Welding program upgrade

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Hello everyone, this is more of a "project" so I figured this would be a good place to post it. Our shop essentially is made up of 24 arc welding booths in the main portion of it (8 of these booths were multi-process capable and could support SMAW, lift-arc tig, and wire), nothing overly roomy understand. In addition to that area we have 8 other booths that have been outfitted with GTAW and wire machines, 5 wire, 3 GTAW. Besides those areas, we have 3 more GTAW booths located sporadically around the shop and another 6 or so machines that could be used for SMAW, GTAW, or wire processes to varying degrees in a portable fashion or in conjunction with an existing booth by rolling them up to it and plugging in. We have 3 Lincoln LN-25 suitcase feeders that could be plugged in to various machines and powered with either CC or CV depending upon how we planned to use them. Well about 6 to 7 months ago we began to look to do a make-over of our capabilities, We had wanted to address the growing need to provide more wire capabilities, standard and advanced, along with better multi-process offerings. We removed 2 Miller Mark VIII's, an "ancient" Lincoln DC 600, and a couple of Miller CP302's. In their place and in addition to them we purchased and have installed: 3 XMT 450's, 5 Miller XMT 350 CC/CV's, 8 Miller XMT 350MPa's w/S-74MPa Plus feeders, 2 Miller 350 Dynasty's, 2 Thermal Arc Powermaster 320 SP's, and a Miller 12VS suitcase feeder. Along with bringing these machines on-line we were able to manifold in shielding gases to the 24 booths originally titled as stick booths and now we have the ability to run wire, stick, and lift-arc tig in any of those booths, we also have advanced wire capabilities in 8 of those booths due to the installation of the XMT 350 MPa's. Manifolded gases include: 75/25 Ar-CO2, and straight Argon. If needed/necessary we have the ability to roll-up bottles of other shielding gases and "plug" them in to provide for better spray transfer capability or allow for other varieties of wire/gas combinations. With our "new" selection of machine combinations we can "theoretically" operate: 12 AC/DC GTAW systems, 37 GTAW lift-arc systems, 41 wire systems, or 46 stick systems. We are very excited about the recent changes that we have been able to implement and we're just about to the point where all of the machines are fully operational. I have included a number of pictures here, some illustrate "old stuff" and others show the "new". Best regards everyone, AllanEDIT: I have not added photos of some of the other machines yet(don't have any) and you'll notice the racks that our XMT's are set-up in. Local shops donated the metal and paint jobs, we provided the "engineering, fit-up, and welding of them. In addition to the machines that are in racks, a number of carts were built to provide mobility to the other machines and additional ones were built to provide static locations. Attached Imagesaevald
Reply:A few more pics. We also installed a manifold system for Argon and 75/25 Ar/CO2, there are flowmeters (2) for each gas in all of the 24 booths with quick-connects to provide for lift arc capability, aluminum welding GMAW in 8 of the booths, and GMAW/FCAW-gas shielded in all of the booths, additionally, since we have quick-connects in the booths we can also roll in other gas mixtures that we have set-up on portable carts and hook-up to those for any other shielding gas requirements. Best regards, Allan Attached ImagesLast edited by aevald; 01-14-2013 at 11:56 PM.aevald
Reply:wow  miller  machine galorethat xmt machine is simillar to a welding school uses i planning to enrolli wonder  how much these unit costa friend who is currently enrolled gave me some pics
Reply:Top notch stuffVantage 500's LN-25's, VI-400's, cobramatics, Miller migs, synch 350 LX, Powcon inverters, XMT's, 250 Ton Acurrpress 12' brake, 1/4" 10' Atlantic shear,Koikie plasma table W/ esab plasmas. marvel & hyd-mech saws, pirrana & metal muncher punches.
