Man walks into a welding shop and .......

[wroughtn_harv]

I have a new bud that is a heckuva mechanic. The only thing slower than his speech is his movement. But he makes every word and physical effort count.

He likes the truck bed.

The other evening we were cussing and discussing it, mostly the irritation of an old scratch start heliarc system.

"I have two tig machines" he says. "One of them works off the Trailblazer and the other is a small Lincoln. It's one of those machines that makes a weird whirring sound when it is turned on. I've welded with it twice. I bought it about five years ago for $1,500.00 from a friend."

"It's an inverter?" I asked as I searched on my Iphone for "Lincoln inverter tig welders".

"Yeah. That's it." he says.

"Ever considered selling it?" I ask.

"No. I haven't", he said.

Then after a couple of more rocks were moved with our boots he said out of the blue, "I'll take a thousand for it."

"What are you doing here? I have a thousand in my pocket. Go get it."

He did. This is what I got. https://weldingsupply.com/cgi-bin/einstein.pl?PNUM::1:UNDEF:X:K2350-2 Except mine has the thumb wheel instead of the foot pedal.

Daryl is doing the tig welding on the bed for me. He came out of retirement to work on this project with me. He's been retired for about four years, mostly because he has the shakes pretty bad and it affects his welding skills. Between the shakes and the scratch start Miller set up his bad word pile at the end of the day is twice as big as mine, at least. After setting up the 205 AC-DC I called him and told him he could stop his complaining now.

I had to go pickup a new power line for the new machine, the stock 12' footer was leaking and I wanted a 25'. When I got to the shop Daryl was beside himself. He couldn't believe I would pay a grand for that little POS. It was too small to be a real welder. He's been using it a week now and has hinted at least a thousand times that he will get me my money back if I will let him have the machine when we are done. He loves it.

A side note, I'm 65 and changing my golf swing and learned to heli-arc, not bad eh?

 

[Member]

I have the same machine. I bought it new from the local welding supply several years ago. You got a VERY good deal.

 

[LD1]

Very good deal

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Good deal. Now you own an Italian made Lincoln inverter...I imagine that the 1000.00 inverter will pay for itself in a few days

 

[joshuabardwell]

Get you the foot pedal with some of that money you saved. World of difference.

 

[joshuabardwell]

PS: You going to let him buy it back off of you?

 

[dragoneggs]

Wow! Yes I bet that was easy to pull the trigger on despite a four figure sum. Dang it... those deals seem to evade me. Way to go. :thumbsup:

 

[sparc]

Good deal. Now you own an Italian made Lincoln inverter...I imagine that the 1000.00 inverter will pay for itself in a few days

Not trying to start anything here, but you say "Italian made Lincoln inverter" as if that is a bad thing. Do the Italian made Lincoln products have a bad reputation for poor quality, high component failure rates, poorly designed electronics or poor PC board design or manufacturering processes? I ask because I don't recall in the limited times times I have visited this welding forum seeing compliants about Lincoln equipment.

Where are Everlast products made? Only clue I can find on your website is "Our globally based manufacturing facilities....", and the locations of those facilities are not given. Are they in Italy or somewhere else?

I'm sure others who frequent the welding forum and are familiar with your products and may know, but for me if I go to your web site I find nothing that tells me where your products are manufactured. Nothing on the Company History page and nothing in the FAQs.

So why is Italian made bad? Or are you casting disparaging remarks about competitive products under the guise of congratulations to bolster your own products' image. If that Lincoln V205 were made in the US would you have made the same comment?

I don't have any connection to Lincoln, Everlast , or any other welding product manufacturer or an axe to grind with you or Everlast, just trying to understand where this comment is coming from.

I know what a V-205 AC/DC machine lists for as I priced one (along with a comparable Miller machine) and $1k for a slightly used machine is a steal.
you can't touch one new for less than $3k

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Not trying to start anything here, but you say "Italian made Lincoln inverter" as if that is a bad thing. Do the Italian made Lincoln products have a bad reputation for poor quality, high component failure rates, poorly designed electronics or poor PC board design or manufacturering processes? I ask because I don't recall in the limited times times I have visited this welding forum seeing compliants about Lincoln equipment.

Where are Everlast products made? Only clue I can find on your website is "Our globally based manufacturing facilities....", and the locations of those facilities are not given. Are they in Italy or somewhere else?

