I'm (happy to be) in the rare position of setting up new shop with a good budget to work with. I'll be putting together proto-types made of metal, plastic, wood, and who knows what else.
I'm approaching this like it's my own garage shop but with a bigger budget - I want as much versatility as I can get because I'll be doing all of the work myself and it will be so varied. Also in the balance is that the equipment won't see high volume for extended periods. When a product is moving into production mode it will be taken over by others and in a different shop.
I started looking at a Millermatic 251 setup with aluminum spool gun so I could do steel and the occasional aluminum anytime without change-over, up against a similar Lincoln Power MIG 255C. A friend used the hell out of an ESAB for years day-in and day-out until it started spattering, and likes the new one he replaced it with - so I had to ask how ESAB compares and the salesman claimed the Multimaster
260 actually welds better than the blue and red, plus you get stick and TIG.Saving money on buying a TIG got me thinking about the Lincoln Power MIG 350MP instead of the ESAB...
I want to use excellent tools for the job - like my Maxstar has proven to be, so I'm wondering if I need to go to something like the XMT (or higher) to get a truly good multi-process welder for whatever I need, and if I would be just as well, or better off to get a great MIG and a great TIG separately. While multi-process seems really cool and handy for an R&D shop, I've also got those early all-in one printer-fax-scanner wonders haunting my mind...
That said I'm wondering if the pulse on the Power MIG would be worth the step up... metal core out of position, thin aluminum MIG...
I'm going to demo some of these but I like to do some homework first so I can really go through the paces. Maybe I need to wait until I go to the FABTECH International & AWS Welding Show 2006 to decide...
Your input is most appreciated...