Help me spend my money on a TIG welder!

I own my tank from Praxair. It is about 4 feet tall. Have only seen one size larger. Cost me about $90 to fill.
 
Cooter Brown said:
I can't control the background current, I can't control the post flow, no square wave, no triangle wave, and it doesn't have a 100% duty cycle at any amperage... The Miller Syncrowave 200 does all of that... Ohhhh and the Lincoln has a cooling fan that turns on right when you power up the machine that is loader than my air compressor.... But its biggest problem is the color its RED.... lol

ESAB Only has one cool feature the MIG welder with the rotating wire feeder on top....
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The Lincoln TIG 200 is a square wave. As far as duty cycle, I just got done with a project where I welded some aluminum together at its max rated 200 amps. Never had it cut out but the torch did get so hot I could hardly hang onto it.
Yes, the fan is a little irritating but I don't care. Heck, I had to put ear plugs in when I was welding at 200 amps because of the frequency I had it set at.

Also, your Miller is THREE times the cost of the Lincoln. I would hope that it has more features.
 
the
7milesup said:
The Lincoln TIG 200 is a square wave. As far as duty cycle, I just got done with a project where I welded some aluminum together at its max rated 200 amps. Never had it cut out but the torch did get so hot I could hardly hang onto it.
Yes, the fan is a little irritating but I don't care. Heck, I had to put ear plugs in when I was welding at 200 amps because of the frequency I had it set at.

Also, your Miller is THREE times the cost of the Lincoln. I would hope that it has more features.
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At My local welding shop the miller was only $600 more... they hook me up... The Miller will run 95 amps at 100% duty cycle.... The majority of the TIG work I do can be done at 95 amps...
 
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7milesup said:
Also, your Miller is THREE times the cost of the Lincoln. I would hope that it has more features.
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It does have some very good features, especially for those coming from Lincoln: Warranty, parts, and lifetime support.

I have a 1960's white face Miller Dialarc HF water cooled beast. I lost HF start, and went to Praxair for help... The Miller research department sent me the original manuals and parts list, plus an up-to-date part number interchange list. I got the rectifier and relay I needed for about $25, used the schematics supplied, and fixed my welder good as new. Let's see you try that with a red welder. The answer you'll get is, "We're sorry, that model is no longer supported." Lincoln does make shareholders happy, however. Just look at what Miller offers beginners and home shop folks on their web site- they re-invest their profits into building a customer rapport that is unique in the industry for non-commercial customers.
 
I have gotten great support for my Miller, but I have good stories about Lincoln (at least the professional ones)...

Let's not devolve into 'my welder is better than your welder' woes. The small consumer Miller welder is crap, and I'm sure the customer service for it sucks too.

I try to buy professional equipment because these companies can't afford the word-of-mouth saying that they won't support their prof. equipment. Market would be lost in a month.
 
I was just going to say....Red or Blue. This argument is worse than Ford or Chevy. I own a Ram EcoDiesel so yeah, I'm different.

This thread is taking on the same tone as the jackwagons over at Practical M...
 
pontiac428 said:
It does have some very good features, especially for those coming from Lincoln: Warranty, parts, and lifetime support.
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The warranty for Miller and Lincoln are the same for the machines I would be looking at. But I'm not spending $15K on a machine either so I don't care about production machines.
 
You could use that argument for everything. Trucks, cars, aircraft, helicopters, lathes, mills, houses...you name it.
 
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