more confused than ever

[Scott V]

Rock,I knew that about what replaced what.His opinions are the most unbiased I have ever heard about machines anywhere.I been to a lot of welding stores,and from one of the very best,if not the best welders around this area,from my friends sheetmetal shop repeats almost word for word what my friend at the welding store says.Jack is the welders name,and he made the shop buy a aerowave when they came out,although he could make nice welds with a harbor freight welder.He was one of the guys that screamed the loudest when the shop bought a mm250.His words were,this is no miller. they picked up a vintage shortly after.So I just don't have one person telling me this stuff.You should see this guy weld,although he is now retired.This guy walked off the street twenty years ago from being a truck driver,and my friends dad taught him to weld.I have never seen nicer welds in aluminum,and stainless anywhere ever.I look at welds every place I go,just like the rest of you guys.

[Scott V]

Dan,

My friend is on vacation this week,but when he gets back I am going to demo a 135 Miller even if I have to buy it.I know the little copper Millers inside and out,and will see how much of a leap forward those things are.

Also he has a used Ck175 setting on the floor,I will see if I can demo it.I will have him give me a full run down of the Ck,see if it Matches what you think of them.Seems to me talking to him about those welders,the one model with the built in tig were ok welders,but had the worst tig arc around.I Know this 175 did not have the tig.

[Dan]

Scott

I bought my CK systematics 175 back in 1991 for $1000. As I remember at the time it seemed to be the best machine available in my price range. At the time, if I remember right the only 220 V Miller that I could afford (I was only 23 years old and just out of welding school) was a MM 150. To be honest with you the MM 150 was no were near the machine that I wanted. I was looking for a machine that would handle up to 1/4" steel with a fair duty cycle. Now, there are a few design ideas on the CK 175 that I still like to this day, and wish other machines included them. Rock, do you have your pen and paper ready? here is the list.

1. The ground clamp cable plugs into a socket on the front of the machine. What I like about this is at the end of the day when you are done with the machine, you can disconnect the groung cable from the machine, roll it up and put it on a hook on the wall. It almost always seem like when you use a machine that has the ground lead attached permanently to the machine that when you go to set it up you always have to untangle the ground lead and the gun cable.

2. The polarity change on the machine is extremely easy. The front of the machine has two sockets on it. One is for the ground clamp lead to plug into and the other is for plugging the gun lead into. So changing polarity is just a matter of unplugging the 2 leads and plugging them into the opposite socket.No tools are required.

3. Now my MM 210 has this next one . So good job Miller. I ve always hated on our MM 250 at work that there is no were to store the gun cable or ground clamp lead on the machine except for wrapping them around the handle, which becomes annoying when you want to move the machine. Anyway, on the side of the CK 175 they have provided a hook to wrap the cables or cable around.

4. The final feature is the fact that there is an analog volt meter on the front of the machine. So if I want to know what my load volts are I can just have my son watch the meter, and then after Im done welding, he shows me what position the needle went to on the meter.


On my MM 210 the socket connection would be a great idea for connecting the spool gun. There are times when it is annoying to have the spool gun connected to the machine too, and it would be nice to be able to remove it quickly without having to use a wrench. I guess Im just getting lazy as I get older.

[cope]

Dan, from what you have told me about your son, be sure there isn't a scratch awl lying around the shop. He may scribe the needle position into the cover of the meter!

[Hobart Expert Rock]

HI DAN...........THANKS FOR THE INPUT...........I HAVE ALREADY COPIED AND PASTED TO APROPRIATE FOLKS........... I APPRECIATE YOUR FEED BACK AND I DIDN'T EVEN NEED A PENCIL ON THIS ONE...........GRIN.............I USE A PENCIL BECAUSE OF ALL THE SPELLING ERRORS I MAKE.............HAS TO DO WITH BAD HABITS AND NOT LOOKING AT THE MONITOR AS I TYPE...............ROCK
[email protected]

[Scott V]

Dan,I use a female cable dinse connector for my ground.The reason for the dinse is because all my cables are dinse.Makes it easy to go from tig to stick to mig.Also with a 25 foot gun,and a 12 foot gun I can use different lenth ground cables.Just go ahead,and try to find a female cable dinse connetor though.The ones I found were real german dinse conectors.

Dan,on the spoolgun setup you mean you want a setup like on the esab 250 migmaster?One cable,and that it.

I also looked at the undered powered miller 150 when I bought my first mm130.It was in the same case as the mm185.The one thing about that welder was it was very nice for muffler,and bodywork.better low end with .023 than the 185.That info was from talking to a muffler guy that still uses one today.

[cope]

Scott

You mentioned that you look at welds every where you go. Interesting that many MIG welds in commercial products, for instance display fixtures, are sloppy.

[Scott V]

Cope,you are right,and it makes me feel better.Then again there are some alumimun things like some boats out here that just make me sick.Very nice welds.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Franz
.....The weld ain't in the machine, it's in the man behind the helmet. It's a learned skill, one acquired over time, and one that you'll never want to leave behind once you've mastered it.
.....

Franz...I agree with you 100%....a good weldor can take ANY machine and make a good weld with it. IMHO