esab260 or miller251

ESAB machines are not well built.

Miller machines are.

FWIW, I just purchased a Miller 251 and love it. Mind you I'm not much of a MIG welder *yet*, but I'm sold on Miller products. Counting so far: Synchrowave

250 TIG, Spectrum 500 plasma, 251 MIG, and an Airco (a relabeled Miller) AC/DC buzz box. Some of these units are 15+ years old and except for an annual dust-off/blow-out with compressed air and the odd coat of Turtle Wax, none have needed any PM or repair. These are very nice machines overall which have a habit of making me look good even when I don't deserve it. (A tall order, that. hehehe)

Parts seem to be very well supported too. A year ago I called Miller for the "add-on" volt and amp meters & pre-flow timer modules for the Synchrowave 250. They still had them stocked and shipped them to me. Mind you this is an

*original* Synch250... not the current generation DX model.

My vote: Go Big Blue. :) There are other brands which are likely just as good, but IMHO you'll not find better. YMMV

Roark

thanks I have a miller 175 & love it but want to upgrade the esab looked interesting, but i know the miller will make me happy, the thought of multi process had me thinking.

Jeff

If you really want multi-process, then get a Panasonic Gunslinger 261.

Looks like they discontinued 5the 260T with the TIG foot pedal option.

They do have the 260P with the plasma cutter built in.

For a lot more money you can step up to a Lincoln Powermig 300.

When did they go to hell? We have an old Chemetron built ESAB 250 that came out of a Case-New Holland plant in PA. It is not elegant, but is pretty rugged. They were running them since about 1980 and only replaced them to switch to pulse. We got a power supply, wire feeder and a 45 pound spool of electrode for $80 plus the trip to PA. You can crank that thing in spray till the tip melts, it doesn't care.

That is a different class of machine and a different era. Nobody can aford to overbuild those battle tanks anymore. ESAB had a tradition of building decent big industrial machines, but a ESAB Multimaster 260 is not a heavy duty machine. No more than a Millermatic 251 is. They are "light" industrial machines.

If you really want to see the difference, go to a welding store that has both a ESAB 260 and a Miller 251 sittiong on the floor.' Open the side door of both and compare the parts. Miller's wire feeder is twice the size and much better designed and built. ESAB uses the same wire feeder in a 260 as Hobart used to use in a little Handler 120.

Gotcha. Is there any downside to running one of the old battle tanks on a rotary converter as opposed to going for a newer single phase machine (for home use)? I currently have a Hobart 175 at home but would eventually like to have something that can do spray transfer.

We have discussed running old BIG 3-phase welders from rotary converters over in RCM newsgroup. The consensus was that it is just not worth it. You would need a huge converter to sustain full output of the welder.

You can use a 3-phase welder on single phase, but you will have less output because you are dumping a 1/3 of the main winding.

Almost a year later. Panasonic doesn't seem to be generally available - or I'm not looking in all the right places. The 260/261 goes for about $1200, 260P for $3400/3500 - separates are probably a better deal if you have the space. Given the scarcity of sellers I'm gussing that parts and service would likely be a problem. I'm back at Miller, Lincoln, Hobart and ESAB, but still don't REALLY KNOW if I want a multi process machine (-:

The Miller 351 is comparable to the Lincoln Powermig 300.

For a single process machine the Miller 251 is hard to beat. Especially with the 30A spoolgun.

Miller Passport MIG is based on Maxstar 150 with electronics to make it CV. I imagin a MIG/TIG/stick version of passport in a couple years.