work on. Back in the late 70s and early 80s MIG seemed super exotic / expensive to me, and was far too light for the water well industry. 1/4” wall or thicker was the norm for well casing, and we normally fabricated with 1/2” or larger.

Grandpa had one of those Lincoln tombstones in the shop, but I hated it.

Dad was always trying to cut time, and eventually bought a pair of Miller Big 40s to run casing using .045” or sometimes 5/64” flux core wire. Two guys would start on opposite sides the casing from each other and weld toward each other. This was faster, but meant very hot days under the hood in the desert, because changing rod (and the inevitable smoke break for most (not me)) was eliminated.

I bailed on well drilling and went into tech in 1986, so nearly 40 years now. While it’s been lucrative, I’ll just say that my opinion these days is that computers were a mistake.

Call me old-fashioned (or just old), but I’m on the side of single process machines.

At @Bump It Offroad we run a pair of Miller 252s, and they’re very reliable, though they’re starting to show their age.

In my tiny personal shop, I have a 1982 vintage Millermatic 35. (I think I have $700 in it. I think I picked it up on marketplace for $400, and replaced a few cracked insulators and bought a new gun for it.) Does everything I want, but I would like to learn TIG. Might get an old aerowave 300, or a syncrowave (if I don’t want to deal with the hassle of a EOL platform) when I get the urge. idk.

 

[bobm]

I get the philosophy of buying larger used machine. I don't have anything more than a home dyer like power supply. My detached garage only has 50a running to it from the house. I don't want to go down that path also. Those HTP machines do look nice but It's really looking like a Miller Syncrowave 212 at this point as my son uses blue machines in the classroom. I just want to keep it simple for him at this point.

If ya son is familiar with the Miller machines in his school stick with that! Excellent ewuipment I have used all my career. I have a 211 now with an Aluminum spool gun so I can weld pretty much anything I need to . Currently looking to trade for a Multiprocess Miller because I won't buy anything else

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Being in this industry for nearly 35 years I still believe in Miller for shop work and Lincoln for field work. I have several multi process machines and a dedicated AC tig. Pulse option on most of them.

My son just decided the same and asked what machine to get. I recommended the Miller 255 Multimatic. Hands down one of the most versatile and consistent mid level machines I've used in the past 5-6 years.

If he will be using this machine daily for 5-6 hours a day... buy as much machine as you can. His pocket book and piece of mind will thank him later on. Also upgrade to the Bernard 300 (400) mig gun, be much happier using it that the cheesy Miller factory equipped gun it comes with.

Just a few in my main fabshop and have a few more scattered throughout my shops as well.

 

[woody]

I have a Miller 215. Love it for MIG work. But I would never consider a multi process welder again.

Primeweld 225 for TIG. It is NOT a "production" machine, but has worked excellent for my hobby-level learning. A half dozen friends have tried mine and bought one as well. Hard to beat for the price, and it can be set up with a liquid cooled torch.

 

[mrsleeve]

Being in this industry for nearly 35 years I still believe in Miller for shop work and Lincoln for field work. I have several multi process machines and a dedicated AC tig. Pulse option on most of them.

My son just decided the same and asked what machine to get. I recommended the Miller 255 Multimatic. Hands down one of the most versatile and consistent mid level machines I've used in the past 5-6 years.

If he will be using this machine daily for 5-6 hours a day... buy as much machine as you can. His pocket book and piece of mind will thank him later on. Also upgrade to the Bernard 300 (400) mig gun, be much happier using it that the cheesy Miller factory equipped gun it comes with.

Just a few in my main fabshop and have a few more scattered throughout my shops as well.



View attachment 4055478

I would like to expand just a little on the Red Vs Blue for field work. You’re very correct when it comes to old gear. Red still rules in my industry SA200’s and 300’s but anything newer and the Miller pipe pros and big blue have surpassed the newest and best tech from Lincoln in their mobile engine driven gear by a very wide margin in both reliability and performance.

It takes one hell of a product to get a pipeliner to put a blue machine on the back of their truck, but that’s what’s happening in the last decade or so. Many of the new guys just breaking out and many old hands upgrading are jumping on the blue bandwagon because Lincoln is not what they used to be for hard duty field work anymore. Last thing to say there is something eerily magical about the sound of an old red seal firing up for the day on cold morning and those 1st couple idle up’s, and for field work and stick welding SA 200 will always be the stick engine driven welders are measures to.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

I would like to expand just a little on the Red Vs Blue for field work. You’re very correct when it comes to old gear. Red still rules in my industry SA200’s and 300’s but anything newer and the Miller pipe pros and big blue have surpassed the newest and best tech from Lincoln in their mobile engine driven gear by a very wide margin in both reliability and performance.

