Lincoln STT Mig Welder?

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Does anyone have experience with the Lincoln STT Mig Welder?  I saw one listed locally and wonder what experiences owners have had.Thanks,Jim
Reply:Jim,3 phase onlyis it the power supply, or the feeder, or both, they are special units, one will not work without the otherIts basically a fully adjustable square wave style tig machine, used to power a wire feeder instead of a tig torch.One of my customers has one, the use it to weld 16ga stainless steel baffles to a 8" hvy wall stainless steel pipe. Great penetration into the pipe, without burn through of the 16 ga plate. Very interesting process, they went to this instead of tig welding the parts, much faster and much lower rejection rates.Jack
Reply:I love it, great looking beads, on thin material hardly any burnthrough, good for filling gaps, has hot start and tailout controls, so it heats up the wire more to compensate for the cold metal in the beggining, and continues feeding current, but shuts off the wire drive at the end, so you have excelent looking beads. Low splatter, good for co2 only with large wire sizes. You can set up the machine with 2 settings and switch one switch to go back and forth, and dont have to change the wire speed, peak amps, and background amps. Does tig quality beads, in less time. Overall a great machine. I would make sure it has (or get) the stt-10 wire feeder, get a gas mixer so you can take advantage off the machine fully. It is a shop only welder, and it does require 3 phase 30amp, but it is worth it. At my old shop we had 3 phase, when I moved to the new shop, it didn't have 3 phase, but I didn't want to get rid of the stt, so I bought a 3 phase genset, just could not let the stt go. I have played with the 350 advanced process (next model down) and like it, but it still does not carry the full STT process that this unit has. If it is a good price get it.
Reply:They are asking $3000 for the unit and the wire feeder.  Is this a better welder than a Miller 304?Jim
Reply:The STT and the 304 are in 2 diffrent catagories. The STT is for Mig only, the 304 is for stick, mig, tig, and optional pulse spray. I asked a miller rep who was trying to turn me blue, what do you have compairable to the STT. He said that they don't have anything that would compair to it. If you need a machine that it multi process then go with the 304, but if you want a dynamite mig, then go with STT. For $3000, the STT would be a good deal if it is in good condition, just look at the list price Lincoln will come out and help you dial in the machine, I would sudgest that.
Reply:Is it very hard to set up?Jim
Reply:No, not hard to set up, but the reps can give some advice and can help dial it in for the power imput. I was told just taking it from one outlet to another will have a change on the output. If it is for x ray or production work it would matter, other wise it would be fine. But they didn't charge me and I got free goodies from them.
Reply:Thanks for all of the information.  I will pursue it and let you know if it works out.Jim
Reply:They are using the stt on pipelines now as well. Lincoln had an article out not too long ago about one they built in China using it. I haven't had the chance to use one yet but sure would like to. According to Lincoln it is very easy to operate with very high quality results.The difference between art and craft is the quality of the workmanship. I am an artist.