Lincoln SquareWave 200 or Everlast PowerTig 210ext or....

[RobinHood]

Read the thread “Need a TIG. Any advice”?

Seems some of you have the Everlast and some use the Lincoln. Miller is, I guess, the most expensive one. Does anyone have a blue TIG welder?

KMS has the Lincoln SW200 on sale for just over $2000.
The Everlast 210 is listed for $2200 on their website. The Everlast 200 DV is goes for $1500; some of you have it. Would you buy it again? Are the added features of the 210 ext worth $700 extra in your opinion?

For the people that got the Everlast: Have any of you got the water cooler? Looks like the max amperage for an aircooled torch is ~150A. If I wanted the full 210A, I’d need water cooling. Am I understanding that correctly?

One member mentioned the local availability of the Lincoln made him go that route, but would have liked some of the features of the Everlast. If you did it again, would that still be a big factor, or would you go with the Everlast? I guess the same could be said for the Miller being available locally.

I have been checking the used market. Seems that the Reds and Blues still fetch a good price used. ESAB seems pretty pricey as well.

I have an old Bobcat 250 welder/generator that I use for stick.

A Miller Synchrovave 210 would be nice, but out my budget.

Any an all input would be appreciated.

Just as an aside: Everlast offers a standard 5 year warranty in the USA vs 3 years in Canada. Wonder why?

 

[Janger]

Do you have a plasma cutter? If not a combo might be the thing to get. I have the combo 160 amp Everlast. The HF start just quit after 3 years or so. Still welds with lift start though. The Canadian dealer sent me a replacement board no problem - just paid shipping. I have still have to disassemble and install it. The welder has been great otherwise. I would buy it again. I also have an Everlast mig. It’s good too. The milller when I was shopping was ~ $3500. Just too much.
If I had to do it again I would get a bigger unit not for the tig but for the bigger plasma. It has 40 amp plasma and 3/8 is about the useful max cutting thickness. If I want to weld thick material I tend to use the bigger amp mig I have.

One thing about these inverter based welders - the inside of the box is simply stuffed with electronics. I was shocked actually. I can’t imagine any brand is going to last 25 years or more like the old ones did. Smaller lighter more functional.... but...

 

[Bofobo]

I got my lincoln arc for $200 brand new, guess thats a deal

 

[kevin.decelles]

I went for a Longevity WeldAll 250pi which is 200amp stick, 250amp tig and 40amp plasma. I replaced all the air hoses (argon for tig, air for plasma) the week I got it as the plastic fittings were brutal -- but since then I have got 8+ years of service out of it and I love it -- would buy again. I paid 1600 CDN for it from a dealer outside of Sylvan lake (who has since stopped selling them).

With this machine I have sold my Lincoln 225AC stick (the tombstone) and I sold my Lincoln weld-pack 100 w/gas mig.

I broke down and bought a Millermatic 211 MVS (110/220) mig welder, and well, you can bury me with it or try and pry it out of my cold dead hands. Great machine.

As for a tig cooler -- I built my own after getting 20 minutes with a real one to figure out what they magic was. Nothing. It circulates water, if it is fancy, it will run that through a small radiator and it is really fancy, it will have a fan assist.

There is a guy in Ontario that sells reconditioned carbonated beverage pumps rdstickland.ca which I found when research how to make a tig cooler. These pumps come with the motor, pump, strainer -- I think I paid ~120 bucks or so. I run some old garden hose into a 5 liter bottle of distilled water. Throw in a pressure gauge, some shut offs, and I have a tig cooler. It will push 50 PSI through the hose from my tig torch. I waited for the princess auto sale on their heater core w/fan units, and added this later (no noticeable difference -- the water never gets that warm that it needs it.)

I love my Miller, I like my Longevity a lot. I can't afford blue across the board -- but if I had the money I probably would.

As a side note, I took part in a guns/beer/plasma weekend with some buddies and put the Longevity up against a princess auto plasma and a Hypertherm plasma. On the metal we cut (1/4 to 1/2), couldn't tell the difference between the Longevity and the Hypertherm. His hypertherm came to him with a busted cable, the cable alone was 600 bucks. The PA did ok, but not 'great' past the 3/8 thickness.

 

[RobinHood]

@Janger: no i do not have a plasma; great point about considering a multi process machine. Thanks for the info regarding Everlast support. My ultimate plan is to get a separate plasma that i could hook up to a plasma cam style table (it is low on the list)

@kevin.decelles : thanks for your comment and info on the WeldAll. Will have to research that one. Good point about making your own water cooler. Sounds like most machines can have one installed afterwards. No need to spec it at the outset.

 

[Everett]

No experience with Everlast but I went with the Lincoln SquareWave TIG200, partly for local availability, partly for the name (hopefully better support), and partly because it was on an actual sale Still reasonably new to TIG but it does all I ask of it, and if I need to weld thicker steel it will still burn arc rod. Still running the 150A air cooled torch but on the "someday project list" is building a water cooler for a liquid cooled torch.

All in all, pleased with it, though.

I see you're in Chestermere - if you were closer to the other big village a bit further North, or happen to be in the neighborhood, you'd be welcome to come try it.

 

[RobinHood]

@ Everett: thanks for your input. Appreciate it.

If i was of the Millenial generation, i would probably not be so hesitant to buy stuff online (especially bigger items like a welder). I still like the idea of going into a store and having a look at the actual item and even put my mits on it. My kids call me a “dinosaur” for being that way. Oh well...

 

[Bofobo]

just wait, one day they will order the wrong thing be out a bunch of cash and you can laugh and say "Should have done a pre delivery inspection" or i told you so might work

As a boarder line millennial (no set date on it) im happy to be of the dinosaur group

 

[PeterT]

Interesting observation about the different warranty.
I don't have a TIG yet but I practice my beads watching YouTube Welding Tips & Tricks You can search for brand names & key words within his vids. Not all the brands are as current, but seems like he evaluates quite a few in the hobby/light class.

Everlast has a forum FWIW https://www.everlastgenerators.com/forums/forum.php

sample WT&T vid

 

[CalgaryPT]

I have an older (10-15 years) Miller Syncrowave 200. I love it, but have to admit it is overkill for how often I use it. I got a killer deal on it new from Praxair. Around when the inverter models where just coming out affordably, I was looking for a TIG. I didn't trust the inverters back then because there were lots of motherboards getting fried. So I went oldschool with a transformer TIG.

I hear the pulse on the newer ones has a slope on them. I don't use my pulse much because I find the on/off kind of like torture.

 

[RobinHood]

Thanks to all the responders and the helpful links, hints and tips.

I am leaning towards Evelast at this time. Fits my budget and seems plenty of people are happy with them. Blue, Red, or Yellow would be nice, but just a little much $s for the amount of use it will get.

 

[PeterT]

Looking forward to your user comments when the time comes. Like you say, a few guys here have them. I guess I'm interested for the same reasons - cost & reasonable track record. I don't need it today so its on the defer list. But one day I'd like to glue metal!

 

[Tom Kitta]

I have Everlast 200 DV - I had it for few years now. No issues. Works great.

 

[RobinHood]

Thanks Tom.