banjopete
Well-known member
I've long trolled all the tig welder posts trying to gather wisdom. I'm looking to pickup a used dc tig and am mainly looking at the miller maxstar 200's as they seem to come up somewhat steadily around me on the buy and sell.
My question is since I'm going used, and for units that are a few years old now, is there any value in sending it to a service shop for a tune up/health check? Is that wasted money and should I just put it to work and repair if I ever need it?
I've had and really enjoyed a millermatic 135 for 5 years of hobby use and never had any issues at all but I knew that one came from a garage warrior like me. All these maxstar units seem like they're coming out of worksite use.
FWIW the two I'm looking at are the same maxstar 200sd, one has no accessories at all, 35hrs, $1200cad, light industrial use I'm told, clean, appears cared for. The other is asking $700cad, includes ground and stick stinger, no report on hrs, seems like it had a functional on-site life, and shows a fair bit of wear and tear, and dirt. Likely just a simple clean mostly. Big ask price savings and means I can probably have a complete setup for around $1k which is appealing. I'm more of the buy once cry once mindset for this though, and am trying to stay under $1500 all in for all the bits. I've no need for stick.
Obviously both require more bits to tig. The welding work I'm doing is all automotive and fun hobby, the tig want is to do a custom exhaust for my project mk2 vw gti.
Thanks guys for any inputs and wisdom.
Sent from my SM-G960W using The Garage Journal mobile app
My question is since I'm going used, and for units that are a few years old now, is there any value in sending it to a service shop for a tune up/health check? Is that wasted money and should I just put it to work and repair if I ever need it?
I've had and really enjoyed a millermatic 135 for 5 years of hobby use and never had any issues at all but I knew that one came from a garage warrior like me. All these maxstar units seem like they're coming out of worksite use.
FWIW the two I'm looking at are the same maxstar 200sd, one has no accessories at all, 35hrs, $1200cad, light industrial use I'm told, clean, appears cared for. The other is asking $700cad, includes ground and stick stinger, no report on hrs, seems like it had a functional on-site life, and shows a fair bit of wear and tear, and dirt. Likely just a simple clean mostly. Big ask price savings and means I can probably have a complete setup for around $1k which is appealing. I'm more of the buy once cry once mindset for this though, and am trying to stay under $1500 all in for all the bits. I've no need for stick.
Obviously both require more bits to tig. The welding work I'm doing is all automotive and fun hobby, the tig want is to do a custom exhaust for my project mk2 vw gti.
Thanks guys for any inputs and wisdom.
Sent from my SM-G960W using The Garage Journal mobile app