I started answering a question for a fellow on allexperts.com and it grew into a full fledged rant that I ended up sending to Miller via their comment window on their website.
The last time I sent a long letter to Miller I ended up in phone discussions with 5 major players at Miller about my suggestions for new machines.
The machines I suspect I influenced were the Miller passport, the DVI wire feed and the ability to hook up a push pull gun to a Millermatic
252.We'll see if I get any response to this one.
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I have 3 big gripes with all the welding manufacturers.
- The criminal misrepresentation of output amperages on 110 volt MIG machines.
- The complete lack of any useful information on Pulsers, while wanting everybody to buy one.
- The misrepresentation of aluminum MIG on 110 volt MIG machines.
- The criminal misrepresentation of output amperages on 110 volt MIG machines.
According to Miller's product literature a Millermatic 140 machine has an output range of 30 to 140 amps. Simply put that is a flat out lie.
What has happened was that many years ago the product number on a welding machine referred to it's output amperage. The number was based on the machines output at a 100% duty cycle. Duty cycle is how you state how long a machine can weld before having to rest so it doesn't overheat. A 100% duty cycle means the machine can weld continuously without having to stop to cool down. A lower duty cycle means you can get more amps out for a hotter weld, but the machine will need to cool down occasionally. A 60% duty cycle means for every 6 minutes of welding the machine should cool off for 4 minutes. A 20% duty cycle means 2 minutes of welding and 8 minutes to cool down.
Machines from the era of 100% duty cycle would be a Hobart Betamig 200 or Millermatic 200.
After many happy years of this, the manufacturers wanted to use bigger numbers to name the newer machines, but the new machines have the same over-all power output as the old machines, so to justify calling the new machine a Betamig 250 rather than 200 they just changed which duty cycle they used as a basis for the number. The new choice was the 60% duty cycle number. Examples of this are still around with the Millermatic 252, and Lincoln Powermig 255. So a Betamig 200 and Betamig 250 have the same output amperage range.
With the larger machines they have stayed, for the most part, with this
60% duty cycle, but with the 110 volt and 220 volt baby MIGs they just couldn't leave well enough alone.On these smaller machines they decided to use a 20% duty cycle. This means they can get a bigger number for the model number. I own a Hobart Handler 120. It is a great machine, but it is NOT a 120 amp machine. They claim a 120 amp max amperage based on a 20% duty cycle, and a 20 amp 110 volt circuit.. A few years after they made the Handler 120 the marketing guys decided they needed a bigger number again. Since you can't actually get more output from the same input they just changed the math. Instead of using a 20 amp 110 volt circuit for the max output amps calculation, they used a 25 amp circuit. This justified calling the newer machine a Handler 130. A few years later they went to the Handler 135, and now the Handler 140. They claim the 140 amp max output based on a 40 amp 110 volt input circuit. A 40 amp 110 volt circuit doesn't even exist.
To sum up, ALL 110 volt MIG machines are actually 90 amp machines. It doesn't matter what model number the marketing buffoons want to put on the machine.
What they need to do is stop using the same number system. Just because Lincoln calls their machine a 140 doesn't mean Miller has to call their's a 140. It is a stupid vicious cycle, and it is horribly misleading to the general public, and any attempt to justify the number with some ass-backwards math is just insulting.
Just come up with some other system of model numbers. Hypertherm has bitten that bullet by getting out of the same kind of model number escalation with their plasma cutters.
- The complete lack of any useful information on Pulsers, while wanting everybody to buy one.
Of all welding processes my biggest strength is TIG. I love pulsers and sequencers, but I find the welding manufacturers attitude towards pulsers completely infuriating. Pulsers allow some amazing affects on a TIG weld, but the complete lack of published information on how to use a pulser is absurd. I have tried for years to find a any welding instruction book that explains how to use a pulser. I even contacted the Welding Engineering program at Ohio State University, and none of the faculty there could think of a publication either.
I have been teaching people how to use a pulser for many years. It isn't hard to explain it is plain english. For an example just read any of my posts on pulser use on the sci.engr.joining.welding newsgroup or the allexperts.com website.
Or just google my name "ernie leimkuhler" and pulser.
I would be more than happy to write up a manual for pulser usage to be included with your machines. I can go into any welding store and flummox any sales agent by simply asking how to use a pulser. It would be wonderful if there was a simple brochure that could be handed out to sales agents and customers that explained pulsers and sequencers.
- The misrepresentation of aluminum MIG on 110 volt MIG machines.
I feel that all the welding manufacturers are guilty of fraud here. Selling people on aluminum MIG from a 110 volt MIG machine is just not honest. I know few people who have ever had satisfactory results. The spoolgun helps, but still the output is seriously limited. You just can't get the voltage to make aluminum happy. The only 110 volt MIG that may be able to be useful for this is a Miller Passport, because it is inverter based and gets you more "output amps" per "input amps" compared to small transformer machines, but the Passport is almost twice the price of a transformer based machine.
Please just stop selling this to customers. All it accomplishes is making people feel incompetent because they just can't get it to work.
220 volt baby MIGs are more practical for small aluminum projects.Ernie Leimkuhler CWI//CWE Topside Welding/NDT Instructor Divers Institute of Technology Seattle, WA
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