--Have been saving up for one, to upgrade from my Econotig. The
question is: what's the price range for these units from the various
manufacturers. I've always been a fan of Big Blue but the one that they
offer, the Dynasty 200, rips thru the wallet at $3,000! Are there other
models I've missed?
I've got a Thermal arc 185, A/C, D/C inverter based, TIG / stick .
it has a pulser, sequencer, digital read out.
lift arc, high freq.
gas pre flow, post flow adjust
Stick- hot start adjust
A true advanced squarewave TIG .
I really like it.
it was $1650.
I've got a Thermal Arc 185 TSW that has a pulser. Great machine. $1650-ish
from IOS. IIRC, you're close to San Francisco...? You're more than
welcome to come by and give mine a try.
Peter
A Syncrowave 250 with a pulser and a foot pedal can be had for about $2500. If
you get the regulator, torch or cooler options, it will add about $300 I think.
It's a thoroughly nice machine.
Bob
I went the used welder route and am curious. Are used welders more
prone to failure than they were when they were new? As for the
inverter based ones, what is it that can go bad in them besides the
capacitors?
i
steamer,
Im looking at the same ones too. Seems like someone said the Miller
were better than the Lncoln but I really dont know. If your like me , a
used one not trashed wld work fine but they are hard to find. Plus,
again , if your like me, just for shop and home use, it wont get used
much and wld prob last forever,.
Im gonna stay intouch with posts on the dynasty. I did see one guy post
that he really liked his. But heck he cld be a salesman too. Go
figure..
Good Luck and let us know what you do.
That makes sense... I looked into my Cybertig a little bit... If the
boards fail, I am likely fully screwed. If the power modules like SCRs
fail, I hope that I would be able to replace them. Mine seems to be
built such that it stays well within the safe operating area for the
electronics, so I hope that I will get some life out of it.
i
Note that the problem of stocking semiconductor spares goes way way beyond
welders. Consider the lifespan of say a Boeing B-52, now in what, they're 40th
year of service? Whenyou think of a product which has decades of service life,
then compare that to the rapid change in semiconductor technology. Say a chip
was designed that went into some board on a large machine in 1978. The
manufacturer would have to had ordered, tested, labeled, and stored enough spare
parts from their initial semiconductor run to last FOREVER. How would you feel
if you went to ask for a little part for your welder and they said they have it,
but it's $2400? How much does it cost to keep parts around?
My point is that chip was designed in technology that is now ancient by modern
standards, it would be as if we had to go back to Bronze Age smelting techniques
to fix a pulley on a sailboat, just ridiculously impractical. It's conceivably
possible to fully specify the function of the chip and then redesign it for
another production run later one if needed, but then you run the terrible risk
of not getting the design quite right.
I own a Tektronix 2445 oscilloscope, for which many parts are no longer
available from Tek. My only solution was to buy and store a complete parts
scope. I have been offered $500 for a single *chip* out of my parts scope!
So yes, you have to figure welders with complex integrated circuitry have a
finite lifespan, but realistically this will be reflected in their value, and so
old broken ones should become available with spares, kind of like if you own a
1930s Packard car.
GWE
Well, I do not knw much about B-52 parts, but I heard thet B-52s have
modular construction and a lot of systems undergo upgrades. These
planes are projected to last for decades to come. But I know that the
military stocks up a lot of old parts, I know that by getting them as
surplus.
Onan still has parts for my 26 year old DJE diesel generator. Not as
much for Onan CCK generators, the older gasoline gensets.
You do have a good point about obsoletion.
As well as a very low production run.
Me too, 2445A
formatting link
Seems like too much, I thought that they are worth a lot less.
I agree. You made some good points. I really like my $9.99 welder and
they seem to be generally available, so I could get spares if
I needed. Mine seems to be built to last (meaning parts operate well
below their rated limits and are of good quality), but like you said,
everything can fail eventually.
i
You can definitely get the SCR's and the like for it. I've had to
replace mine twice. The first time I didn't have the schematic so I
didn't know someone had switched wires in the machine. The second time
I found the crossed connections and I've not had any problems since.
Actually the SCR's are the easy part. The hard part is the high speed
fuses that protect the SCR's. Those cost me much more than the SCR's
the second time.
Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
Absolutely. I have a behemoth of a welder, as far as relation of size
and weight to output power is concerned. And I like it that way:
1) everything is fully open and if not obvious (to a newbie like me),
at least I can trace what is going on.
2) It is overbuilt, which can hopefully add some years to its life.
And cost.
My welder was completely covered by filth. It was so bad. It still is
filthy, as some dirt is basically glued to it, but to a lesser
extent now. I spent perhaps 20 min vacuuming it.
i
Not likely. When I was calling around for manuals I barely got a
civil response once I told them what machine I had. Most told me that
no parts where available so why was I looking for a manual.
I'm in a little better shape than you are in some ways. The only
electronic bit in mine is the SCR controller. The rest is just time
delay relays and the like which are standard industrial control
products.
Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
Well I had to check around a little to find the parts. I finally
found a industrial electronics company that specialized in high power
SCR's and the like (there main line was motor controllers). I think
that once I found them the SCR's where something like $40-60 or less
for a pair of them. In fact I had trouble getting up enough to make
there minimum order and had to order extras. I've got two hanging on
the wall in my electronics shop right now just in case.
I probably could of used some from the Surplus Center of the like
but they're kind of high on them from what I found and they didn't
have the exact match which I wanted.
The fuses on the other hand I had to get at Grainger and I think
those where something like $60-70 each.
The manuals for the welder on the other hand cost me more than a lot
of it. I think that I had to pay $60 for one and $50 for the other. I
also had a much harder time finding them. The welder itself wasn't to
hard. But my control drawer is a unusual one for it's age and I had to
call a lot of places before I found it and when I got it I wasn't
happy. It was just the operators manual instead of the tech manual I
was trying to find.
Ok I just drug out the catalog they sent me and the company I got the
SCR's through is Galco Industrial Electronics.
formatting link
Highly recommended. They helped me a lot and even reviewed the
application to make sure I got the right part.
Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
Times must have changed, I spoke to some pleasant ladies who emailed
me the manuals.
That's great... I hope that my machine would hold up to actual use...
i
Pulsing is not the same as the frequency of current. Imagine this
waveform, with high and low amplitude:
VVVVVVvvVVVVVVvvVVVVVvv
that is, some cycles are with low amplitude and some with high
amplitude. The AC period is the width of the letter V, the pulse
period is the length of sequence VVVVVvv.
i
Steam,
I just got he word Miller is coming out with a new one after the new
yr. I think its an upgrade for the SYNCROWAVE 180 SD but will be a 200
version and will have the pulse..and a few other features. Hooks on
both sides and other good ideas.
We'll see i reckcon.
Blueraven
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.