Cope,new old welder?

[Scott V]

Cope,I thought I let you know that my friend wants my sp175 plus welder with cart real bad.He says he will trade me his almost new mm185 Miller for it.What do you think of that?Also just so you know I am going to have him bring his camera with him.(inside joke)I going to have to think that one over a little,because I like the way my sp welds better,and is a lot lighter,but the Miller in it's condition might bring more in a trade?Of course my Lincoln is in mint condition,and his is in very good condition.

I just thought I see if anybody Knows if blue clashes with red?

Also if anybody has run .035 flux-core with gas with the mm185?
If I did do the trade,I was think of modifing the mm185 so I could use my voltage sensing feeder on it.That way I would beable to run it out my basement window,and the voltage settings wouldn't be as hard to set as a variable knob machine.

[Mark Whiddon]

Why would you trade for a welder that by your own words is not in as good condition and doesnt weld as nicely as yours does? You are only gaining 10 amps so there really isnt much gain in the heat aspect of the machine. Just doesn't sound like a good trade to me.As far as the trade in value. Your machine is a name brand and there won't be much in the way of a difference there. By the way I sold a mig on ebay for more than I paid for it. You can always go that route too. I have to admit I bought it for $150 less than it listed for anywhere else so I had a good deal to begine with, but I still sold it for more than I paid.

[Scott V]

Mark,because,my friend helps me out,and he wants it.Also the MM185 used do go for about what a sp 175 plus does new.It just doesn't weld .023 as well.Plus the abillty to set the tap voltage,and get it real close for using it with my voltage sensing feeder out my window is a big plus.The 185 is 150 amps at 23 volts,60% duty-cycle,and the sp175plus is 130 amps,20 volts,30% duty-cycle.they are different classes of welder.Plus if I need a better welding rig then the sp175,or mm185,I can just put my gun 12 foot gun on my 300 powermig,and take care of anything that might come up.

[cope]

Scott, I am proud that you have seen the Blue Light, and honored that you directed this post at me. The Miller will fit in nicely with red; my Miller sits next to my PowCon ( red ) and still works fine. Of course I don't know how you would act with a 35 year old transformer AC machine; the closest it will ever come to pulse is if I'm welding during a brown-out.

Seriously as you already alluded to, the 185 is adifferent class of welder and might come in handy later on.

[Dan]

Is this a joke? You are seriously thinking about trading the welder that you have been preaching to us as having one of the best short arc metal transfers ? Obviously though it is your choice. The MM 185 is a pretty nice machine. I like the arc performance that I m achieving with it using an .035 solid wire on 3/16" and 1/4" material. It also does a nice job on SS with an .030 308L-Si solid wire. I haven t tried it with a gas shielded fluxcore wire, but based on the volt/amp curve in the owners manual I think the output voltage is going to fall a little short at the high end of the amperage output. However, I was thinking that if the machine is in good shape and not that old, the machine could sell for probably close to $900 in our area of the country. If you sold the machine you could put this towards a MM 210 which certainly has a high enough output voltage at the higher end of the machine.

However, I really like having the option of my smaller HH 175 when I need it. I can carry it to areas where it is a major pain to get my larger machines to, and also the smaller 100 amp gun sure comes in handy sometimes. there have been a few times were if I hadn t had the HH 175 and its smaller gun the job would have been very difficult to perform with the M-25 gun on my MM 210 or the 200 amp gun on my CK 175.


I just know as much as you have hyped the SP 175, if you get rid of it your going to end up purchasing another SP 175 some time in the future.

[Hobart Expert Rock]

SCOTT V.............. I GUESS I HADN'T REALIZED YOU WERE PREACHING.............RIGHT............ YOU SHOULD ENJOY THE MM185....... CURIOSITY MAKES ME ASK THIS QUESTION..... WHY DON'T YOU TRADE THE SP175 FOR A MM210???????????.... THE 185 WAS UPDATED TO THAT.....................?.....................ROC K
[email protected]

[Scott V]

What you guys are missing is my friend needs it more than me,and I should just give it to him for all the things he has did for me.His probally has about 5 hours on it if that,and has one little dent in the side cover.I could push it out with my finger.He has a hard time welding real thin stuff with his,and the sp will do a much better job even with .030 on thin stuff.I can work around it.Dan,my powermig 300 can take a little lincoln gun,and I also have a tweeco to miller adapter that would make the gun fit the mm185,and I even have a miller contactor plug for it.So most of those problems are solved except one that is the light weight of the sp.The other thing is I would have access to the sp175 anytime I would need it for taking it some where.Dan,I have a ranger 305g sitting outside to cover anything the mm185 can't do.Also I would get another sp,but it would be a 120 volt model for true portable unit.Plus I will trade the mm185 in when lincoln does the one thing to the sp175 plus that would make it the perfect little portable welder,120/240 operation.The one area the 185 has over the 210 is I can lift it in my truck by myself.Where the 210 is starting to get way to heavy.

