Hobart beta-mig 250 welder?

[canoetrpr]

No wonder I prefer to do business over the internet when I can. I wandered into the LWS today to see if I could find consumables at least for the Hobart Beta-mig. They didn't even want to talk to me.

Basically said - "no - they don't make them any more as far as I know ... call Miller".

I had planned to have them price out a new 210 ot 250 A welder and they had a few sitting there: Lincoln Powermig 255, Thermal Arc 210... I decided not to bother.

Might as well look for some other place to do business with.

 

[Scooby074]

Is there an Air Liquide in your area? Ive always had good dealings with them home and when i worked away. They're Miller dealers, but now it appears they started carrying Lincoln as well.

 

[bialecki]

When I was looking for a Miller tig welder under craigslist.com I found many Miller and Lincoln 210 mig welders for about $800 that were approximately 6-10 years old. I finally found my Miller syncowave 250 with cooler and ended up buying it for $2,700 (unit was only 3 years old with maybe 20 hours on it) Original owner admitted learning tig was more difficult and the learning curve was more than what he wanted to invest in, so he went with a mig welder.

I submit this just as a reference.

 

[Willl]

Found out by contacting a welding repair shop that parts are available but sometimes tricky to come buy. If some day it requires a new control board or the like, we are talking $500-600.

I have the 200 version of that model for about 5-6 yrs now and have no complaints.

I've also heard about the parts availability problem but not having needed any, its been no problem (yet). (knock on wood)

 

[chumly2071]

well, since they don't want to help you out, start looking at your gun and tips... does the contact tip thread in, or is it an eccentric? if it is eccentric, look at the bernard site. the parts section is farily well documented, so you should be able to figure it out what gun you have and available tips and nozzles. I just did this for a used Miller 200 I bought.

the other options are probably tregaskiss and tweco. It shouldn't be too hard to source consumables for this machine, once you identify the gun on it.

 

[CATMAN]

My hobart beta-mig 250 uses GAL-200 gun with the part number 379314 for .035" tips (package of ten). These are screw-in type. There is a phone number for the Hobart Brothers Company (513) 332-4040. Don't know if it is still any good/connected. I have a Praxair welding supply company just down the hill from my house where I bought the welder(previously called General Welding). I buy my gas there, but I haven't needed any tips lately. I have about 30 in my toolbox yet.

 

[canoetrpr]

Ok that solves that problem. Sure as heck those are available - just a quick search on the internet on that part number found them.

I know that the price sounds high but this does sound like a decent machine. I would likely get rid of my stick welder if I got this to help cover a bit of the cost. Pretty much everyone tells me that their stick machine sits with dust on it once they get a mig.

Any real reason I should be shy of buying a 15 to 20 year old mig welder?

I don't think I'll get a new machine that is this capable for anything less than 2x the cost or more once taxes are figured in. Hard for me to justify that for the little bit of fixing up I'm going to be doing over my lifetime with a welder.

What do you guys think? I'm thinking I might offer him $700. My guess is he might go with $750.

 

[Scooby074]

While i'm not 100% familiar with the beta migs, others on here recomend them, and the old hobarts were pretty tough before they were bought by ITW and repositioned below Miller.

Make sure the mig gun is in good condition,its an old machine with likely a fair bit of hours ( if not you will spend at LEAST 250 for a new gun that size) and check that the wire feed rollers and tips are available for the particular gun on the machine. Guns frequently get changed to different brands than stock on industrial machines.

If it has a gun you can readily find parts for like a tweco or bernard, and you are comfortable taking the chance on 20 year old electrics then go for it, the price it typical for what stuff sells for here as you know.

 

[canoetrpr]

After bouncing around different choices, I ended up bidding on ebay for the ESAB Migmaster 250 that was on sale locally. I won the auction for an almost too good to be true price (~$600) so I'm not yet celebrating until it is in my hands

It has been risky since the seller had zero feedback but since it was local, I felt I could pay cash on pickup and there would be little risk. Everything appears legit so far.

According to the seller it is in working condition. It has been in storage for the last couple years and is a total of 6 years old.

I'm not sure if I will be able to fire it up at the sellers when I purchase it. I dosen't sound to me like she knows much about the welder other than that it was in working condition when it was put into storage.

Not sure if she has the gas regulator or cart for it so I might have to come up with those on my own... but at that price... I don't mind!

Any idea what I should check out when I go pick it up? I imagine I can get a gas regulator for it relatively easily as the model is still in production.