Syncrowave 180 or Millermatic 210?

[DIESELADAM]

Thanks Hawk!! Looks like I am going to have to wait till I upgrade the electrical service in my house before I get this one.

[T0M]

Originally posted by weldingisfun
Tom,
I have seen people using the 180 to weld 1.5" OD 304L tubing to .5" header flanges. I would assume by beveling the holes on the header flange a little you could get good enough pentration by concentrating more of the heat toward the flange which is something that would have to been done anyway.

Well, I guess i am unclear of the reason for a 5/16" header flange being the standard. If it is required to be that thick for reliability issues, thats one thing.

But If it is mainly just to ensure the header flange doesn't warp when welded, then I would assume the sync 180 can get at least 3/16" worth of penetration and that should be plenty right?
or would the thickness of the steel be thick enough to hinder proper penetration?

[weldingisfun]

Tom,
I have seen people using the 180 to weld 1.5" OD 304L tubing to .5" header flanges. I would assume by beveling the holes on the header flange a little you could get good enough pentration by concentrating more of the heat toward the flange which is something that would have to been done anyway.

[HAWK]

DIESELADAM,

The Syncro 250 pulls roughly 100 amps on 230VAC single phase input power at the rated output of 250 amps at 30 VAC with a 40% duty cycle. At higher amperages, this machine is rated from 5-310 amps, the current draw will be greater. The Syncro 250 can be purchased with a power factor correction circuit that drops the current draw to about 70 amps at the above listed output and duty cycle. If your input line voltage is less, perhaps 200VAC or 208VAC, the amp draw will increase: about 110 amps and about 80 amps with the power factor correction circuit. As line input voltage increases to 460VAC or 575VAC, the current draw decreases. This is a direct function of Ohms law.

See attached file from the owners manual for circuit breaker information.

Hope this helps

[DIESELADAM]

Speaking of the syncrowave 250, Do you guys know what size breaker and or how many amp this baby pulls?

[T0M]

will the syncrowave 180 be able to weld to a 5/16 header flange?

[T0M]

Originally posted by ROCK
Hi Tom..........Hawk is right the bugs in the early machines have been worked out and are now very reliable........However we still offer the 3 year warranty on them....... just in case something does come up...............What did you decide to get.........?....Rock..
[email protected]

I think I have decided on a syncrowave 180, I really cant afford anything more, I just have to make sure it is heavy duty enough to make turbo exhaust manifolds.
Thanks
Later

[weldingisfun]

Tom,

The specs for an NHRA roll cage are located here:

http://www.nhra.com/contacts/tech_faq.html

NHRA specs are more stringent then any of the roadcourse race specs or IHRA specs. SCCA and WRC wall thickness and tubing thickness is thinner then NHRA's minumum requirements. So I've always gone with NHRA standards.

[ROCK]

Hi Tom..........Hawk is right the bugs in the early machines have been worked out and are now very reliable........However we still offer the 3 year warranty on them....... just in case something does come up...............What did you decide to get.........?....Rock..
[email protected]

[myhemi]

Hey Tom,

I just want to let you in on some info. NHRA rules are different for each class that you race in, exa. (street, pro street, stock, super stock, imports etc.) i think that you should know what bracket that the car will be racing in before you start building it. certain areas on the cars (in certain brackets) require specific wall thicknesses, but then other areas are not noted. i suggest that you call NHRA to get an 03 rule book. Also, there is a lot of liability in volved if you are thinking about doing it out of recreation. i have been doing alot of research in this area, it's alot of fun building them, i just want everybody to be safe in all areas....

[weldingisfun]

I only wish I had the money for the dynasty

[HAWK]

TOM,

I know of no reliability issues for the inverter or squarewave units. The Syncrowaves have been around for years. I own a Dynasty inverter, a Maxstar 200 DX I have for sale,only because I bought the Dynasty for AC, and I had an XMT 304 inverter for several years and have not had trouble with any of these machines. My XMT 304 has been hauled in my truck bed many times and burned many an arc with out fail. The Miller pc boards are tough and the fan on demand technology coupled with the wind-tunnel technology keeps these units extremely clean. I also used a Lincoln 175 squarewave for several years with no problems. Some of the earlier inverters may have had some bugs, but like everything else, they are bug free now. Money could not buy my Dynasty!

[T0M]

if the nhra requires rollcages to be tig weldd, there must be a reason.
the only think I could think of is that careless mig welding can cause cold starts and penetration be somewhat deceiving. but either way If the manifolds need tig welding then I need a syncrowave 180 or Maybe I can check some of those numbers hawk posted and look for an syncrowavev250.

I heard there are some reliablity issues with inverted tigs or advance squarewave units, is this true?

[weldingisfun]

Hey Tom,

I have to tell you that I am in the same boat as you are with what to buy and what you will be welding. I also have been demoing a ton of machines on thursday and friday(hurricane power outage boredom). I have come to the conclusion that the syncro 180 and mm210 will do great for what I want to do. When you become good a welding with the 180 you can always upgrade with the pulser unit and a good water cooled torch for the aluminum. You can use the mm210 for the tube chassis' that you will be building but check with what race guidelines you have to follow ie: NHRA rollcages have to tig welded. not sure about tube chassis' though even though I can't imagine it being different. Also, the mm210 will work great for exhaust tubing but I would definitely use the 180 on the manifolds(especially turbo manifolds). In my opinion, for a total of about $2900 for both machines you can't beat the performance to price ratio, not to mention both of these machines do have the ability to pay for themselves and make you money.

[HAWK]

Tom,
From your post: How thick of steel with the syncrowave 180 weld?

About 3/16". As mentioned earlier if you are welding plate, then multiple passes with proper joint prep can increase your material thickness. You can figure about .001 inches of material thickness requires 1 amp of welding current for tig. Therefore, 3/16" is .188 requiring roughly 180 amps to weld, 1/4" is .250 requiring roughly 250 amps of tig welding current. These number actually change a little with inverters. You can actually weld thicker material than the rule states because of the fast switching on the signals from the inverter technology.