On Wed, 27 May 2015 15:41:25 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:


I'd love to have an inverter TIG to play with but I don't really NEED
one at this point in time. They cost a bit too much and I think they
have a lot of electronic stuff inside that could crap out just sitting
around unused... My old Solar (Century, Wards...) 295 amp stick box
hasn't got much inside that can fail. And my Millermatic 200 MIG
hasn't got a lot of electronic stuff but more than the Solar. It fires
up though every time I ask it too even though it pretty much sits
around nowadays.


I have a Miller 252 MIG welder. Wonderful machine. Have an AL spool
gun for it. Works well for most AL work but not on irrigation pipe.
You can't beat a TIG for weld control. If you are putting a weld-on
female end onto a pipe section, you need MAX heat and a wife or son to
hold the torch for preheat. Little welders just don't do it.

I'm driving an hour each way to get a couple of these done on my son's
welder - Syncrowave 250. he's offered to sell me his for $1800. i may
take hime up.

Karl

If you can't speak, just nod yes to Jacob's synchrowave.

You're need is urgent and related to bidness.

Your tits-up Linc is probably repairable but you don't have time or
inclination to mess around like a hobbyist might. That pot probably
controls a saturable reactor. Since the pot seems to check good, the
problem is probably either with the DC supply (rectifier diodes) for
the saturable reactor, or a bad connection. It could be an open
winding on the saturable reactor or a bad control transformer, but
that'd be unlikely.

The synchrowave is a very capable TIG machine. I don't think I'd
trade my dinosaur Miller DialArc 250 for one because, while the newer
machines have more bells and whistles, they also have more electronics
and that's what usually fails -- and is very expensive to get fixed.
I've had a couple of weldors tell me that when the boss changed out
their DialArcs for Synchrowaves, they suddenly could no longer weld
aluminum tanks without leaks. Just sayin' what I heard. The ol'
DialArc is a 400-lb dinosaur, but it's reliable as gravity and does
everything I wanna do.