Lift-Arc experiences?

[tasslehawf]

I am looking at a Maxstar 150. Currently I have a Sycrowave 180, so I'm not sure if I could work without a HF start.

The STL is better for me price-wise but to get HF and pulse as a bonus for $400 more it's very tempting. I am wondering if people who are used to HF, have been happy with only lift-arc.

[tnjind]

I have a syncrowave 350, I use only HF start, I tried the lift arc start a couple of times, seemed kinda strange. Would be much better then scratch start tho.

[man of steel]

lift arc

i own a maxstar 140s and a 150 and they are ok when your in an environment that you cant have the hf on but that type of work is usually not critical as far as start inclusions or any other forms of contamination is concerned.If you want your work to be a1 then i would say a unit with high freq is the way to go( i cant do without it due to the fact 95%of my work usually has to be x rayed so i dont like touching the work piece at all, hope that helps and take care

[Wheelchair]

Lift Arc takes getting used to. I have a machine that has both lift and hf and I use hf most of the time. I practice with the lift arc and can use it fairly good but as said it takes practice, at least it did for me because of using hf for 30 years.

Wheelchair

[tacmig]

Bad deal..

I learned on lift arc and created a better way to start from LA if that's all you have i.e. no HF. Take a piece of phone wire (copper #24 or 26) and cut it to about 1/8" long. scratch your tungsten across some candle wax and attach your phone wire to this. It works excellent for starting your arc and just melts away to nothingness. I used to cut about a 100 little pieces of wire and had a block of wax (glue) ready to go and it doesn't take long once you get it down. Even though all our machines have HF, the above method is great if your working close to a hospital or other such dwelling where you have to be careful about HF and of course if you don't have HF at all.

Good Luck

TacMig