Bryan Goring wrote in message ...
Hi All,

Anyone one with experience owning and using a century 125gs, and would
like to advise a novice on its capabilities, it would be greatly
appreciated.

I have been tempted to buy a mig welder setup for some time, was looking
at the lincoln weldpak (120v feed) with gas hookup. I prefer this brand
because it is well recognized and has a web site, i can find little
information about the century online. But the lincoln with gas kit will
cost me around ~CDN800 bucks. I have the chance to buy the century unit
on clearance for CDN375 still in the box, never used.

I want to know whether it would be really worth to spend the extra money
for the lincoln, in particular:

-any significant features on the lincoln lacking on the century unit
-century's capability to weld aluminum (the lincoln datasheet mentions
this capability, no mention on the century)

Also, it looks like the century has only 4 heat settings, and a fixed
gas regulator. Not sure if this means too much.

Any tips greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bryan

A lot depends on what you're going to do with it. The cheaper MIGs
can do a pretty good job within their limitations. OTOH, I wouldn't
recommend a HF MIG unit. I bought one of those some years ago and I
should have sent it back. It finally turned out OK after I
reengineered the wire feed and changed the torch to a Tweco.

However, I ended up doing a lot of welding on the high range of the
machine where the duty cycle is around 20% (2 minutes on, 8 minutes
off). It was getting frustrating toasting the transformer and then
waiting for it to cool off. I solved that problem by finding a used
Miller Millermatic 250 which can run up to 160A at 100% duty cycle and
60% at 200A.

The cheap welders tend to use automotive alternator rectifiers.
They're cheap and can typically handle 100A without much problem, but
their duty cycle suffers above that. My Millers uses a couple of 300A
SCRs with a variable trigger to control the arc voltages. That gives
a continuously variable output voltage. Inexpensive welders will use
a tapped transformer and a switch. The continuous voltage control is
a little nicer from the user standpoint, but a switched range won't
prevent you from doing anything you need to do. More importantly, the
300A components should not fry when running the unit near max; I've
had those cheapie diodes blow on my HF unit.

Although it was fun and instructive rebuilding the HF unit, it was not
helping me get any welding done. I think I, personally, would have
been better off looking for a used Miller in the first place. Given
that, the cheaper machines can be very useful if you don't run them
near their max output. I'd also check to make sure the consumables
are standard and available (things like tips and nozzles). It isn't
very hard to put a good gun on one of those units, but it may not be
cost effective. Go to a local welding store and ask them their
opinion. If they're negative, see if you can get their reasons, that
may help you make a better decision.

As far as aluminum goes, I haven't done that, but for some torches you
can get nylon or teflon liners to reduce the problem of wire jamming
when feeding Al wire. They may not be available, or very pricey, for
a non-standard gun. If this is important, try to find somebody who
has used the Century on Al (check with your welding store).

Good luck

Paul