New to me Miller welder

[hbabler]

Well I paid $200 for a big boy welder today. I found a Well loved Miller regency 250 power supply with a spoolmatic 15a to go with it. It works pretty well for the couple of seconds I tested it. The guy I got it from was using it for mild steel with flux core wire. I would like to get a wire feeder for it, What options do I have? Was $200 reasonable to pay for it? Will it hurt the spoolgun to use it on steel? Where can I get replacement parts for the spoolgun? It's missing the plastic cover that flips over the rollers.

 

[Musicinabottle]

You ****! I'd save the spool gun for aluminum. But that's me.

 

[zkling]

Fair to good price given condition and that it came with the spool gun . It's a bit antiquated for the home shop in that it doesn't have a built in wire feed. They were nice machines and still run well though, even on aluminum.

Yes you can run solid and cored steel through the spool gun, just keep the duty cycle of the spool gun in mind, although this is more of an issue with aluminum. Miller should have the cover for that gun or even an aftermarket source. Try to avoid the self shielding cored wire though.

I'd thoroughly check all the cables for cracks as they look quite old. A good dust out of the internals of the machine would be good preventative maintenance.

As for the feeder, there are a number that would work, but I assume you want to go used? A 22-a would be a good match or even jump up to the 70 series. Although with the used route, you will probably be trying to adapt what you find available.

 

[hbabler]

Thanks for the information zkling. I'll take a good look at the cables this week. I have never purchased a gas tank before what mix and size would be good? Also where would be a good place to look for a reasonably priced wire feeder?

 

[toolslinger]

You're not going to have much issue with duty cycle on that gun... 200 amps, 100%. You'll burn up before it does.
Wire feeder would be nice, but when I ran my CP-200 with a Spoolmatic 1, I just ran everything through that gun. Yes, there are places you can't get a big gun, but I almost never ran in to a situation I couldn't get the project done.

 

[sberry]

This is great in some sense, not that it couldn't work with some luck and shopping, it can work like it is. If I was taking the need seriously, not that you cant shop for a used feeder but buying an all in one may be money well spent for a home brew guy to start with. For maintenance work they never invented anything better than a 210 compact running 030 solid.
If you are welding a lot and using wire then they are expensive and slow. The wire spool is small and a 250 running 035 is 2x the machine. 1/2 the gas. If time is money its a real difference, working on cars and most home brew stuff up to a trailer or 2 can be done with the small machine and the smaller wire is better in a world of lighter material.
This is about like the max of a pickup truck bumper, even snow plow.
For 1 off the little 210 was fine, if you had to do this very much a bigger machine would pay.

 

[sberry]

That thing would be good in a farm fab shop, feeder on a cart, big spool of wire. They had a big ole number 8 wire and if I recall output about 300A.

 

[lis2323]

A Miller 22A bench feeder will work well for your power source. They're very reliable and usually reasonably priced used on eBay.

If you want to go suitcase I would recommend a Lincoln LN-25.

I have both for my Miller 350 XMT.





Terry

 

[MJD1]

A Miller 22A bench feeder will work well for your power source. They're very reliable and usually reasonably priced used on eBay.

If you want to go suitcase I would recommend a Lincoln LN-25.

I have both for my Miller 350 XMT.





Terry

. I believe that the contactor in the the regency would need to be jumped to use a voltage sense feeder like a ln-25 or a Miller 12vs.

 

[Lelandwelds]

If I remember right, the Regency used a 115 volt wire feeder, the S-52 series. You can get a transformer from Miller to use a more recent feeder. Profax or somebody still makes a 115 volt. Used S-52 feeders go almost as cheap as 3 phases stuff. You might try a rental or repair depot.

Put your location in your profile.

If you rig up a drive motor and a drag, you can respool your own four inchers. You use a dowel of wood or UHMW with v knotch cut in the end to level wind the wire. Think of a fishing reel.

The regency was a sweet machine in its day. It used the transformer from the Mm-200 ( or Vintage). Nice arc for single phase. Biggest problem is the mechanical contactor wears out every year or five.

 

[MJD1]

Regency has a 14 pin connector, so modern feeders will work. There should be a 115 volt wire on the 14 pin connector. To run that spoolgun, 15a or 30a, a adapter is used to convert the 14 pin to a 10 pin connector.

 

[hbabler]

Thanks for the information guys. I wasn't getting updates to the replies for this thread and have been so busy with work I am just now getting back into trying to get this thing going. I have a WC-24 between the machine and the spool gun. Is that the adapter MJD1 is talking about>

 

[MJD1]

Yes, that is needed to run a 10 pin spoolgun off a power source with a 14 pin connector.

 

[hbabler]

Thanks.