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Now that I've burned through a bit more than 300 pounds of wire and and maybe another 70ish pounds of stick rod through the welder I think I can give a half decent review on it.I have been using it for field repair of excavators, wheel loaders, dozer etc and fixed plant in quarries, mostly running self shield flux core (.045 E71T-11, or NR211 equivalent, .062 E71T-8 or NR232 equivalent) and .045 gas shielded flux core with 100% CO2 gas, as well as some solid wire in .030 and .035 with 5/2 blend gas (5% Co2, 2% O2)I paid $1100 AUD (about $780 USD) for a demo unit, retail is $1750 AUD (1250 USD), this is a single phase 240 volt machine that needs at least a 30 amp 240 volt single phase service.So what do you get? -The machine-Argon/Argon-Co2 gas regulator.-3 meter gas hose-400 amp lincoln stick hand piece.-lincoln 250 amp Mig hand piece.- 250 amp earth clamp.You get no tig gear even though you can do scratch start TIG with it.
So what sucks about it?-The lincoln hand piece sucks, it takes tweco consumables which is good, but it came out of the box with a strange stutter, sometimes it wouldn't recognise the trigger being pulled, I got a MIG-O-MAG 250 amp gun pretty cheap that honestly looks like it came out of the same factory and uses the same consumables that works perfectly so I'm using that but have the lincoln gun as a backup, Pulled it apart and it has a self contained switch which must be faulty, will see if i can get it replaced.-The included earth isn't up to the job if you are using the machine top its potential, i've smoked it while running dual shield.-The wire feed look's anemic AF, it isn't even dual drive meaning only the bottom roller is driven, the top roller is just for pressure with no gear drive, however whatever Lincoln has done with the geometry of it or whatever else it is I've never had a feeding issue through a 15 foot whip, that's with .030 solid wire through .045 self shield and dual shield flux core, no birds nests, no lack of feed issues, that's even running the flux core without knurled rollers (which are available).
-The wire feed settings are whack, Lincoln's product page claims 1-20 meter's per minute (40-800 IPM) adjustment, the wire feed unit itself in the machine say's it's an 18 meter per minute unit, and the adjustment on the dial read 2-13 m/minute, from testing set at max of 13 m/min is actually 18 m/m, and it is linear from there, so 6.5 is actually 9 etc.-The case is kinda flimsy, i've already bent a fair few things, and I try to be pretty gentle with my gear.-27 volt's maximum. so yeah, despite being a 250 amp machine it's maximum volts are less than the 180 amp EWM picomig 180 puls I had which is a huge shame, no spray transfer solid wire. even with C10 gas on .030 ER70S-6 wire, not quite enough volts for spray transfer.So then what's good about it, in order of importance to me.-The wire feed, despite looking like it came out of a wish.com hamper is really good, the wire feed speed is consistent even running off of a generator which can sometimes have inconsistent voltage and AC frequency.-The duty cycle is excellent, it is rated for 30% at 250 amps for MIG and 30% at 200 amps for stick and TIG, but I've never actually hit the duty cycle, even on jobs where I've run almost 600 feet of dual shield and stick (depending on how strong the wind is on the day), it even runs a 5mm (3/16) carbon arc rod.I've tried to get it to tap out, and the generator gives up first.
-Speaking of carbon arc, although it's not rated to do it at all I recently bought a 24CFM @ 145 psi gas compressor and a lincoln Invertec 270SX 3 phase CC machine and all of the accessories to run carbon arc, however the 3 phase gen set failed at an hours use, so I figured screw it, I'll try the 250C with the smaller 3/16th carbon rod, and she runs it like a charm set to stick at 200-230 amps, it can't hold a candle to a larger rod or oxy-fuel gouging for bulk metal removal, but for precision stuff like gouging out a weld to salvage a part or chasing out cracks it works a charm, and it's not something I was expecting this machine to do at all.-Weight, this is a 22kg (48lb) machine, that takes a 15 kg (or 33 pound) spool, that is a little heavier than an LN 25, but is a completely self contained MIG/stick machine, if you compare it to similar output machine such as the hobart ironman 240, it is 186 pounds, and 60% duty cycle at 200 amps vs 60% at 175 for the lincoln, but considering the weight difference I think that is excusable Or the Miller multimatic 235 which has almost identical duty cycle at 60% at 170 amps but only 235 amps max output, but is also still 15 pounds heavier at 63 pounds, although the powercraft only has duty cycle ratings up to 200 amps for tig and stick, it will output up to 250 amps in both modes where as the miller will only do 200 for stick and 210 for DC TIG.Weld qualityThis is obviously very subjective but I think I have enough experience with different machines at this point form a valid opinion.-Solid wire- it's average, it suffers from the same problem most single phase machines do, despite having inductance control which does work, the arc in short arc is pretty harsh and spattery compared to a nice 3 phase machine, although it is way better than most single phase machines IMO, unfortunately other than short arc transfer I'm only interested in spray with solid wire and since the machine is limited to 27 volts spray is out of the question.-Flux core, self and gas shield it's great, .045 dual shield flux core at 26 volts and 400 IPM runs like a dream.
It even burns a nice stick rod, this is some 7016, its not as smooth as the invertec 270sx, but not much is.
And I dont have pics, but the self shield is much the same, I bought a separate gun for self shield to run 1/16th E71T-8 and .045 E71t-11 wire and it runs both as well as you could expect.Welder and generator VS engine drive?So this is a small business question, and I guess the small rancher and rural home hobbiest as well, but is an engine drive worth it? and I have opinions.If you are planning for use this equipment day in day out for the next 10 years in a mobile setup you already know your buying a vantage 400 or similar, if you are in a workshop than the engine drive is a moot conversation, if you need something in this sort of range but you dont use it all day every day, or like me are expecting to upgrade in the next 12-24 month? then maybe.I run this machine off of a Saber 9KVA 7.2 KW Gas generator that has a 2 year unlimited hour warranty, the welder has a 3 year warranty, the generator and welder together cost me $2150 AUD but at retail for both would have been $2800 or about $2000 USD, the direct competition in engine drives is a MIller bobcat 250 and a lincoln ranger 250 which each run in the 6-8k range, and then you need a wire feeder on top of that, so 8-10kish AUD, I don't know you be the judge there, but the value proposition does seem to favour engine drive for me these days, not to mention the weight, this setup is about 210 pounds all said, a bobcat 250 is 550 pounds for a gas and 700 pounds for a diesel, which when your starting out with a low GVM vehicle (like I have) is huge, it means i can pack a compressor in as well instead of just the engine drive.
So what do I think this machine is? it's a basic, but very well thought out MIG machine that cheaps out where it can, but seems to invest it's points where it counts, it can do some stick and TIG on the side in a pinch, its been handy when the wind picks up to much for dual shield to just switch over to 7018 or 7016 electrodes, its light enough to tote into a hopper and especially at the price i am very impressed.
Last edited by ttoks; 12 Minutes Ago at 03:38 AM. |
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发表于 2021-12-18 15:51:24