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Picked me up a free tig setup.

back2class

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Well, sort of. Bought it attached to a very nice early 80's Chevy 3/4 ton welding truck. $1,200 for everything. Truck was great with a built up 350 (Edlebrock intake and matching edlebrock 4bbl carb, bored over and all with about 4k on the motor and some other performance parts and great well done bed/body made of diamond plate. Ran like a top. Even had good tires. Sold the truck to a friend for $1,200 the next day who was very excited to get it. So end result is a free gas powered tig/arc setup. Has a foot pedal, torch and hoses for the tig too. It is a Miller from the mid 80's. In all likelihood I will sell it and buy a Tig setup that is not gas. Just don't need the hassle of maintaining an engine for a welder I may use a few times a year. But anyhow, I am excited to learn how to Tig, already do some Arc and Mig. Got a great setup and hooked my friend up with a great truck....so feeling good about this one.
 

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firebox40dash5

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Yep, definitely ****. ******** kinda ****.

My boss picked up an older but unused Syncrowave 180 last month. Neither of us had used a TIG before. It's surpringly fun, at least when you're just screwing around.
 

zkling

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What model is that? Not many of the engine drives had remote capabilities. :headscrat
 

Zrexxer

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You can run a tig rig off from more or less any dc welder ...
Yep, but it's scratch start and DC only, with a manual gas control valve. Not the most ideal situation.

That's most likely an AEAD-200LE, and even in good running shape they rarely bring more than about $800-$900 around here. I've sold a lot of Bobcat 225's and 250's that were much newer in the $1200-$1500 range. Not trying to diminish your find, just saying it may not exactly be the gold mine you're hoping for...
 
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mechan

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Yep, but it's scratch start and DC only. Not the most ideal situation.

That's most likely an AEAD-200LE, and even in good running shape they rarely bring more than about $800-$900 around here. I've sold a lot of Bobcat 225's and 250's that were much newer in the $1200-$1500 range. Not trying to diminish your find, just saying it's not exactly a gold mine.

A lot of x-ray welds have been made with scratch start on dc engine driven welders in power houses, pharma plants, chem plants, chip plants, paper mills, etc etc a crossed this country ... While it may not be the most whiz bang setup just because it may not have high frequency, pulse arc, or a digital read out does not mean it is not an ideal situation.

Would I want it if all I was doing all day was making aluminum widgets, no probably not, but would it bother me as being an engine driven setup where I didn't *need* HF no not at all.
 

Zrexxer

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A lot of x-ray welds have been made with scratch start on dc engine driven welders in power houses, pharma plants, chem plants, chip plants, paper mills, etc etc a crossed this country
Yeah, and a lot of people got where they were going in a Model T Ford, too... times have moved on. :lol:
 

mechan

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Yeah, and a lot of people got where they were going in a Model T Ford, too... times have moved on. :lol:

I don't know the only time we rent machines with HF is when we are doing high metallurgy.. I am not sure why you would incur the additional cost for a lot of weldments on stainless or carbon. Especially in case where the NDI / NDT did not include radiography or similar.

(e.g. If I am only going to have VT and PT inspection on a 304 stainless vessel or associated piping why incur the extra cost and hassle of high frequency machines and remotes when if there does happen to be tungsten inclusion unless it is picked up by VT it will not be a disqualifying discontinuity in the weldment. You use what is the most cost effective and efficient not what is the most whiz bang piece of snivel gear just because it is new. SA200's are old, but I bet you will find more pipeliners running around with them than new whiz bang setups.)

BUT I say cool score OP at least play with it for a bit before you throw it up on craigslist!
 
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back2class

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It is sort of a 220 AEAD like riltman said, but was re-branded and sold through Valley Welders Supply (now american welding & gas) as a ValuWeld brand. Looks like Miller added High freq and remote on/off at the factory for this unit as they are clearly factory installed. Miller was not a ton of help though as they only had manuals for the Miller AEAD. I have not had a chance to weld with it, but when I do have the time, I will be curious how the Tig setup works. Right now I have no clue how it all goes together and operates. Guessing remote on/off is for power on the torch like Mig and High Freq alows non scratch starts and I think the pedal controls amount of juice to the torch. Not at all sure how the gas system works. Hopefully has an electronic control tied in with the remote on/off that controls the gas flow too. Like I said, Tig and this setup are a mystery to me.
 
