Hmm. I went to Eastwoods site and had a look.....pretty nice. I almost wish I hadn't bought the Harbor Freight cutter.....

 

I did a fair bit of research on inverter Tig machines to find that most are made offshore anyway so i bought a 200 amp Chinese made machine that came with a BIG warranty.
Three years full warranty from a long established business was enough to clinch the deal for me, and i am more than happy with it.
The torch is a Italian made unit with the amperage control on the torch rather than a foot control, bit hard to push a pedal upside down under a truck.

cheers John

 

The Millers are made here and All the newer ones have hand control for the torch. I just bought a Miller RCCS-14 torch controller for my Synchrowave. It replaces the foot control. I asked the Miller guy where I should take mine should it "break" and he said they have a service facility close by if I need it. I don't know anyone that has had a Miller break.

The other ones might be ok but the Harbor Freight cutter and MIG (according to HF) is a throw-away unit. No one around here wants to work on one because the documentation (schematics, service info etc) are not available .....at least from HF......

I called their tech support in Cal and they said I should just buy the extended warranty. I asked them what happens when the extended warranty expires and they said, I would have to buy another one (a new welder). They had no suggestions on how to fix it or where I should send it.

I did find a guy on the internet who claims he can fix any electronically controlled welder/cutter (including my new HF cutter). GEORGE'S PLASMA CUTTER SHOP - Home

He also sells all sorts of parts, circuit boards, tips etc for just about any welder and cutter including Eastwood ETC......

Maybe HF should contract him for their service!!



Cheers,


Rick

 

I had a student bring one of the HF mig units to class. It was SCAREY!!! First it had no provisions for shielding gas, it was flux core only. IMHO Flux core wire has no use in body work. For body work you want shielding gas (don't buy a unit that requires you to buy an accessory kit to use gas, the combo will cost more than a better unit with gas hookup included)and the ability to use standard 4 or 8" wire spools and feed rollers and contact tip able to use 0.024-0.025 solid wire and 0.030 solid wire.
The "feature" that really scared me is the trigger on the torch only turns on the wire feed, the contact tip and hence the wire is electrically hot any and all time the unit is turned on. A very dangerous situation, an accident waiting to happen! (unless you like electricity coursing thru you body...)
There is no repair facility for HF products because they don't stock parts for their machines. As they told you they consider their tools to be throw aways. For in warantee claims they simply replace the unit with another. They may canabalize the returned units for parts if they are easily replaced and expensive enough. Once they run out of the units they contracted to have manufacturered that's it. Reason is a new manufacturing run unit, even though it looks the same and has the same stock number was probably made by a totally different manufacturer and the parts don't interchange, there is no standardization of specs or parts.

 

Buy more amps that you think you will need. I have bought several "too small" units and always regret not spending the money first time and getting a big one. I tend to find a use for a bigger unit pretty quickly.

Buy something that will be supported. Having a local dealer that has parts and supplies is a big help.

Ditto checking Craigslist. I bought a Miller Spectrum 625 and a Syncrowave 250. Just don't get in a hurry. December and January, when the bills start hitting, is prime hunting time.

 

The dealer i bought mine from has a large inventory of spares and is a professional welder of some 30 years experience. He has the units made to his specifications and only sells the one single brand.
You guys must have a lot of problems with HF, glad we dont have them in Australia.
John

 

AxRacer,

Im about 2 weeks away from ordering a TIG welder. I was dead set on the Miller Diversion 180 until I read your post and your backing of Eastwood. For the 1 time a month average I am going to use this TIG You have me pretty convinced this Eastwood unit is going to do what I need it to do. At $900 vs $1800 and the fact I do not have a fab shop and will not be using this all day every day Im leaning towards the Eastwood unit now.

One last time before I place the order.....If you had to buy a TIG for yourself you would honestly get the eastwood tig 200 without question?

 

The only question I would as is, "Where do I take the welder to get it fixed when the warranty expires?" AND "what will be the cost to fix it?" (Where do parts come from, parts and labor, "FLAT" rate etc)

If you're like me, you don't throw stuff away after a couple of years......

