On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 04:53:20 GMT, "Keith Marshall"
wrote:

I've been looking around for an used welder. A certain guy advised me
against tombstone welders, stating that due to usage the amps selector is
often worn and unreliable. Since this guy works for a Miller distributor
his
opinion has to be biased

I'm by no means an expert on the subject but I've owned 3 Lincoln
"tombstones" and have yet to have a problem with any of them.

but in fairness I have seen dozens of Lincolns at
second hand joints yet very rarely a Miller.

My guess would be that you see many more Lincolns because Lincoln went after
the home/hobbiest/farmer market and Miller didn't... or if they did they
must not have been very successful at it.

Northern Tool and Equipment, Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply, Sears and
even Sam's Club have sold Lincoln Tombstones but I've never seen any type of
Miller welder at any of them. I do see Hobarts at a couple of those places
and Miller now owns Hobart so I guess that's their solution. :-)

Best Regards,
Keith Marshall



I agree 100% with Keiths comments.

As has been discussed...Im something of a scrounger to a very small
degree...and seldom does one encounter a Miller welder of any type in
a home or farm/shop/garage operation.

By far and away are the Lincoln tombstones of various types, very old
Marqettes, the odd Hobart and Century. Even a Westinghouse now and
then..but few Millers, at least in the West.

Most Millers found these days are found in full sized commercial
operations and are less than 15 or so years old.

My main machine for many years was a Westinghouse AC buzzbox, then
replaced by a Lincoln AC225. Small stuff was done with a 3 tap 110vt
Marquette ( 1/16" rod)

I believe..believe that there were a few Sears welders sold that were
made by Miller, or made by AIRCO, who badged machines for Miller..most
of them have a top crank handle..but they are not very common, myself
only having seen 4-5 in the last 20 yrs.

My AC-225 went to one of the members here, as did the old Westinghouse
225, a friend got the Marqette for a Christmas present, and so forth

I still have a Century AC-DC machine tucked away in storage for
somebody who wants one , but my machines are a Miller 300 Dialarc
commercial machine (rescued from being scrapped) that works
marvelously, the Lincoln Tig 250/250 (also rescued and repaired) and
the various MIG machines..Lincoln, Airco and Dan-Mig which were also
rescued.

All now serious commerical grade machines even though most are at
least 20 yrs old or more.

Gunner



"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"


"mongke" wrote in message
news:1110943186.2d5de8d69c5563c28a89762af67e7330@ teranews...
Hi all

I've been looking around for an used welder. A certain guy advised me
against tombstone welders, stating that due to usage the amps selector is
often worn and unreliable. Since this guy works for a Miller distributor
his
opinion has to be biased but in fairness I have seen dozens of Lincolns at
second hand joints yet very rarely a Miller.
Any suggestions please?


--

Regards,


Mongke



Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
H. L. Mencken