Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey all, new here. I'm a beginner welder. Machining is my background. Currently I have the common Lincoln tombstone stick welder, and a small 120v mig. Been wanting a tig for a while, there's a couple available locally. A Lincoln idealarc 250 AC/DC trigger on air cooled torch, no pedal, but with tank. The other is a Marquette 300amp ac/DC, water cooled torch, no other leads. The Marquette cab be had for cheap, the Lincoln a bit more. Thoughts? I'm leaning towards the Lincoln. Available power in my garage isn't an issue.

I had an IdealArc for decades. A beast of a machine and welded great. Used a 50amp breaker to power it though.

Well, I ended up pulling the trigger on a Syncrowave 300... Beast! Anyway, was noticing the vast difference in power input requirements (mostly in wire size). The Syncrowave 250 is what, 100a-125a breaker and #6 conductor. The Syncrowave 300, doesn't specify a breaker in the manual (although lists a chart for amps), BUT it does state to use 2/0 cable. Damn! What a jump in wire size from the 250 to the 300!!!! Is anyone actually running 2/0 to theirs? That's big stuff, especially if flexible power cable...

pianoman8t8 wrote:Well, I ended up pulling the trigger on a Syncrowave 300... Beast! Anyway, was noticing the vast difference in power input requirements (mostly in wire size). The Syncrowave 250 is what, 100a-125a breaker and #6 conductor. The Syncrowave 300, doesn't specify a breaker in the manual (although lists a chart for amps), BUT it does state to use 2/0 cable. Damn! What a jump in wire size from the 250 to the 300!!!! Is anyone actually running 2/0 to theirs? That's big stuff, especially if flexible power cable...

It might have to do with duty cycle. The higher the duty cycle, the larger the minimum wire size requirement, even for the same amperage. If you can find the manual for yours, look up I1max and I1eff. They provide valuable info.

I ran 2 gage wire for my power mig 360 MP and a 100 amp breaker to accommodate the 83 amp rating on the name plate. I am told it was just a surge rating and that I could have gotten by with 6 gage wire given the duty cycle but I would rather play it safe than sorry. My machine is rated at 60 percent duty cycle at 320 amps. I was told I can run it very reliably on a 50 amp circuit, if that can be helpful. The other rating on the name plate is 52 amps for continuous peak duty.

Got it hooked up tonight with 1/0 cable. I'm looking to replace the coolant in the radiator 1 cooler, is there an option for the aluminum tank AND high frequency welding?

pianoman8t8 wrote:Got it hooked up tonight with 1/0 cable. I'm looking to replace the coolant in the radiator 1 cooler, is there an option for the aluminum tank AND high frequency welding?

The charts that Miller uses are extremely conservative, and I honestly don't believe their data plates either. At last count I had run something like 13 different Syncrowave 250 and 250DX with coolers on a 40A breaker. I probably never went over 250A with any of them, but I definitely went at least that high and didn't have any problems. I think the 96A rating is possibly an inrush figure rather than running amps. I also ran a couple of Hobart TIGWave 250s and a Miller 330 A/BP on the same circuit...worked fine.

You're going to be way more than fine with 1/0 wire.

The coolant issue and aluminum is one I haven't seen a great answer to yet. I have most of the parts to build a cooler and was going to make the tank out of aluminum, but then I saw all the warnings...not sure if they're real or theory.

I wonder if anyone has replaced the aluminum reservoir in their Radiator 1 cooler with something like stainless steel, in order to use regular miller coolant without corrosion...

Well, interestingly, I was disassembling the tank and lid, and while grinding off a few small screw heads, realized the lid and tank material both spark when dusted by a grinder. Both are non magnetic. Once cover tank lid was off, underneath read 304 A075 with some other designations. So it appears at least the lid, and likely the tank as well, are 304ss.