To buy or not to buy?

[Broncoguy]

Hello all I have searched for my question and found some info but not enough.

My question is weather I should buy a used miller Dialarc 250 that comes w/ HF-251D-1 High-Frequency Arc Starter and Stabilizer. There is no torch with it or foot pedal but I have used it (stick mode)and it works fine.

I only have a 100amp service in my garage. They are asking $750.00 Canadian for it.

My current machine is a Esab multi160, which I find a litlle under powered. I also have a miller 30A spool gun with contactor box and was wondering if it would work with the Dialarc.

Any help will be greatly apreciated.

[mowjunk]

Broncoguy, you will have better luck with that question on the Hobart site. There are a lot of knowledgeable people there.

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/

Good luck
mow

[Broncoguy]

Thank you for the tip.

[PAToyota]

Ok, I'm confused. He should ask about Miller products on the Hobart board?

[Miller Kevin]

Bronco,

If the contactor box you have is a WC-115 control then it will allow you to use the 30A off the Dial Arc.

Kevin

[MAC702]

Ok, I'm confused. He should ask about Miller products on the Hobart board?

The Hobart Board "Weld Talk" is older and has a much larger group of experts available for ALL welding products and issues.

Hobart and Miller are currently sister companies (both owned by Illinois Tool Works) and many of the current models are very similar.

[Canoe2fish]

For that price I'd jump all over it!

let us know

[Broncoguy]

well I baught it and I found a foot pedal for it.

[MNellis]

well I baught it and I found a foot pedal for it.

I just bought one myself for $750. It's a Dialarc HF. As a used machine it came with the foot pedal and a torch that was missing almost all the parts but no stick holder.

It looks like the torch is water cooled capable. There is not gas regulator and it looke like it was set up for a water cooled torch but there is no selonoid (sic).

I don't know squat about how to set this machine up or how to TIG weld but now is the time to start.

I'll be welding mostly aluminum and stainless.

I've got to download a manual but then maybe I can post some pictures and get some advice on what I need to get this thing up and running.

[fun4now]

MNellis

It looks like the torch is water cooled capable
TIG torches are not water cooled capable they are eather water cooled or air cooled. if you try to use a water cooled torch without water it will destroy the torch head and possibly the feed cable.
if you did not get a watter cooler i would recomend you start off by buying an air cooled torch and work out how to get water to the water cooled one later.
you have many options here for adding water. any number of ways of doing it from running tap water in one side ond ont down a drain, all the way up to a nice new $600 cooler. any of thease option can be discused at a later date but as you have no expereance it might be easyes and fastest to just start out with air cooled to lern with and maybee even use it to build a nice SS cooler for the other torch.
congrats on the new toy you will eather love it or hate it. but if you stick with it you will get the hang of it and then you will love it for shore.... ....well most likely any way.

[MNellis]

Thanks for the help and the advice.

I stopped by my local welding supply shop and they were very helpful as well. It turns out my torch is missing all the pieces in addition to the conductor cable/tube. After a solid explantion of how the cooling torch works I went back and took another look at how things were set up.

It looks like they had it set up to use a constant flow of water since they were not using the water solenoid. It was odd, it looks like they had the incoming water going through the cable first then the torch head which, as I understand it, is a reverse of the usual recommendation but not necessarily bad.

I bought a bunch of consumables, some stainless/steel/AL rod, an Argon tank and flow valve. All that's left to do now is hook up some water and go to work. It's amazing how much you can spend in consumables to get started. The power source is almost the cheap part.

As you mentioned, I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a water cooler just yet so I'll use my hose and a long drain hose. I don't want this to be the long term solution due to scale and mineral deposits in the torch.

A couple more days and I'll fire it up and start burning up some metal. I think my first project might be to build a rack to hold the Argon tank to cart since there is currently no provesion for one now.


Thanks again.

[fun4now]

sounds like you are off and running. congrats and have fun.

[MNellis]

sounds like you are off and running. congrats and have fun.

Thanks,

The more I thought about what you said the more it made sense. I took my Water Cooled torch back today and exchanged it for a non-water cooled torch. For what I'm currently going to do, the hassle of hooking up the water just doesn't makes sense. In fact, I found some plans on eBay for building a water cooler so maybe I'll give that a try at some point in the future.

Thanks again.

[fun4now]

i would not bother buying cooler plans, too many have made them and are willing to give the info away. do a serch her and the hobart board and you will get more info than you can stand. its realy simple and after reading a few posts about it you will have the idea and then its just a question of deciding what shape you want and or what parts to go with. i got a heater core out of a ford truck for my cooler. its a neat project but i have seen the e-bay plans i think i even have a coppy some one was nice enough to send me a long time ago when i first decided i would like to build on. i'll look around for you to see if i have them.
not trying to cut a e-bay guy out of a sale, heck i should probly list them but for us guys on the sites we need to stick togather and help one another out, isent that the point.