I'm sure others who frequent the welding forum and are familiar with your products and may know, but for me if I go to your web site I find nothing that tells me where your products are manufactured. Nothing on the Company History page and nothing in the FAQs.

So why is Italian made bad? Or are you casting disparaging remarks about competitive products under the guise of congratulations to bolster your own products' image. If that Lincoln V205 were made in the US would you have made the same comment?

I don't have any connection to Lincoln, Everlast , or any other welding product manufacturer or an axe to grind with you or Everlast, just trying to understand where this comment is coming from.

I know what a V-205 AC/DC machine lists for as I priced one (along with a comparable Miller machine) and $1k for a slightly used machine is a steal.
you can't touch one new for less than $3k

No, I believe that you are trying to start something. It was a straight forward comment to Harv. DO YOU find the country of origin stated anywhere on their sites? But you ask us? You want us to clarify when they don't even mention it? Who would be more misleading here? And why the double standard?

We don't try to hide the fact our products are assembled/made in China. If you'd visit here more often, you would know that. However, the reason we use globally manufactured, is that We use name brand components made by companies based in the US, Germany, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and China (and others) in our machines, with a heavy leaning on US and German based companies, bought straight from the manufacturer for major components (Texas Instruments, Intersis, IXYS, IR, Siemens, Fairchild, Sharp, Panasonic, being the top manufacturers of components in our units).

Yes, since you brought it up. the Italians have had their problems with all of the above you mentioned at times (yes, with Lincoln). As much as I hate referring people to this site, you can see an example here: http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=37950. I think They've ironed out many of those issues,or would hope so. I never said they were bad though, as that is something you inserted into the comments as my words, or thoughts about it... No, actually Harv and I talked before he bought the unit. I was congratulating him on his find... If I had the circumstances of finding a similar unit, I would have snapped it up too. I don't think he'll be disappointed. Inverters, no matter where they are made, in general are awesome products. There are a few "dogs" out there, but is usually tied to reliability rather than performance.

Miller and Lincoln however, since you've wanted to make a mountain out of a mole hill, both have moved a good bit of the manufacturing off shore or out of the country. Miller is assembled in the US, Lincoln is outright made/assembled in Italy. They also manufacture much of their line, including Century products in Mexico, and China itself. That is the only(other) point I was trying to make (to make the distinction) ...as people like you who visit websites infrequently where this issue has been discussed often don't know, don't consider or outright forget that fact. But since you asked Italians, whether in the ag industry or electronic lean more heavily on Chinese based companies to "silently" supply their core components. European laws are much more lax in many areas on country of origin. Italy is a not a well known source of electronic components for a reason. ( Can you think of any great Italian electronic industrial giants? or technology products in general? Or any Italian company that is known as a bastion of reliability?) I am not saying they are unreliable, but they aren't known characteristically for making bullet proof products. It doesn't mean they can't make it, just that they don't distinguish themselves for doing so. Much of their indigenous products have roots elsewhere, heavily in China, more so than something we'd call "made in the US" for U.S. made product. Again, it doesn't mean its bad. But it does mean it isn't any longer U.S. made. (never was for inverters as I understand it).

 

[Arc weld]

The problem with written word is there is no way to know what context it was written in.

9 1/2 times out of 10 when someone says they "aren't trying to start something", in actuality they are by stating that.

"Now you own an Italian made Lincoln inverter..."

That statement especially with the ... could easily be taken as a slam on Lincoln. On the other hand, there are people who believe you have to buy American and Lincoln is as American as apple pie. Fact is Lincoln, Miller and other companies that appear to bleed red, white and blue do source products and components from all over the world. You give me some cables and the machine burns how I like, I don't care if it's made on the North pole. As far as inverters I believe Powcon had the first and Miller bought the rights to them or something along those lines. The early Miller XMT 300's were known to have problems with their boards and they weren't cheap to fix (as in thousands!). Lincoln was known to have problems with their first inverters as well. Inverters, although relatively new in the welding industry, have come a long way and I think for the most part are superior to what they replaced. I'm not talking about the industrial conventional machines, they are pretty bullet proof but the low end AC and even AC/DC transformers leave a lot to be desired compared to the inverter designed to replace them. Lincoln still builds the Idealarc 250 which is an excellent machine but Miller has stopped building the Dialarc 250 which was almost as good as the Lincoln. Yes, I've used both and give the nod to the Lincoln. For a 3 phase machine I'd give the nod to Miller.