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What does everyone think about the ESAB 173/201 amp mig welders; as compared with say the Lincoln, Miller, Hobart welders of the 170-200 range? Not a pro welder by any means, but I've welded stick, mig, tig, and torch on cast iron, stainless, steel, and others, and want a mig welder for home/shop use- not a 250+amp beast, but don't want anything too small either. Thanks!
Reply:ESAB being Union Carbide, Linde Division were the inventors of the Mig Process, should be very good machines, I worked and sold them for 10 years and never had a complaint. JohnSMAW,GMAW,FCAW,GTAW,SAW,PAC/PAW/OFCand Shielding Gases. There all here. :
Reply:I have the Multi Master 260 and it's impressive.
Reply:If the price is low enough the 173 is a ok machine. Those models are imports from Hungary and are a notch below the USA made Esab machines. I agree that the 260 Esab is a very nice machine. The gun swan-neck angle (Binzel made) is pretty weird on the 175/203/253 models. They do have a nice arc to the machines but some machines seem better then others, mostly in the area of wet out of the weld bead. The little Esabs seem to have a bunch of voltage for the size of machine. Meaning even the 173 will want to break into a spray mode on the upper voltage tap ranges. |
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