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mechan

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It is sort of a 220 AEAD like riltman said, but was re-branded and sold through Valley Welders Supply (now american welding & gas) as a ValuWeld brand. Looks like Miller added High freq and remote on/off at the factory for this unit as they are clearly factory installed. Miller was not a ton of help though as they only had manuals for the Miller AEAD. I have not had a chance to weld with it, but when I do have the time, I will be curious how the Tig setup works. Right now I have no clue how it all goes together and operates. Guessing remote on/off is for power on the torch like Mig and High Freq alows non scratch starts and I think the pedal controls amount of juice to the torch. Not at all sure how the gas system works. Hopefully has an electronic control tied in with the remote on/off that controls the gas flow too. Like I said, Tig and this setup are a mystery to me.

The foot pedal will control the amount of "juice" to the torch based on a percentage of what you set it to on the machine. If you have a high frequency unit it will also allow you to depress the pedal to start the arc jump in-leui-of scratch start or lift arc. Though I just had a HF machine with a remote button on the torch that regardless I had to scratch start it even after depressing the button, so who knows what that was about.

Depending on the system your gas will also be regulated by the foot pedal. You will set your CFM's on your bottle as normal, but the welder may have an option for pre and post flow of the gas that is regulated by depressing and letting off the pedal. This is one of the big advantages of these setups especially if you are welding something like titanium. If for some reason your gas is not tied into your foot pedal control then you will have a knob on the back of your torch that you can use to turn it on and off.

Although I 100% prefer Miller welders they are not as good about old documentation support as Lincoln. As far as the remote setup though it is basically the same a crossed the board on welders just slightly different flavors of achieving the same goal. (e.g. Foot pedal, button on the torch, knob on the torch, etc)
 

rlitman

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It is sort of a 220 AEAD like riltman said, but was re-branded and sold through Valley Welders Supply (now american welding & gas) as a ValuWeld brand. Looks like Miller added High freq and remote on/off at the factory for this unit as they are clearly factory installed. Miller was not a ton of help though as they only had manuals for the Miller AEAD. I have not had a chance to weld with it, but when I do have the time, I will be curious how the Tig setup works. Right now I have no clue how it all goes together and operates. Guessing remote on/off is for power on the torch like Mig and High Freq alows non scratch starts and I think the pedal controls amount of juice to the torch. Not at all sure how the gas system works. Hopefully has an electronic control tied in with the remote on/off that controls the gas flow too. Like I said, Tig and this setup are a mystery to me.

Ok, that would explain why it is not blue, and the things that look weird to me.
The power outlets on the right side are not factory. The B48M engine sure is (PM me if you need the service manual for that BTW).
Sounds like a really cool setup.

Yep, you **** even more now! Congrats.
 

zkling

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Jan 23, 2007
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Can you post a pic of the face of the unit? We can give you some starting parameters.
 

sberry

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I agree, super nice at that price. In general work DC tig isnt worth carrying the extra equipment. Its a pretty respectable stick welder with a small footprint and light weight.
 

sberry

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A lot of x-ray welds have been made with scratch start on dc engine driven welders in power houses, pharma plants, chem plants, chip plants, paper mills, etc etc a crossed this country ... While it may not be the most whiz bang setup just because it may not have high frequency, pulse arc, or a digital read out does not mean it is not an ideal situation.

Would I want it if all I was doing all day was making aluminum widgets, no probably not, but would it bother me as being an engine driven setup where I didn't *need* HF no not at all.

This is worth a double post. Was there any lead with it?
 

kferguson553

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Mar 10, 2014
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Lean how to walk that cup and you'll be welding pipe like nearly every fitter since petrochemical refineries began. I scratch start tig every day on every alloy except aluminum. HF is nice but all the controls in the world won't make you a better welder but it is nice. BTW you **** big time. I'd keep that machine get it running right and you can tig and stick nearly everything and power your house during an outage.

Kris,
 
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back2class

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Not such great pics. Just have a phone. Looks to be all there except the gauges, though the guy I bought the rig from said that a friend borrowed them and never brought them back. Guess they are just regular mig gauges? Runs well. The high Freq knob is up at the top with a switch just below it labeled "high frequencey" I guess that turns the HF off. The switch just above the dual receptacle says "remote power" and is on/off. The rest is just the standard AEAD 200LE Miller setup. Will get some better pics tomorrow..admittedly, these are just about useless. Going to go back out after dinner and get the model numbers off the torch and the pedal. Thanks
 

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