Upgrading TIG machines at school.

A little inventory of stuff I deal with.

When I started at South Seattle Comm. Coll. we had:

1 Syncrowave 351 with Pulser 3 Hobart Cybertig 300's with pulsers 2 Lincoln Idealarc 300/300's , big grey round tops. 1 Airco Heliwelder 300 with pulser, a Mid-States machine not a Miller. 4 Miller 330AB/P's, also called Goldstars. 2 Hobart HF250's, nasty old things with a brutal hot start.

Over the last 6.5 years...

2 of the cybertigs have died. 1 of the Idealarcs splattered it's reactor coil all over the inside, BOOM! The Airco Heliwelder drove us so crazy with it's bizzare wandering arc, that we shoved it into storage. Both HF250's died fatally. 2 of the 330AB/P's suffered fatal main coil failures. They were never good TIGs, but decent stick machines.

As of yesterday all of the TIGs we got from Boeing last year are up and running.

The current list is :

1 Hobart Cybertig 300, my boss will NOT let me toss it off a cliff. 1 Miller 330AB/P, which I have set up with a valve bodied, flexhead, air cooled torch, so we can teach old fashioned pipe welding. 1 Lincoln Idealarc 300/300, damn thing just won't die. 2 Lincoln Squarewave 175's, one year old and nice to have around. 1 Syncrowave 351 with pulser. 1 Syncrowave 351 with pulser and FULL SEQUENCER, thanks Boeing. 1 Syncrowave 250, about 4 years old, good machine. 3 Syncrowave 300's, with pulsers, all from Boeing.

About 2 years ago we were down to 3 working TIG machines, and now we have 11 working machines.

Of course the rest of our machines are aging as well. We have gotten 4 Deltaweld 451's from Boeing over the last 2 years and bought one new Deltaweld 452, but the rest of our old Hobart MegaMIG

300's and 450's are getting a bit grumpy in their old age. Their wire feeders are also getting awfully touchy.

I am pushing to migrate to the newer machines, but the funding is not there this year. My boss recently made Aluminum MIG a priority at school because of the growth of the aluminum boat industry in Seattle. Several shipyards in Seattle need aluminum MIG welders so we are trying to train them fast, but... Out of 8 Cobra wire feed push-pull systems, only 2 are working. The rest are just parts now. The cabinets are fine, but the guns are just beaten to bits. We desparately need new guns for them. We have 1 Miller 30A spoolgun, but that still gets us only 3 working aluminum systems.

My boss just spent a fortune on a Miller XMT 304 and Optima Pulser system, but it took quite a while to get it working right with one of the old Cobras.

I wish we had spent the money on a Lincoln Powermig 300 with a Python gun. Now that would have been lovely to have at school, if we could keep it working.

It amazes me just how many machines we have at school. In addition to the ones i already mentioned we have 3 Miller 250X's, 3 Miller Dialarc 300's, an old Powcon 300s, 2 old Airco (Miller) 400 amp stick welders, a Linde 400 amp CV machine set up for Sub-arc, a really old Lincoln Squirt Welder, a LTEC PCM-150 plasma cutter, a Pac-10 plasma cutter, a Hypertherm Powermax 600 plasma cutter and a Hypertherm Powermax 380 plasma cutter.

Lots of stuff.

Now that I have the TIGs pretty happy I will start hammering on te MIGs to get them happier.

We are planning on setting up the Deltawelds with dual feeders so we have a normal feeder and a Cobra on each machine. Of course that means getting the Cobras happier.

Anybody have any old Cobra guns sitting around? We can give really nice tax deductable letters of donation in exchange.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler
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Hey Ernie, i ran across this classified in the Buffalo Newspaper today: MILLERMATIC 30A Spool guns (3), brand new, never used, $600 ea. or $1500 all (716)834-9928 Maybe they would do a deal of some sort. If you need me to help, let me know. I'm not sure (from your post) if you have some miller mig machines that can accept these spool guns for aluminum. walt

Reply to
Walt

we just got a miller powermig 300 at work spooled with 4043. Haven't had a chance to play with it yet though.

John

Reply to
JohnT.

Ernie,

What is the status of all this busted stuff? I'd be interested in either getting some of it, or fixinig it etc. I am very close to you (Maple Valley)

Reply to
Mr Wizzard

I need to get one more equipment dealer to give us appraisals of the stuff before they will authorize the disposal. I have found it rather difficult to get dealers to come up for free. Most want to charge $500 for the honor.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

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