I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it.

Status
Not open for further replies.
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #201  
Dang.. that is some grade A ugly soldering on the Everlast...
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #202  
How did they even manage to get blobs of solder on the top side of the board. I thought these things were all bath soldered from the bottom. It really does look like it was hand soldered with an iron. And you have to wonder why seemingly half the components are bent over. As if Jeremy Clarkson put it together with a hammer. Edit: to avoid confusion, the blobs I am referring to are not the little dots, but the things that look like torch cut hanging off some of the connections.
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #203  
Are these boards from the same type equipment? You don't really think Miller makes those boards do you? I remember a few years back when Miller had a rash of trouble with the Access and 350P machines. Nearly 100% failure rate. The explaination to their distributors was the they receicved a batch of bad of boards..Very few companies make boards for their own equipment.

I doubt if they make them but they probably design them. You're right, a lot of companies farm out the assembly to places that know how to automatically stuff and wave solder with minimum mistakes. Everlast's boards have kluges (caps soldered on top of other caps - bad for mechanical reliability) and caps/resistors/diodes that don't fit the hole spacings, indicating that among other things, once the PCB was designed, they had to make significant changes from the original design. Rather than order new runs of PCB's which incorporated the changes, they stuck with the old boards and you see the result. Also, it is obvious the stuffing is done by hand, by folks who don't know how to solder, how to bend leads nor how to clean flux. Flux will contaminate the solder joint in time, the connection will fail when it does. That's why it is industry practice to run the soldered board thru a flux cleaning process.
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #204  
Curious, Markcuda, if you ever went to a welding forum and asked about the most suitable welder there.
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #205  
Curious, Markcuda, if you ever went to a welding forum and asked about the most suitable welder there.

Since everlast controls, either directly or via sponsorship of sub-forums, many of the welding sites, i doubt he could have got a true answer assuming he wanted one..

Like the Borg...You MUST love the chinese welders...You will be assimilated.
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #206  
This is a photo from a 2+ year old unit that was discussed in a thread a long time ago. At the time we also discussed that we were in the midst of a changeover of some manufacturing processes and in the process of condensing down the board. These were mods that were added/deleted during production to meet the new performance standards. And the other picture from Miller was posted as well. But apples and oranges are being compared here...no frame of reference, no part by part, no unit by unit comparison...simply a "board" from Miller and a board from ours. A detailed one of ours, and a fuzzy one of theirs. Anyone find it ironic that the picture of the board was posted was derived from a repair company's site...and the board posted isn't straight from the OEM? Not saying the quality isn't good from the OEM, but the fact it is a repaired board...and the unit posted was on a functioning, to this day I believe, unit. Not all our units at the time looked like that and the unit posted, the PP60S doesn't look like that now. The new PowerPlasma 60S are much more streamlined internally and externally. I don't have a picture of a new unit from a PP60S but since we're playing fast and loose with the discussion here...here's some pictures from some of our other units... for comparison... just to prove the point that we do change and this is old news. I'd venture to say, you won't find as much improvement in a Miller in the last few years. I think it also goes to show the lengths at which people go to make drive by sucker punch remarks. I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement in our stuff...but a machine that costs a third as much including the ones below...I think it's not bad.The first two are from my new powertig that I just went to take a picture of just for this thread comment. Another is from another small powerarc model, and the balance are from one of our MTS units.
Edit: sorry, uploaded pictures out of order. First is mts, next two are my PowerTig, next is PowerArc, last is MTS. FWIW...same guys posted same basic comments in the old thread.
 

Attachments

  • DSC00540.jpg
    DSC00540.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 126
  • DSC00539.jpg
    DSC00539.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 128
  • 140st.png
    140st.png
    930 KB · Views: 108
  • DSCF0090.JPG
    DSCF0090.JPG
    769.4 KB · Views: 126
  • top mts.jpg
    top mts.jpg
    282.2 KB · Views: 134
Last edited:
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #207  
Curious, Markcuda, if you ever went to a welding forum and asked about the most suitable welder there.

Mark is a seasoned MIG welder. He's no amateur. He welds every day...and isn't a spring chicken.
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #208  
This is a photo from a 2+ year old unit that was discussed in a thread a long time ago. At the time we also discussed that we were in the midst of a changeover of some manufacturing processes and in the process of condensing down the board. These were mods that were added/deleted during production to meet the new performance standards. And the other picture from Miller was posted as well. But apples and oranges are being compared here...no frame of reference, no part by part, no unit by unit comparison...simply a "board" from Miller and a board from ours. A detailed one of ours, and a fuzzy one of theirs. Anyone find it ironic that the picture of the board was posted was derived from a repair company's site...and the board posted isn't straight from the OEM? Not saying the quality isn't good from the OEM, but the fact it is a repaired board...and the unit posted was on a functioning, to this day I believe, unit. Not all our units at the time looked like that and the unit posted, the PP60S doesn't look like that now. The new PowerPlasma 60S are much more streamlined internally and externally. I don't have a picture of a new unit from a PP60S but since we're playing fast and loose with the discussion here...here's some pictures from some of our other units... for comparison... just to prove the point that we do change and this is old news. I'd venture to say, you won't find as much improvement in a Miller in the last few years. I think it also goes to show the lengths at which people go to make drive by sucker punch remarks. I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement in our stuff...but a machine that costs a third as much including the ones below...I think it's not bad.The first two are from my new powertig that I just went to take a picture of just for this thread comment. Another is from another small powerarc model, and the balance are from one of our MTS units.
Edit: sorry, uploaded pictures out of order. First is mts, next two are my PowerTig, next is PowerArc, last is MTS. FWIW...same guys posted same basic comments in the old thread.
Looks like Everlast sent the little Chinese guy to soldering school!
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it.
  • Thread Starter
#209  
Curious, Markcuda, if you ever went to a welding forum and asked about the most suitable welder there.
Now this is just funnyLOLOLOOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO
And what would they tell me to buy? ;)
 
   / I got $1,000 to spend on a welder, help me spend it. #210  
And what would they tell me to buy? ;)
On Miller's site they will tell you to buy a Miller. On Hobart's site they will tell you to buy a Hobart.
See a pattern yet?:laughing:
On Welding Web they will tell you to buy anything but a POS Chinese welder.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
 
Top