Anything welding

That's because manufacturers are starting to drop ones that have reached the end of their design life. They still work fine, but newer styles are supposed to give finer cuts, more depth per amperage that sort of thing. Some dont work well on CD instead of high frequency. Hypertherm and Miller both stopped supporting some of their older torches in the last year, they make conversion to the new style but the old is going away slowly but surely.

You know you been in the biz too long when you sell a Syncrowave 250 and the guy you sold it to calls you 20 years and 4 jobs later asking for help because Miller no longer makes repair parts for the pre-flow timer. I sent him to vpartsinc.com. Shit is changing fast these days

 

Sad but true!

Wish they still supported the Aerowave ... best CC welder ever made IMHO.

 

As long as you didnt have to work on them. LOL They were basically 2 machines joined at the hip. We had a guy bring one in for repair a few months ago and Miller had nothing for it, didnt even have a tech that knew about it. Our tech is really good, and when he throws in the towel, it's junk. LOL Way too many switches on it, first time I saw one at a Miller school the Miller engineer was reading the manual trying to remember all the features and how to access them. LOL That was in the twilight years before they really started refining inverters.

I never really cared for them because they were somewhat problematic in their first few years. They tended to blow a lot of boards out with voltage spikes. Kind of like the old Thermal Dynamics stak-pak and the last few years of Powcon.

 

The manual was the best cure for insomnia that Miller ever designed.

I certainly never worked on one, took the cover off once and nearly had a stroke just looking at it.

It was one of the first machines I learned on and will always have a soft spot for it.

 

Me and you were looking at it from different sides of the table, you were using it and enjoying the arc quality, I was looking at it and dreading the phone call everyday asking me to come and explain why it would not work. Shit, if I found why it wouldnt weld it was an accident, send a repair tech out, he would call me an hour later on his way back and say some nit wit was flipping switches and turning dials. We would send them an hours worth of labor plus travel time, they would argue and we would reduce the charge, then call the next week and do it all over again. They finally learned when we quit reducing the charge.

It's still a problem with inverters, people setting preflow timers out to max and thinking the machine is broken, or Lincolns 256 I think it was that reverted to default setting if you held the mig gun trigger down when you turned the power on. As much as I think high school ag mechanics instructors are salt of the earth guys and way underpaid, schools dont seem to realize there is a big step between teaching welding and raising swine.

 

I was always told 5 years was an advanced age in welding machines .

Finding IGBT`s for my XMT`s was an adventure.

Gotta love cranked up Preflow timers.

 

Thats probably very true, with inverters its a roll of the dice after warranty ends. Early XMT's could be money pits, actually early inverters could be money pits. XMT's were no worse than any of them.

 

My next welding project once after I spend a couple more days fitting tube.

 

I always wanted a rail buggy with a 2.3L Ford engine.

 

So these aren’t the most beautiful things I’ve even made, but my boss just told me to make them quick and down and dirty. Lots of little pieces. They’re 5/8” solid rod wall spreaders. We use them at work for rigging small things in cars, or doorways, and stuff like that. Put a piece of one end and the other side on the other end of a rod and then turn the wing nut to put pressure in opposing directions to make it super rigid in the space and then you can rig stuff off of the rod

My boss wants me to make 60 of them

 

MIG welding for the win!

MIG pays the bills!

I'm not so anti TIG that I can't admit to the beauty. But MIG makes the house payment!

 

very true hahaha

 

Finally got around to 'fixing' my '08 Corolla after thieves (meth heads) stole the catalytic converter back in September. Luckily they only took the downstream converter so I welded a new 'bung-hole' for the downstream O2 and put a straight pipe after it. No check engine light and runs just like before. Also now immune to future theft.

The best part is for the price of paying someone to actually fix it, I got a new welding setup.

 

Also, just a note on my setup cost:

Hobart Handler 140: - $529
Hobart Welding Hood: $100
75% Argon Tank (20 ft) and Fill: $150
Harbor Freight Cart: $120
Wire, Tips, other supplies: $100
Total Cost: $999

I badly need an angle grinder though and I'm sure I'll think of something else too.

 

Built 10 of these stupid things today. 50 more to go. Tedious and I hate them

 

Mindless work. I hear you. Once the 1st one is done, no thinking involved.

No one gets away from production work .

 

The big positive here is that I get to do all the work from home in the comfort of my own space and all my expendables (wire, gas, flap discs, cut off wheels, etc.) are paid for. No commute since I’m just going out to my garage haha. Can’t complain too much

 

Great to hear!

My best welds are after my second beer...unfortunately the 3rd, 4th, 5th... follow those. Ambition to weld is gone at that point.

 

That's awesome; that's my whole goal.

I do small stuff from home for very few people so far.

But yeah I get you on the whole production part.

 

hahaha

It’s definitely nice being able to work from home on stuff I like to do (for the most part)