What amperage on your welder, plasmacutter ?

[Renze]

Hi folks,

I am in the market for a new welder (250A or more i guess) because my brother built a new workshop and wants to take his 180A welder there. The 180A machine runs hot when i do heavy welding, and stops untill the thermal sensor switches it back on.
I also want a plasmacutter.

What amperage do you guys use to do your everyday farm welding and machinery build ? I already have a 7x12 band saw, so the plasma doesnt have to do any job the band saw can do. The welder will be used not just for repair, but also for new builds.

Anything to look out for ? The input voltage is different in North America than in Europe, but the output Ampere is the same everywhere. How heavy do you use, and would you buy more if you had to buy today ?

Is there a lot of difference between brands, with regards to converters, spools, ??

 

[kevinj]

Hi folks,

I am in the market for a new welder (250A or more) because my brother built a new workshop and wants to take his 180A welder there. I also want a plasmacutter.

What amperage do you guys use to do your everyday farm welding and machinery build ? I already have a 7x12 band saw, so the plasma doesnt have to do any job the band saw can do.

Anything to look out for ? The input voltage is different in North America than in Europe, but the output Ampere is the same everywhere. How heavy do you use, and would you buy more if you had to buy today ?

I have a 250 Miller dial arc and never had it over 160. For most welding with 1/8" rod all you need is about 135. I only got the 250 cause it was good deal
Mine needs 90a input on single phase to weld at max and I only have 60 available to feed it!!

 

[Renze]

Oh, i forgot to add: I am only considering a MIG, and i have 3x 16A 400 Volt. Welding with the 160/180 machine (160 on 220V single, 180 on two phase 400) on the 220V net, just sucks the voltage down from the entire net.

 

[wushaw]

I would figure ESAB would be high on your list and the ESAB Migmaster 250 gets high marks.
I inherited my mig and it is a MM175 but if I were purchasing I would get the MM252 just because I like blue and my MM175 has treated me well.

Yes I have timed mine out twice.

 

[kevinj]

Oh, i forgot to add: I am only considering a MIG, and i have 3x 16A 400 Volt. Welding with the 160/180 machine (160 on 220V single, 180 on two phase 400) on the 220V net, just sucks the voltage down from the entire net.

You have 3 phase power at home or is this a commercial shop????

 

[Big Bri]

i have a miller 210 with spool gun and i love it. have one wip set up for steel and the spool set up for aluminum. have two bottles so i can pick up ether torch and weld.

don't have a plasma yet. . .but will get one! ! !

 

[radman1]

I have a millermatic 250 mig. Bought it from my brother several years ago. Before that, I had Century 125. The 125 was often not enough. They say you can do multiple passes but the bigger unit is the way to go. I weld mostly up to 3/8" thick. Most stuff I weld is 1/4".

 

[alltoys]

If you are going to use MIG only then go for a Miller CCV machine with spool gun. You will pay more for the little spools as compared to regular MIG with the larger rolls of wire. Plus with the spool gun you can weld Aluminum can't do that with a normal MIG. ESAB does not allow for a decent fine adjustment as Miller and Lincoln do.

Miller has a new sine wave MIG that is awesome, not heavy you can carry it around puts out 250 Amps with 100% duty cycle, draws little current.

I have an older Miller that puts out 300 Amps on 240 Volt single phase circuit but it is heavy.

My opinion is Miller in number one then Lincoln ESAB last.

 

[MJPetersen]

Renze,

I have the ESAB C-170 380volt 3ph and I very rarely had it in the highest setting. If I would have had the money I probably would have gotten the 200 or the 250, but I do not know when I would have used the higher amperage. I am very happy with the ESAB.

kevinj, Yes in Europe 3 phase is common in your home. Almost every home has 380 volt 3 phase. Many well pumps are 3 phase. So we have more push available.

Mike

 

[Renze]

kevinj, Yes in Europe 3 phase is common in your home. Almost every home has 380 volt 3 phase. Many well pumps are 3 phase. So we have more push available.

You do have to pay extra on your annual subscription costs (OVER the price per KwH) when you have an official 3 phase connection. We need it for the farm anyways. Our irrigation pump is a 7.5 Kw (ten horse) 3 phase motor. When we still had pigs, with a couple of fans in every shed, we could burn the main 3x 25A fuses in the sealed box of the electricity company. (which isnt sealed anymore for years)

Now that the pigs are gone and the fans dont run all summer long, the main 25A and 20A down circuit fuses are enough.