Good luck,


Rick

 

Rick, I want to buy 1 and never have to buy another one again. I would rather spend the money all at once rather than buying 3 welders over time. The Eastwood welder does have some good reviews though. I just wish the diversion 180 wasn't double the price. If I could find a used one cheaper that might give me something to think about

 

I would, and I will!

 

I hope I dont get too much backlash from this but I am going to have to pass on the Eastwood TIG 200 unit. I found a local guy selling a Lincoln Tig 175 with cart, Tank, and a bunch of accessories. He used the welder 7 times and relies on his mig more than anything. Welder looks brand new and is $850

The only thing it is missing is any type of finger control on the torch. This isnt necessary but would be a nice feature. It is able to be added, the machine is about 6 years old.

Good decision or no?

 

The Lincoln Tig 175 is a good tig machine. It's a transformer machine with just the basic adjustments, so it's about 2 times the size and weight of a modern inverter machine and requires a 50A 220V circuit. The Eastwood is a 110/220V machine requiring a 30A 220V circuit if run on 220. It's kinda like is it a better deal to spend 800.00 on a 6 year old IBM desktop computer with win 95, a 15" CRT monitor, and cdR drive that originally cost 2500.00 with a B&W laserjet printer thrown in or 800.00 on a brand new HP or Dell laptop with warantee, win7, HD wide angle LCD screen, DVDR, net camera, surround sound, and wifi, but will still need to buy a color injet printer.
The former is probably a servicable machine if all you want to do is word processing, surf the web on a dialup connection, read email, print correspondence. The latter might be the better deal if what you want to do is watch DVDs, be able to carry the machine around, work in any room, surf at high speed on a wifi cable connection, use the latest apps, video conference over the web, print glossy full color digital prints, etc., etc, etc.
For nearly the same money, 6 years from now the desktop will be a 12 year old dinosaur (I have a closet full of those machines!), the laptop will be a 6 year old serviceable machine.
It's your money, both will weld.

 

Once a month use, I say spend your money on the Lincoln. There are repair shops for them everywhere if you ever need it. I have two Lincoln welders I bought new and have had for at least ten years and never had a problem. They still weld great. They may not have the newest and fanciest bells and whistles but then again I don't need them. I am not building the space shuttle, but then again nobody is building that right now. There will always be someone who will be looking for a machine like the Lincoln so if you want to upgrade you can always get your money back out of it, I don't think you can say that about the Eastwood (even though they appear to have a good reputation for an off shore manufactured item)

 

Picked it up yesterday. Havent tried it yet because it didnt come with any filler wire and the Argon tank is empty. Going to get it filled this weekend and try it out.

Ill keep you posted.

 

Do you have someone to show you the basics? Do you have a dedicated grinder with a wheel that has never been used and never will be used for anything but grinding electrodes? First thing you want to build is a welding bench. I'd suggest ~ 24 x 36 top of 3/16-1/4" un warped steel plate on 48" high steel legs. Pipe legs with pipe flanges bolted to the top will work or use square tube to make a top frame and legs. Set the legs in ~ 6" from the edges so you can clamp pieces to the top. Use a comfortable adjustable height chair to sit on and have plenty of light directed on where you are welding.
You definitely want a self darkening helmet that is adjustable from 9-12 plate final darkness. Look in the hot rod magazines like Street Rodder or Hot Rod for a page of Harbor Freight coupons. Their helmet works well and you can get it with coupon for ~ 36.00! For tig you want light weight snug fitting all leather work type gloves, not the heavyweight welding ones used for MIG or stick welding. You need to be able to feel and feed the filler rod, the gloves are only needed to protect from UV rays, not heat or splatter. Don't use gloves with any fabric parts. Wear a long sleeve 100% cotton shirt (blue work shirt or old dress shirt type), and watch for exposed skin at neckline with helmet down unless you like strange sunburn patterns. No matter what you see the clowns on TV doing, NEVER tack or weld without a helmet!!!! Sunburned eyeballs and/or face is very painful!