Which TIG to buy?
 

I'm getting ready to buy a TIG welder as soon as I get my taxes back and am looking at two different TIGs. The first one that caught my interest was the Lincoln Precesion TIG 225. The second one is the Miller Syncrowave 200 TIG. I just thought I would get some different peoples feedback on which one you may think is superior to the other. Looking foward to your suggestions.

Tony

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

lincoln in general, always

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

The lincoln is cheaper, more power, alot less weight & they have the same feature set.


Not going to pretend I've used either of those models. But I'd take the lincoln based on the above pro's & no con's that I see standing out.

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

I know the Millers have "squarewave technology", does anyone know if the Precesion TIG 225 has squarewave? It doesn't directly say that it does but it says it has a AC cleaning feature, is this the same?

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

All today's inverter machines are TRUE squarewave. Even the old Syncrowaves were not a true squarewave.

I've used the Lincolns and the Millers. I'd take the miller anyday. Think about it guys...why is it that Lincoln always boasts a few more amps than the Miller machines? ....cause they have to compete on some level, and can't compete on quality. THey have to compete by selling a cheaper machine, and give a couple extra bells and whistles. Lincoln makes 80% of all their income from the sales of welding wires. WHere do you think they will spend their research and development money??

However....in that range of machine, the ThermalArc machines are definitely something to consider.

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

I notice that the Thermal Arc FP185T unit seems to be more compact and lighter then the Miller and Lincoln systems. How is the longevity of the Thermal Arc compared to the Lincoln and Millers?

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

Very very good. A local dealer sells them, and one of their first sales currently has over 2000 hours on it, still going strong.
If I had the money and the shop setup, I'd invest in a TA185TSW

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

If I had researched further I may have gotten a Thermal Arc unit instead of my Syncrowave 180sd although the 180 is a nice little unit.

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

8hrs/day X 40hrs/week X 52weeks = 2050hrs.


2000 isn't all that much, figuring that it's easy to find a Miller machine that's 15-20yrs old. There's a lot of good old Lincolns out there too.

Re: Which TIG to buy?
 

Considering that the machine was only purchased 8 months ago, thats a LOT of time in a short period. The larger transformer welders have a proven history, but the inverters are relatively new. I was pretty surprised they got that many hours on it so quickly. I don't know of any others with more hours on them, but I'm sure they are out there.