Syncrowave 250 amps in & other Q's

There's a person selling a syncrowave 250 who has now moved out of his shop. At home he only has a 30 Amp service and he said that when he hooks it up to that, it blows the breaker, so all he can show me that it works is that it sparks. Does that sound legit? I thought that if you just set it on a lower setting you could weld up to the limit of the input line.

What's the current fair price for a Syncrowave 250 built in 1995? What's missing from that compared to a current model?

The torch is water cooled, but he decided to sell the water cooler separately. What's a water cooler worth? I won't be doing extensive welding, so water cooling isn't an issue for me; however, if I need a source of water to run that particular torch, that might be.

RWL

Reply to
GeoLane at PTD dot NET
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There is a certain amount of power required to simply turn the beasty on.

My Airco 300 Squarewave will kick a 30 amp breaker EVERYTIME I turn it on. But it runs well enough up to about 200 amps on a 50.

If you can determine what sort of breaker he has...pick up a 50 amp (new) and install it. This should keep it from popping the breaker..and you can certainly weld at LOW amperage for a few minutes. But his wireing may be too small to do much else safely.

Water coolers are important..but one can run a hose from an outside faucet to cool the torch and have the output water ones garden, until one finds/makes his own cooler. Which is not all that hard.

I know several guys who do just that and they weld a lot.

Gunner

"A conservative who doesn't believe? in God simply doesn't pray; a godless liberal wants no one to pray. A conservative who doesn't like guns doesn't buy one; a liberal gun-hater wants to disarm us all. A gay conservative has sex his own way; a gay liberal requires us all to watch and accept his perversion and have it taught to children. A conservative who is offended by a radio show changes the station; an offended liberal wants it banned, prosecuted and persecuted." Bobby XD9

Reply to
Gunner Asch

It is possible. It may draw 46 amps at idle or some such.

If you are seriously interested, you can buy a higher breaker at Home Depot (to match his breaker box) to try his syncrowave with your breaker installed temporarily.

I would say $1k to 1300.

Read the manual

$200 is a sensible price.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus9618

Having run my Syncrowave 250 on a 30A circuit for a good year and a half with no issues running up to about 150A output, no it does not sound right.

1995 is what I have, and it is an excellent machine. What is missing is "fan on demand", meaning that the cooling fan always runs, and I believe the new DX model has a pulser / sequencer built in. The "old" 250 also had a number of optional features which may or may not be there, but aren't particularly important for most uses, which is why they were optional.

If you have a water cooled torch, you *have* to have a water source for it or you will destroy it in seconds. The water cools not only the torch, but the torch power lead as well. You can use a regular faucet for a water supply, but that is a bit wasteful and tends to clog up the torch with mineral deposits.

Reply to
Pete C.

Do you have phase compensation (capacitor block)?

I have a pulser on my 250.

You can build a cooler very easily, I had a homebuilt cooler for a while. All you need is a carbonator pump.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus22661

That's "power factor correction", and no, I do not have that option on my machine. Residential electric meters don't care about power factor, so neither do I.

Add on? Specs? Model number?

I really like my Coolmate V3. The vertical design fits the cylinder rack at the back of the machine, leaving the top of the machine free to pile other stuff on.

Reply to
Pete C.

Yes, I forgot the term.

I do not care about it either other than putting more current through the breakers.

It is an add on unit Miller PC-300.

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I also have a timer kit, which I have not yet installed:

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I pile stuff on top of the cooler.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus22661

A pulser might be nice to find or build.

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I'm not sure how useful the pre-flow timer really is, unless you are using a sequencer and just a button on the torch. With the foot pedal it's really easy to just tap it and let the post flow timer keep the gas solenoid open for a couple seconds before pressing the pedal again and starting the arc.

Reply to
Pete C.

In regard to the 30 amp breaker tripping, I once had a 30 amp breaker that would trip while using my Lincoln tombstone at modest levels of current. Upon inspecting the breaker I thought it looked like the (kind of springy) conductor that makes contact when plugged in was a bit spread out from it's original position, though it hadn't yet been cooked by excessive heat; once I bent it back so as to make better contact I had no more problems with the breaker tripping.

ymmv

Mike

Reply to
mike

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