Lincoln Electric 210 MP

[Thumper68]

Well I picked mine up today, I have been looking for several months and with the rebate ending on the 31st I decided that I would get it.

It is now sitting in the back of the truck waiting to get to the shop tonight, once I get the chance to unbox it and plug it in I will give you guys my thoughts on how well it works.

Honestly I'm kind of excited to run some stick which is one of the main reasons I picked it up, I have a great mig and a AC/DC tig and was missing the ability to run stick. The 2nd reason was that I can take it with me and either use it on 120 or off the 240 on the generator.

Now of course I am having thoughts of a welding cart.....

 

[rustyshakelford]

It's a slick welder. Had mine for over a year and love it. I cheaped out and just bought a welding cart at HF for $40 and it has been fine. Haven't run many sticks thru it as I have a bobcat for that. It's primary function is for mig...it excels

Brett

 

[machine_punk]

I have mine set up primarily as stick and flux core right now. I'm comfortable with oxy-acetylene welding, but relatively new to arc welding. So far, I think it is a great machine. I ended up with a stellar deal on a used one, with the TIG and spool gun kits for less than the new price.

Seems to do well with 7018 & 6013. I've only run it on 120 volts so far...new house and I still need to get the 240 installed.

KDub

 

[Ironhorse74]

I use mine a lot. Got it in January and it has worked flawlessly. The non-lincoln tig kits for it on ebay work great.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-USAWELD-...158064?hash=item2ee5476930:g:1wAAAOSwBLlU56oP

 

[freddyford]

All the Lincolns are expensive but worth every penny. I love my mig setup and laugh when all my friends who buy an Eastwood's Chinese special have problems with weld quality and breakage. One area you absolutely can't cheap out on is a welder. The top American brands (Lincoln, Hobart, Miller) can't be beat.

 

[sberry]

I agree and here is why. The juice between the 2 is small and they do work better. There is now a lot of spread on the inverters though there didn't used to be and some of the clones are good and cost 1/4 of brand.
With the wire feeders they havnt been able to make those margins. Competition between the top makes has really kept a lid on pricing and made them competitive and they are made so well retailers discount their margins to get you in to one to sell wire and gas that by the time most factors is settled in it cost 2 or 300 more to have a Hobart.
In todays world that isn't much and the refinement and testing make them stone reliable. The problems you do hear about are far and few considering the numbers. I got 3 or 4 electric machines I got new, never had a warranty but 1 minor and they sent part, 1 I worked on which had 1000's of hrs and ran wayyyy beyond a hobby level but a couple never need a thing in 35 yrs.
As more phase to inverters the commies will be able to cheapen them but by many accounts the Eastwood works good and has been reliable. It would be interesting to see it done by a critical tester.
A guy can get a wrench almost as good as the best for a nickle on the dollar retail but when knockoff welding machines were 65 cents yet and didn't work as good with lotso problems it made them a shady bet.
I want to try one of the little greenie inverters, a dvi 140S which may be around 220$ and see how it compared with my Max which I am sure goes for well over 800 today.
They make a stick inverter today you can buy for 100 but it doesn't work well. Its really a 3/32 6011 machine, the Max will run a 1/8 all day and never trip a breaker.

 

[sberry]

The new Linc in this thread ought to stick well. Its got enough poop on 240V to run 1/8 lo/hy well and that is kind of a bench mark in some sense. 1/8 6010 0r 11 and 3/32 is also especially from 120V. I repaired a part on a forklift up town a while back with it. 3 hrs of fab, 15 minutes of welding and would have saved about 3 rods for a short section I double pass about 4 inches vertical needed a heavier weld.
In my shop heavy welds would be done wire feed, all I ever use is 1/8 electrodes. The only advantage of a larger machine is more power and its so fricken rare that unless you own excavating company isn't worth it.
One of the inverters or a used AC/DC is about as good as it gets and if some "welder" says they need a "better" machine they are FOS.

 

[sberry]

I could well make a living with that one welder. I have a tig and havnt used it in a decade and wouldn't bother unless I had to for a specific reason, I can do the fab and maint work all wire.
I bought a piece of extra lead for the max so I can hop around on construction work and not have to drag the machine.

 

[Thumper68]

Got it powered up today and it's so simple to get going right out of the box.

I'm way out of practice on stick and ran a few respectable beads, the flux core ran well too.

I would recommend this machine to anyone.
I still need to try it on 120, but it works great on 240.

 

[Thumper68]

I just finished editing a first impressions video for this Machine and after watching all the video I took I have to say that I'm impressed with thing right out of the box.

A few of the key points:

Set up is easy, even someone who does not have a welding background can get this thing up and running very quickly.

The user interface is easy to understand and intuitive, Lincoln got it right.

I love the weight, my big MIG is a transformer machine I have always dreaded having to take it to a job, now I have a machine that I can sling into the truck one handed.

One of the short comings that I noticed right off the bat and didn't include in the video was the length of the leads and the mig gun, they are short, I can see that I am going to have to invest in some longer leads soon since one of the benefits is its portability the short leads cut back on that.

The video will be up on youtube in a few hours, I will add the link when it is ready.

 

[ADSR]

sub for vid.

 

[Jarhead0408]

sub for vid.

Same here.

 

[Thumper68]

Ok the Video is up, so here ya go.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BooODsjXH-o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[metaldad]