Reply:Hello Naruto, the machine that you have pictures of in your post is the XMT 450 CC/CV, it is actually less money than the XMT 350 CC/CV, mainly because the 450 is 3 phase only and the 350 can be operated on 1 or 3 phase power. As to cost, I really don't remember, yet I know we paid considerably less than what the general public would be charged. Miller has a considerable discount program for educational institutions, at least that has been our experience. Best regards, Allanaevald
Reply:What school are you with Aevald?Some blue machinesSome red machineslots of heavy steel
Reply:Hello moparman68, I teach at Lower Columbia College in Longview, WA. It is about 45 miles north of Portland, Ore. and just off of I-5. Regards, Allanaevald
Reply:Hi everyone, I thought that I might add just a bit more information and photos to illustrate some of the additional recent changes we have instituted into our shop. The manifolded shielding gas systems are going to be a big + in adding to our versatility and ability to allow for a large number of students use of the wire processes. Yet, the 2 gases that are provided still limit the consumables that can be used to a fair extent or the mode of transfer in other instances. Thus, I had a revelation and a recycling moment to help to address this. One of our old carts that used to provide a portable wire machine platform was morphed into a multi-bottle cart. We have four different shielding gas bottles mounted on it with separate flow meters on each one along with a quick-disconnect fitting. We can roll this into position next to any wire-equipped booth and simply plug in the required gas mix and go to town. For the time being the cart has Steelmix (an Airco recipe of tri-mix gases for steel), 98/2 Argon/O2, 90/10 Argon/CO2, and straight CO2, or the booth gasses of 75/25 Argon/CO2 or straight argon could be used. I've included a couple photos of this set-up.We also gave an old shopping cart a new lease on life and retrofitted it to be used to transport and store 4 voltage sensing suit-case feeder systems (3 Lincoln LN-25's, 1 Miller 12 VS). I've included photos of that also. Hope you folks enjoy. Best regards, Allan Attached Imagesaevald
Reply:Nice set up i guess the boss had battery hens before a welding factory. I couldn't work like that all day inside a little square along with a row of others
Reply:Hello Gerry1964, I understand where you are coming from. We have one of the older community college welding shops in Washington state, and probably one of the most cramped/smallest, especially considering our enrollment numbers. We operate morning, afternoon, and evening sections of classes. Duplicated numbers have been as high as 230, actual body counts without duplication are probably closer to 150 for a high in a given quarter. We have been riding a wave of high enrollment for probably close to 7 years or so as of now. Thanks for your comments and best regards, Allanaevald
Reply:I would like to add this bit of additional information to this thread, partly because it is a major change in our shop layout/use and secondly because it is something that we should have done years ago and for whatever reason we didn't. I'm going to do one of those scary things and "assume" something here for the moment. Those of you who are in the educational arena likely face this sort of thing often, students manage to melt the covers on the welding leads near and or in the immediate proximity of the stingers and ground clamps. Taping (heaven forbid), is one of the methods to address the issues of exposed leads (frowned upon by safety folks), using shrink-tube might be another (although rather expensive). We used to eventually change-out the length of lead if it got too bad, not very cost effective either. With our change in machine capabilities and manifolding of shielding gases we wished to be more versatile and efficient in our change-over technique/procedure. To effect that end we opted to outfit the booths with pigtails/connectors so that we could replace short sections of lead if the stingers or ground clamp whips became damaged. We could also readily and easily switch polarities and process (SMAW, GTAW-lift arc, and wire processes). We fabricated some lead clamps to retain the connector ends and identified the + connector by using a red band of air hose slipped over the end and retained by the connector. At this time we have pretty much decided to keep the stinger whip in the booth area and when we are using the wire process we disconnect the stinger, coil it up, keep it on a hook in the booth. When the stick process is being used we coil up the lead/connector from the wire feeder and hang it on the hook. Our GTAW rigs are kept in a separate location and when the students use them we bring them over to the booth and disconnect whatever process is being used and connect the tig rig with an easy change to the correct polarity, reassignment of the ground polarity, and connection of the argon shielding gas. I have couple of photos that show this entire affair. Best regards, Allan Attached Imagesaevald
Reply:Hello Steve, all of our welding equipment change-outs/replacements/upgrades ended up somewhere in the $140K range. Yup, a wad of money. Additionally, they spent another $100K+ on our new press brake and tooling. We are VERY greatful for the investment that was bestowed upon us. As to trade-ins/auctions of old equipment, it's rather bizarre how our state, at least,  deals with that. Example: 2 of the machines that we replaced are still current production by Miller, if you want one of them new right now they'll set you back roughly $40K each. When we purchased them years back we paid around $15K apiece, we received a bit more than $700 apiece for our trade-in value and the recipients of these 2 machines paid $750 each (another college in our state). I am thankful that they went to a school, yet, I believe there str  better ways to liquidate them and gain a better monetary payback. You are right though, Steve, the whole equipment change-out/trade-in/auction/liquidation of school equipment is really difficult to understand. Well best regards, Allanaevald