Welding Tips and Tricks

Has anybody seen any problems with their Square Wave 200? I finished up a fair size al job and everything ran as it should. I fired it back up a week later and it acted like the gas flow was interrupting. I did a few checks and decide to take it in for warranty service. I mentioned that I thought it was a gas flow issue. They called me to pick it up this morning that there was nothing wrong with it. I get there and ask to see the weld test they had performed. It looks like crap but they try and tell me there's no problem. I call bullshit and have them set it back up. The tech then lights up on a al chunk and the machine starts sputtering and farting. I asked him "what's that" in a slightly agitated tone. The tech says, he checked for gas flow and not for weld quality. After all this they agreed that it didn't weld correctly and that is what I should have said instead of a gas flow issue. When I brought it in I had told them it didn't weld correctly that the end result appeared to be the gas flow. You would think that if a welder came in for a weldability problem that they would see how it welds? I guess not. After all the dust settles, the shop foreman tells me that they see quite a few of them with the same type of issue. Another WTF moment that they hadn't checked to see if it welded correctly or not.

I talked to the Lincoln service rep at school one day when he was out fixing a machine and he said they were very reliable, but the number of machines they are selling was really huge. So even if you get 99.9999% quality, a small percentage of a really huge number is still some number of machines. I'd be glad you have a local reputable place to go to instead of having to mail it someplace. I've not had any problems with mine, which doesn't mean much other than I got lucky and you didn't. The other thing is I'm sure they've made changes during production, there might be a bunch where something was changed and not tested properly.

MarkL wrote:I talked to the Lincoln service rep at school one day when he was out fixing a machine and he said they were very reliable, but the number of machines they are selling was really huge. So even if you get 99.9999% quality, a small percentage of a really huge number is still some number of machines. I'd be glad you have a local reputable place to go to instead of having to mail it someplace. I've not had any problems with mine, which doesn't mean much other than I got lucky and you didn't. The other thing is I'm sure they've made changes during production, there might be a bunch where something was changed and not tested properly.

That's "reputable"? That type of incompetence and apathy reflects on Lincoln.

Who cares how you get your service when you still get no service. Run-around is run-around.

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I kinda got a giggle out of that too. First when they couldn't find an "issue" they charged me $90.00 for the diagnostics as there was nothing they could find. After I insisted on testing it and they realized there WAS a problem , I got my $$ back.
As far as the Lincoln rep saying there are no issues, what do you expect him to say?
Lincoln flooded the market with these welders. Then there was a glut of them and they put up the super sale if you bought the MP 210 as well. Now that they have cleared inventory, the repair/warranty parts should improve I hope. The repair shop is NOT a Lincoln dealer. The repair many different welders and electric motors. It is a substantial company that covers several acres with many buildings with probably 50 employees so it's not a mom and pop Podunk outfit.
This is a great little machine. I have almost 2 years left under full parts and labor warranty. If it fails again then I'll start looking for a replacement. It will probably still come in a red box.

I guess nobody here has had any issues but I guess Lincoln has enough coming back that they can't supply parts fast enough. They're sending me a new machine.

I had a similar problem with my Sq Wave 175 turned out to be a bad regulator the pin on the diaphragm had worn so it wouldn't push the valve open all the way. When you would start a weld it would have enough pressure to give you a nice hiss but it would taper of pretty quickly. I replaced the regulator and back in business

Lincoln couldn't supply a new board as they were back ordered to mid Sept. I was #31 on a list at the repair facility that had 10 of them coming. Lincoln sent a refurb machine instead and that one is FUBAR also. The Lincoln Rep is coming out tomorrow and we are going to talk about getting rid of the SQ 200. It seems they aren't holding up as well as expected. It's peculiar how it welded like a dream for over a year and all of a sudden failed. It (new and old) still welds in all the other functions flawlessly. It's only the AC side that has failed.