Lincoln ideal arc 400 mig?

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Gday, new here and appreciate everyone's advice and thought. I have the chance to pick up a Lincoln idealarc 400. I have 3 phase power at home so that is no issue.  It's way more welder than  I need but the price is good.  However, it does not come with seperate wire feeder or mig gun. I can't find anything used online for even remotely close to the cost of the welder. Am I missing something? Is there a cost effective way to use this machine for mig? Thanks.
Reply:Looks like a beast. I'd think this would be a good candidate for a suitcase feeder like a LN-25 or similar. You can park the machine in the back corner and move around with the feeder with leads. Could also use the leads for stick when the situation calls for. Sure wouldn't want to have to roll that thing around much.If you are getting it really cheap, ya, a feeder is going to look spendy, even used, but makes for a do it all package, probably never looking for more (or less) welder for a long time.
Reply:Maybe look for a used suitcase feeder or something like an LN7 wire feeder. You could buy or make a cart to roll the feeder around. Is the machine a multi-process than can run stick? If so just need some cables, a stinger and a ground clamp to get yourself welding.
Reply:I have one of those welders absolutly love it i have it set up so i can also run stick with it so my ln 25 is running .025 wire on that side and i can run dual shield on the other side i think its an ln 8 feeder. of course not at the same time the nice thing bout this set up is when your working on something high you only have to lift the feeder not the whole welder i also have an lincoln stt  welder that has some kind of fancy feeder but unless im welding thin stuff i always use the oldideal arc if possible it just worksDo not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Reply:

Originally Posted by Welder Dave

Maybe look for a used suitcase feeder or something like an LN7 wire feeder. You could buy or make a cart to roll the feeder around. Is the machine a multi-process than can run stick? If so just need some cables, a stinger and a ground clamp to get yourself welding.
Reply:Thanks for all the info. Didnt realize I logged out and missed all the replies. The welder is WAY more welder than I need. But I consider myself the luckiest person in the world and have 3 phase in my home garage so why not use it right? Spent the afternoon looking around and found a guy selling an ln 7 for 100. So this might be a goer. Also have a lead on a 1985 3ph hobart mega arc 400 for $75. I will probably end up with one of them. Currently using a 1968 miller 320abp but I'm very new to welding and prefer to continue with mig. I'll learn more stick as the need arises.  Appreciate the notes on being able to move around the garage.  If I buy it I'll be back on here seeing how to set the thing up.Appreciate all the help!That being said all my experience is with the very basic lincoln mig welder so I'm going to have to look up a lot of the advice here and figure it out.Again. Appreciate it.Cheers.
Reply:I've heard that 3-phase will give you a real sweet arc due to less fluctuation in the voltage of the rectified arc or some such, with machines that can use 3-phase. Haven't seen this personally, since I've never used a 3-phase welder, though my engine drive (Miller 251D) apparently is 3-phase and it gives a wonderful arc, whether or not that's because it's 3-phase... If I had 3-phase power in my shop, I'd definitely find a way to use it in my welders, that's for sure.Best of luck in your decision and let us know how you make out, and welcome to the forum.
Reply:Not only is 3 phase more efficient, the arc is a lot smoother... although some of the newer machines than run on single phase are coming close.
Reply:I'm going to back up alot of the other post's here by saying if you can get the machine for a good price go for it, and get yourself a suitcase wire feeder like an LN-7 or an LN-25 to go with it or 12VS, I'm a big fan of LN-25's as they can run off of literally any power source and they are as bullet proof as a wire feeder can get and you ca get them pretty cheap second-hand but other brands of voltage sensing wire feeders are out there.
Reply:Thanks for all the input. I think I'll be picking up the Lincoln this weekend for $150 (it's 1992). Won't know if it runs until I rewire the plug and bring it home. Have found a couple of used ln25s for around 600 and an ln7 a couple of hours away for 100. Will see what happens there as I won't be able to test any of them. Ok prices?Also found an old hobart mega 400 3ph (1985) for 75$ with leads that I may pick up.  One of the two machines would have to work and then I could sell my big old 220v 330 abp miller for more than I the cost of replacing it with a 3 ph machine.Or... I can just go and get the 180hd from home depot and be done with it all for $700 with warrantee and keep the miller. But, I know myself and I'm always going to want to push that mig welder way too far.
Reply:

