Eastwood Mig Welders?

[Farmer]

Just had a look at the 175 at a dealer here in Ontario. My son wants to do a bit of aluminum welding. looks like this may be the unit, as it will not break the bank.

My only question would be parts availabilty and service once the 3 year warranty is up. Is there a service depot that can be used? Any information would be appreciated.

Farmer / Paul

[Farmer]

Just picked up the 175 Eastwood package. Welder , cart spool gun , 2 rolls of wire 1 alum, and a 2# roll of .023. cart, regulator, and an auto darkening helmet for about $700 Can $ out the door.

Got the machine home and put it together and hooked it up to a bottle of AR/ Co2/ O2 put in a roll of .023 pulled out some 18ga sheet metal and let her rip. All I can say is WOW !!! Very nice machine for the money. Very stable arc, stick out was very forgiving. Will be try some sheet metal work this week and will see how fine I can dial the machine in.

Need to get a bottle of Argon to try the spool gun on some aluminum. The spool gun looks very similar to the gun from Lincoln for their weld pak units.

fit and finish on the entire unit / package is very good. Even the auto darkening Helmet is of good quality. It is not in the same league as my Jackson 3N1 but it did not cost me $300 either. The unit is easy to set up and would in my opinion be great for any do it yourselfer. With the warranty and Eastwood reputation I do not think you can go wrong for the price.

Will give a more in depth review of this machine in the next few weeks.
And thank you to Matt for his very timely responses to my PM's. I wish all the representatives for the company's I have dealt with were as courteous !

[William McCormick Jr]

Originally Posted by Farmer

Just picked up the 175 Eastwood package. Welder , cart spool gun , 2 rolls of wire 1 alum, and a 2# roll of .023. cart, regulator, and an auto darkening helmet for about $700 Can $ out the door.

Got the machine home and put it together and hooked it up to a bottle of AR/ Co2/ O2 put in a roll of .023 pulled out some 18ga sheet metal and let her rip. All I can say is WOW !!! Very nice machine for the money. Very stable arc, stick out was very forgiving. Will be try some sheet metal work this week and will see how fine I can dial the machine in.

Need to get a bottle of Argon to try the spool gun on some aluminum. The spool gun looks very similar to the gun from Lincoln for their weld pak units.

fit and finish on the entire unit / package is very good. Even the auto darkening Helmet is of good quality. It is not in the same league as my Jackson 3N1 but it did not cost me $300 either. The unit is easy to set up and would in my opinion be great for any do it yourselfer. With the warranty and Eastwood reputation I do not think you can go wrong for the price.

Will give a more in depth review of this machine in the next few weeks.
And thank you to Matt for his very timely responses to my PM's. I wish all the representatives for the company's I have dealt with were as courteous !

Hey, good luck with your machine. Make some awesome stuff with it.

You know when someone does not know their job, or is lax about something they feel they should know for a customer. They tend to get ornery. Even normally nice people will do that.

I tend to be the other way around, so I notice it. If I don't know something I will tell you and apologize if I should know it.

But all in all I have zero problems with EastWood. This post, just reminded my I have to place an order for some stuff from them.



Sincerely,


William McCormick

[Eastwood Company]

Originally Posted by Farmer

Just had a look at the 175 at a dealer here in Ontario. My son wants to do a bit of aluminum welding. looks like this may be the unit, as it will not break the bank.

My only question would be parts availabilty and service once the 3 year warranty is up. Is there a service depot that can be used? Any information would be appreciated.

Farmer / Paul

I know we covered this in PM's.. but I figured I would post the response here for anyone else that had the same questions!

"The welders use Tweco style components for the guns, as well as any consumables on the unit are items you can get at any welding supply store. We do not have a service depot for repair, but if the unit dies or gives you a problem and the 3 year warranty is up, we would normally either offer a way to replace it for a very high discount on a new unit, or offer a upgrade to a "bigger better" model if we have something available at the time.. again for a very high discount (I'm talking just over cost here..). Unfortunately since we sell such a diverse product line, it is hard to have a service depot for products. Either way we won't "abandon" a customer if they have a issue after the warranty, and will do out best to get you a new unit for for little to no cost, or just above our cost to upgrade if we have a "bigger, badder" welder available at the time."

Glad to hear you like it! Id love to see some sample shots of some welds on aluminum with the spool gun!

-Matt/EW

[Farmer]

Matt I will post a few pictures once we get things set up.

[Farmer]

Picked up a bottle of argon and went out and gave it a try on some scrap pieces of Aluminun. It has taking me a few trys to get things set up. Results are quite good for such and inexpensive machine. Biggest problem is trying to fit the patchs tight over my sons old flat bottom jon boat. The old boat is beat up pretty bad. The 2nd issue isthe material he picked up to form the patches is also bit thicker than what the boat is made of. Will have my son post a picture soon.

Justin ( son ) is getting a bit frustrated tring to get the hang of welding aluminum It is not quite as easy as he thought it would be

[DSW]

Originally Posted by Farmer

Justin ( son ) is getting a bit frustrated tring to get the hang of welding aluminum It is not quite as easy as he thought it would be

I wish I knew why everyone thinks alum must be easy.

Looking forward to seeing the picts.

[joedirt1966]

Originally Posted by DSW

I wish I knew why everyone thinks alum must be easy.

Yep
The same realization seems to occur over and over and over with TIG welding.

[Don Pablo]

I have a Clarke 180EN, I got at Ebay for 275 USD, which runs well. Good simple machine I use mainly with flux core. I've tried also on alu with 5356 wire, and results are strong (but not nice looking), the machine lacks of fine tuning to get professional results. Feeding 4043 wire would be probably problematic with the grooved roller. The Clarke (Fortney sells now the same) is excellent for a DIY and farmer.

As I work a lot on alu and inox so I wanted a machine dedicated for more delicate jobs, with possibility of fine tuning. The Miller 180 costs in Mexico at the best price 1400 USD (including 16% sales taxes and shipping...) with the smallest spool gun. Warranty from Miller Mexico, forget it...

So I made the jump and bought today an Eastwood 175 at Ebay...500 USD with free shipping to Laredo Texas (where is located my customs broker). The total price to my house including the sales, importation taxes and shipping will be 685 USD...One half of the Miller price...

I'll make a report: the machine looks nice, well priced, Eastwood Company member (Matt) gave us interesting information, so let's see how it works.

[Don Pablo]

About aluminum welding. It can be tricky with Mig and Tig on old parts, always "contaminated". On new aluminum, no problem with the right welder. Aluminum is a heat sink (like copper) and when possible preheating helps a lot. A good propane torch to get the right pre-welding temp is often the solution.

That looks obsolete, but for repair-welding on old contaminated alu and/or automotive parts in cast alu an oxy-acetylene torch is superior to MIG and TIG, as I see every day in my little shop. The torch "cleans" before the welding, a good flux achieves the job, and the right filler can be used: 1100, 4043, 4047, 5356 and many others, even scraps of the same alloy. I weld from 1/32 to 1/2 and I repair alu towers of fishing boats outside in the wind: there a torch is unbeatable. Ok it's like piano and guitar that needs training, maybe a gift.

After all, millions of aluminum parts were welded with oxy acety torch during WWII...

More looking obsolete, a twin arc carbon torch welds very well aluminum and the cost is minimal...