Lincoln Electric Squarwave 175 ?

[claymans13]

Does anybody have experience with these? There is one for sale at a pretty killer price. I'm in the market for a new tig machine, but sorta wanted one with all the bells and whistles, well at least pulse and ac balance control. But this is almost to good to be true, its a working squarewave 175 for 500 bucks. I had my eye on a precision tig 225 but think i could settle for this one. Just wanted to know if I should hold off and get one with all the bells and whistles or if this is a decent enough machine.

[bentwings]

I bought mine 10 years ago and it still runs great. I leased it to a guy I worked for to do some production welding so I was able to have someone else pay for it haha. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the newer machines but it does pretty well on the thin stuff I do around the shop. It works great on the hotrod 4130 and various aluminum jobs. 1/4 in aluminum is pushing the envelope on duty cycle. My air cooled torch can get pretty hot too.

These were out of production for a while when Lincoln went to the 185 but after all the problems with them they have come back to the 175.

They do take alot of current out of the wall so make sure you have 50 amp service. I also use mine as a portable driven by a 12k watt gen. It works fine but it take nearly all the gen if I try running it at 150+ amps.I switched to ceriated electrodes for everything a while back and that seems to help a lot.


I use a nice double flow meter for stainless that works great.

[monkers]

I have one (still practicing to get half as good as some of the guys here lol) and u love it. Like said 1/4" is pushing it.....probably 3/16" is max but its a good machine. I also got a good deal, that's the only reason I bought it.

[Housedad]

Hi. New here.

I operatied a full time gunsmithing business for 15 years and I used one in my shop. It was easy to use, has a really nice arc, easy to control with the foot amptrol, and is built like the proverbial small brick building.

A really nice feature of it is that it also provides stick welding.

I never had a problem with it. I still have it, and now that I am turning my garage into a personal shop, I will continue to use it.

All this said, I have not had a lot of opportunities to compare it to other machines. But it did work well.

On the down side, no, they did make a pulser for it, but finding one now is like finding hens teeth. I wih I had bought one years ago. However, By being carefull, I was able to weld some remarkably small parts since it has a really smooth arc.

More on the down side, given the nature of the machine design, I does require a larger AC input current.

[ironmangq]

Had one for 6 months and never had a complaint other than it was heavy. I could weld anything from beer cans to castings with the right setup and it never let me down. I sold it for more than I paid for it and got a Dynasty 200DX. If the price is right, its a definite buy. They are a very solid machine with very simple easy to use controls.

[monkers]

I never tried beer cans with mine, what's the setup you used to do this with this machine?

[woi2ld]

Originally Posted by monkers

I never tried beer cans with mine, what's the setup you used to do this with this machine?

the SW175 will go all the way down to 12amps......so im guessing that on the square wave AC setting

[claymans13]

well, after reading i'm even more annoyed that someone snagged it before i could. Called the guy literally after i posted here to go look at it and it was sold. Can't blame'em it was a KILLER deal. Well, back to saving for the PT225

[monkers]

more deals will come along, I only bought mine because it was a good deal, and the machine looked like new. I had no intentions of buying a TIG machine, I wish I had a 250 class machine, but someday. Happy hunting

[bentwings]

I think it will go below 12 amps. I welded a number of stainless steel window garnish moldings and they were .015. Most were butt welds. I uses my #9 lens in a manual helmut as my auto dark was too unstable. I have some madel air plane projects that I use .019 SS. Much of it is butt welds with a few lap welds.

[trackbird]

Mine only seems to go down to 12 amps (and that's the minimum marking on the face as well). The newly released one goes down to 10 amps (or they just rescreened the front of the unit, I wonder if there are actual changes to it?). Mine is still far better than I am. One day I'd like to move up to a 250-330 amp machine, but this one still does what I typically need.

[bentwings]

I just got a call to do some more of those dang garnish moldings. I'll see if he has a clamp on amp meter and maybe we can see exactly what it does. They are really a pain to do. I did try reversing the polarity and using a bit larger electrodes but it didn't work very well. The double reg and back purge seems the best. gotta have a steady hand and at 70 yr it gets harder all the time..haha

[rabidchimp]

I've got one of these machines, and I really dig it. Came to me in excellent condition on a YZ250 dirt bike trade. Guy was using it to repair surgical equipment, and it was in excellet condition. Came with a bottle and regulator too. I had about $1250 invested in the bike, and this machine is bout seven years old. I'm happy. Only complaint (nature of the beast) is about my shop's power supply. Its a 50 amp circuit, and anything over 1/8 on AC pops the breaker. I gotta keep my foot out of it. Planning to get a new breaker to see what happens. I'll keep this machine around. Keeps my little red 175 company when the shop's closed up for the night.
-Aaron

[Spar-X]

So far I am satisfied with mine, picked it up from a fella off here for $800 and the $100 in gas to drive and pick it up...
lol, never any deals around these parts.
I have tried a few different type tingsten's and it seems to like pure the best for AC~, I also went to a water cooled torch setup as the air-cooled got just to hot doing aluminum.....
I figure I can get more out of it than what I got in it when I upgrade because like I said, very difficult to find good welders here

[bentwings]

I use the Cerated tungstens for everything now. they seem to work the best for me. I hardly ever use a 1/8 tungsten. It is just too much for this machne. I have welded 3/8 aluminum but I preheat and monitor the temp as I go. It is still slow going and tends to get the aluminum too hot.

It is still a great machine for hotrodding and average stuff.

I just did some 1/4 alum with the 250 syncrowave and ran it at 200 amps with 1/8 cerated electorde and 1/8 5356 rod. worked great.

[MoirJuli]

I leased it to a guy I worked for to do some production welding so I was able to have someone else pay for it haha.

[bentwings]

I did the same thing and got paid to use it besides.