It takes one hell of a product to get a pipeliner to put a blue machine on the back of their truck, but that’s what’s happening in the last decade or so. Many of the new guys just breaking out and many old hands upgrading are jumping on the blue bandwagon because Lincoln is not what they used to be for hard duty field work anymore. Last thing to say there is something eerily magical about the sound of an old red seal firing up for the day on cold morning and those 1st couple idle up’s, and for field work and stick welding SA 200 will always be the stick engine driven welders are measures to.

I ran early red face SA200s for years. I was a pipeline welder for about 13 years (798 and open). Modified a couple of mine through Tom Fowler's out of Louisiana. Those redface 200s would out weld most machines out there at that time and produce water clear x-rays. In 2006 I tried a Lincoln Vantage 300 and what a POS. Miller came out with the "PIPE PRO" at the same time. It was even worse.

Back then the pipeline motto was "If it ain't gray, it can't stay" ! Most foreman wouldn't even test a welder that pulled up with a Miller on the truck.

 

[mrsleeve]

I ran early red face SA200s for years. I was a pipeline welder for about 13 years (798 and open). Modified a couple of mine through Tom Fowler's out of Louisiana. Those redface 200s would out weld most machines out there at that time and produce water clear x-rays. In 2006 I tried a Lincoln Vantage 300 and what a POS. Miller came out with the "PIPE PRO" at the same time. It was even worse.

Back then the pipeline motto was "If it ain't gray, it can't stay" ! Most foreman wouldn't even test a welder that pulled up with a Miller on the truck.

It’s not like that anymore, it’s getting where a lot of repair welders, and fab guys that are going to be doing more than fireing line and tie in WPS, inspection and welder foreman like to see a big blue on the rig. Especially on bigger jobs where they are running automatics in shacks and the repair welder is running a suitcase. Not saying they don’t have their faults and issues, I watched a guy get his brand new big blue 400 out of the shipping crate put it. On the back of the rig make his side of 3 42” x.888 over 4 days and it started to sputter as the everything just quite. Miller had to take the machine back, but currently those millers are quite a bit better than everything else that’s new at the moment

I was still hucking skids and dragging hoses, and rolling around in the mud in 06, but if you were 798 we may have been in the same place a time or 2 depending on where you had been and when you hung up the pancake.

 

[gonzopancho]

It’s not like that anymore,

It’s definitely not like that anymore running casing. I see blue everywhere. (Yeah, I still pull up on other people’s job sites to watch, just like an old guy.)

Forgot to mention that my brother (rip) and I rebuilt the trailer for my wife’s Melges 24 back in 2006 or so. We were in Hawai’i at that point. I bought a tiny Lincoln flux core machine at Home Depot and a grinder to cut the square tube. Hauled the tube and materials to Waikiki Yacht Club on the 88 FJ62. (This is mud, ya gotta work the cruiser content in when you can…)

Didn’t take very long before I was exceeding the duty cycle of that little machine. Had to let it cool.

Lots of lookie-loos watching from about 50’ away, (that’s it, dummy, stare at the bright light all you want), but not as many as when I recast the lead keel for the 12m racing boat.

Still have the machine, used it a couple times since (repaired a radio tower for a HAM friend out in the Texas sticks with it.) Handy if you need to go somewhere and only have 120VAC. Still not really impressed with it.

 

[Corbet]

I appreciate the continued discussion so keep it coming but at this point I believe I’m pretty well set on the Syncrowave-212. It’s got AC TIG, fits my budget, home electrical supply and complements my current Millermatic-211 very well. We have a parent meeting with our son’s Highschool welding teacher next week. Unless he offers some sort of argument for something else the 212 should check all the boxes for the remainder of high school.

Assuming our son continues down this career path I can upgrade him post secondary education for the specific applications he needs. A big blue machine would look pretty cool dropped on a 45-series work truck.

 

[gonzopancho]

I appreciate the continued discussion so keep it coming but at this point I believe I’m pretty well set on the Syncrowave-212. It’s got AC TIG, fits my budget, home electrical supply and complements my current Millermatic-211 very well. We have a parent meeting with our son’s Highschool welding teacher next week. Unless he offers some sort of argument for something else the 212 should check all the boxes for the remainder of high school.

Assuming our son continues down this career path I can upgrade him post secondary education for the specific applications he needs. A big blue machine would look pretty cool dropped on a 45-series work truck.

80 series, cut the cab, tray. IJS