Picking up new toy tomorow - TIG welder

I have not seen it yet. Don’t know the brand. It belonged to one of my friends old boss who passed away. It is a commercial unit with water cooling. I am told it is about 4 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet square. Coming with tanks and all kinds of accessories.  As well as piles of filler rods.  I will also be picking up a set of torches or three.  Specifically I have claimed a set that includes a rosebud torch as well as a cutting tip and a brazing tip

The family is having a yard sale but select friends and family are getting a pre sale opportunity to get stuff. Being that he owned a welding shop for 40 years I am bringing a pile of cash and my truck. 

Curious what you are picking up. TIG really does need to be water cooled if you are going it use it much. TIG is a great welding process, but berkeley me is it ever a spoiled-princess when it comes to prepping stuff before welding.

Pete

Many of the large units are 3 phase. I hope that you are getting a Miller Synchrowave, they are about that size

I regretted buying a TIG for the first NUMBER of weeks, because it took me so long to get the hang of it (it was my first welder).  But now I am quite in love with it, and I'm so glad I bought it.

And NOHOME is so correct - it is the spoiled princess.

In reply to NOHOME :

Not sure I agree on the water cooling. None of our TIG machines at work are water cooled and they run all day every day with superb reliability. 100% correct on the prep, though.

Those big transformer type of TIG machines require plenty of power,  like north of 50 amps. I hope your shop situation is such as you can supply it. But, they are usually bombproof and will do anything required in most applications.

I want to know as well wha tit is and the price is cheep so if nothing else I can re sell it and then get something smaller. 

Or put the cash towards another car.  My back up car went away earlier this week and I now need something to replace it.  My 330K truck is great but at that millage I want a backup in the driveway,   

They're wonderful machines we still have a few of these Miller's at the community college where I teach I hope you end up with one of these 

When I was looking at TIGs, I think the Synchrowave 200 drew 54 Amps at full song.

I ended up buying an Inverter machine, which draws 22A.

they are HEAVY. you wont be loading it without some help (forklift, hoist, etc)

This is what I got. With a new argon tank that is full. It can tig, mig and stick. It came with box’s of sticks and ten tubes of various filler rods. It also came with tool boxes of clamps hammers and a bunch of other stuff. It also came with an industrial size angle grinder with all kinds of pads grinding disks as well as polishing wheels and tones of compound. 

It is set up for two poll 220volt. It was running off twin fifty amp breakers. Looks like I will be adding those soon. I was going to do it anyway for my generator or I could just run it off my generator. 

dean1484 said:

It is set up for two poll 220volt. It was running off twin fifty amp breakers. Looks like I will be adding those soon. I was going to do it anyway for my generator or I could just run it off my generator. 

You mean 220v 50 amp breaker? Or TWO 220v 50 amp breakers.

Btw, freaking sweet score.

Great machine, which model is it? You can weld anything with it . Lincoln is great at supporting their older models. Get in touch with me if you need any help.

I believe it was on a pair of 50 amp breakers. I have to look up the specifics on the unit. 

I don’t know if it was two 50s or a pair of breakers totaling 50 amps. But it was definitely two breakers. 

Looks like twin 50’s from what I see in this photo

93 amps at 208 volts. 

Looks like I accidently got my self a big boy welder. 

Yeah, wow. 

Nice score

and you gonna like it

Don't worry about the current - that's worst case. I have a Miller Syncrowave 250 and have never cranked all the way open. I welded 1/4" steel and think I used 150 amps at the output. The highest I ever think I went was 200 amps for some thick aluminum - again, that's at the output. The input will be roughly 25% of that, so your 50 amp breakers will be just fine.

Think of welding current like boost - if you go too high and your engine (breaker) pops, don't go so high next time...

In reply to kb58 :

Agreed.  And if you do pop it, it’s not like the old days when you had to re-fuse it.