I really don't need to trade,because he could trade his in if he wanted to,but I was the one that told him to get the mm185 in the first place,so if it was good enough for him it should be good enough for me.

[Dan]

Scott

Trading to help out a friend is definately cool. My wife and her best friend traded horses a few years ago, because my wifes horse was a better fit for her friend. Also here friends horse was better suited for using as a barrel racing horse, which is what my wife does with her horses. Come to think of it though this trade backfired on me. Let me explain. About 6 months before Miller brought out the MM 210 the salesman that I deal with at Praxair called me and told me that he had a brand new MM 185 that he would sell to me for $900 because Miller was going to be replacing it with a different machine in the near future, so he could sell me the machine cheap without getting in trouble from his boss. So, within a week I had my $900 and was ready to purchase the machine. Then my wife calls me and is crying and tells me that Belle (her horse) has step on a large rust nail and it is stuck in her hoof. So anyway she called the vet out and by the time he was done with the horse the bill was $1000. So, it isn t hard to guess were my $900 went .


One thing about the MM 185 is that it must be a pretty good machine overall for it size range, because you hardly ever see a used machine for sale. I know in short arc mode, there is no comparison between the MM 250 that I use at work and the MM 185 that I use too. The MM 185 produces a better looking short arc weld, and the MM 185 has a nice hot start to it. Tack welds on 3/16 or 1/4" material have a good fusion with the basemetal.

There is definately a physical size diffrence between the MM 210 and MM 185. Probably a lot easier to get the MM 185 down into your basement. I d like to see how you got your PM 300 down there.

[Roger]

In some building codes basements are required to have 2nd exit like the old outside stairs or large opening window with window well. Both would really help get machinery into basement shop and are great safety addition.
Just an expensive thought.

[Scott V]

Roger,I only have a ouside door,lot's of windows though,but since I want to keep my tools I have steel plate over the windows.I am working on putting in a different setup,and I got the new windows,and other things for another way out.In the mean time I have desided to go down with the ship if something happens.They really didn't have too many codes when they built this house,infact they didn't even have electric lights,They were gas.They did have one thing though its called old growth douglas fir,not chipboard,that they throw up now.

Dan,you must be rich to afford horses,Do you go to the track on your days off?Also paying the help to clean the barn is not real cheap ether.

Dan,getting the powermig was nothing compared to my Esab 252 tig,or my 1000+LB Clausing mill down there.Now I want to get the powermig back up out of there,to take to my friends sheetmetal shop.They have a couple of jobs that the powermig might do better than there Miller 350 DX.They use to have a aerowave,but thats another story.If I get a camera I will try to post pics what they are trying to do in some .062 aluminum.

[Dan]

Originally posted by Scott V

Dan,you must be rich to afford horses,Do you go to the track on your days off?Also paying the help to clean the barn is not real cheap ether.

.

Scott

My TIG machine is an Econotig, My largest wire feed machine is a MM 210, and my plasma cutter is a Powermax 380 . These items alone should make the statement that I am far from being wealthy. If I had money my list would be a Syncrowave 250, MM 251, and a Spectrum 2050.

If I would start my own welding business like my wife wants me to maybe I would have some real money,, however, my wifes confidence in my welding skill level is much higher then mine.

Anyway my wife has 2 horses and we pay about $2700 in rent a year to keep them at a local barn. She uses them for barrel racing which is a women's event in a rodeo. She hates horse racing because in general the horses are being made to do something at a very young age for them that is quite harmful to there leg developement. You are right though in assuming that they can be expensive. She just spent $95 yesterday to have shoes put on one of them. And we just got done paying a $500 vet bill.Then there is the $15,000 trailer that she hauls them in. This is costing me $200 a month. So on average every month we are throwing out at least $500 on her horses, and because of this I am stuck with an Econotig. However, I will take donations if you guys want to help me get a better machine

[Scott V]

Dan,I think you need to go into building aluminum horse trailers,Those horse people are more nuts than weldors.You will have to change your dream machines to a powermig so you can get them pumped out fast.

Seems to me those are the only trailers somebody could build,and make money on.I think there is money there somewhere.You will need good access to a sheetmetal shop.

Hey,I should start building them!

[Roger]

It's called horse poor. In his case it might be horse & welder poor.

Dan seeing some of your work you can deffinetly make it in your own shop. It's difficult to take such a leap with no saftey net when success depends on business skills as much as familliar welding skills.