Originally Posted by Lchal

Thanks for all the input. I think I'll be picking up the Lincoln this weekend for $150 (it's 1992). Won't know if it runs until I rewire the plug and bring it home. Have found a couple of used ln25s for around 600 and an ln7 a couple of hours away for 100. Will see what happens there as I won't be able to test any of them. Ok prices?Also found an old hobart mega 400 3ph (1985) for 75$ with leads that I may pick up.  One of the two machines would have to work and then I could sell my big old 220v 330 abp miller for more than I the cost of replacing it with a 3 ph machine.Or... I can just go and get the 180hd from home depot and be done with it all for $700 with warrantee and keep the miller. But, I know myself and I'm always going to want to push that mig welder way too far.
Reply:Make sense. I don't tig and doubt I will any time soon. Plus I would need to buy the pedal etc. That's just a way down the road thing for me.Easiest option in front of me right now is a brand new hobart 210 mvp new in box used for 800. I could then have 110 and 220 for mig and be portable. And either keep the big old miller or sell it and get the 3 phase hobart for stick. If I sell the miller I can get both hobarts up and running for no cash out of pocket (im scrapping some old junk machines I was given for the difference). That's the most all around most guaranteed to work solution. It's also the quickest. I could definitely be convinced to keep the miller and forget the 3 phase idea.The home depot thing was an example of getting a new and basic mig machine for ease and getting a more powerful 3 phase stick welder for bigger stuff.Do genuinely appreciate the comments.  I may be way off base.
Reply:You don't have to have a foot pedal to Tig weld and the Miller machine is also a good stick welder. Not quite as nice as a 3 phase machine but one of the better machines for single phase. Not worth upgrading to a 3 phase machine just for stick. You'd have a hard time noticing a difference unless you had a lot of welding experience. The prices on the 3 phase machines though are practically give away so wouldn't be a bad thing to purchase and see if you can find a wire feeder reasonable. The 210 MVP is compact but also limited with what it can do and has a much lower duty cycle.
Reply:Thanks mate. Makes sense. So you would suggest buying the 3 phase machines and just stick welding the miller until I find a well priced wire feeder for the bigger guys. The nice thing about the mvp is the portability. But honestly I wasn't concerned with that until I tried to sell myself on it.
Reply:The 3 phase are cheap because they're hard to sell. You could likely get more money back if you re-sold them. I personally wouldn't give up a Tig machine. Tig is great for small little things and you're machine will also do aluminum Tig. A suitcase feeder or even a standard wire feeder on a cart are pretty portable too. You don't want to be lugging a 210 with full roll of wire around too much. The 210 also doesn't have continuous voltage control to really fine tune the arc characteristics. I guess it depends on what type of projects you work on now and will work on in the future. If you want to get into Dual-Shield flux-core, the 210 isn't the right machine.Last edited by Welder Dave; 06-30-2021 at 04:31 PM.
Reply:Agree on the 3 phase being cheap because they are hard to sell. Wrt to what I do. Basically for the last 2 years I've been messing around with a baby lincoln 140. It has now gone back to its owner and I've out grown it anyway. Basically inherited the miller but havnt put the time into learning stick yet since it's really easy to badly weld using mig.I like the 210 since in my opinion that's a go anywhere machine if I wanted to take it somewhere and help out a friend. But 99% will be just me messing around in the shop doing my own thing. My wife thinks I should buy a new machine so I spend more time welding and less time fixing an old machine up.Personally I love old machines and always want more power. And in those two paragraphs lie the problem. Be up and welding tomorrow. Or still have to learn stick and buy the 3 ph machines hoping to get mig out of them in the future.As always. Appreciate your input.
Reply:Keep in mind the 210 probably needs at least a 20 amp circuit to run on 115 volts. Most homes the circuits are only 15 amp. Any type of welding requires a lot of practice. Learning stick is worth the effort and having a stick machine at your disposal is always a good idea. Mig is not the be all of welding.
Reply:Fair. Appreciate it. I was trying to be lazy. Guess I'll rethink that.
Reply:Welding is one trade where you have to actually have to know how to do the work instead of just reading what to do or watching video's. You can't fake it with welding.
Reply:I'm just having fun working on projects that interest me in my garage, nothing structural. But I get your point.