Miller Dialarc HF Questions

[leeave96]

I have a chance to place a sealed bid on an old Miller Dialarc HF, which appears to be a Dialarc stick wilder with provisions for tig welding built in. The unit is old and dirty. I don’t even know if it runs.

I am interested in this welder for stick welding and maybe later if my skills allow, a little tig welding.

Has anyone had any experience with one of these welders and if so, what is you opinion of it? What kind of fixes to welders of this type are typically required and are parts available? When were these welders made? Any ideas as to what might be a decent bid?

Thanks!
Bill

[rb455ho]

I have one that I bought at an auction. Never used it but my local dist says they make good stick welders. I would assume the tig performance would be the same as any other transformer based unit prior to the syncrowave series. 330 ABP, etc. Good luck hope it all works if you get it.

[timw]

I have a Dialarc 250 AC DC that I bought at an auction for $60. I'm not familiar with the one you are talking about but it is probably simular.
These are GOOD Solid welders and weld very smooth on stick. They will take a lot of abuse, if you knew where it was used that would help with condition. I pulled the covers on mine and blew out a lot of dust. If I were going to sell mine I would ask $500. for it, That's about half the cost of new. I don't know about the TIG feature, that would add value.
Make sure it is not a 3 phase unit unless you can use one. As for bid, that depends on how bad you want it. I'd say without being able to test it I would bid $200 to $350 depending on how bad I wanted it. I like to go 2-3 dollars over a round number just in case someone else is close to my bid, it might give me an edge. good luck!

[burninbriar]

dialarc hf

If you can get the serial no. Miller web site can date it for you. I recently used it to date a 15 year old syncrowave I saw on Ebay.

[scote]

Dial - arc 250's are what I learned on in welding school. They were fine stick welders. None had a tig option built in.

[motordoctor]

http://www.millerwelds.com/om/o315u_mil.pdf

this is a link for the specs on a miller dialarc HF. I have one of those machines, probably had it 15 years. Never stick welded with it, only used it for TIG. Not a single problem with it. My only complaint is that the low range DC straight polarity arc is not stable (don't know if that's common with this machine or just this one). Tried smaller tungstens (.040), still poor. If you use a thicker piece of material to put the pedal down and heat up the tungsten and then move onto the thin material you're trying to weld it will hold the arc better. I would describe the arc scattering like it has a bad ground (tried two different ground cables). If you're doing real thin stuff by the time you get the arc to stabilize you've burned thru it. So I usually just try to weld the thin stuff with AC in the middle range (steel) since it puts less heat into the workpiece that way.