Picked up Lincoln Idealarc SP-200 at an auction this weekend....

[mark12]

Went to an auction Sat and ended up getting this Lincoln Idealarc sp-200. It was kinda covered in dust and stuff as it had been stored in the basement at a car dealership. Got it home and plugged it in the 220 outlet and it worked! I got it cheap enough that I took a chance on it. I opened the door to look at the spool, which it had a big spool of what looked to be copper it had all the orig paperwork and owners manual. Also an extra liner. Cleaned it up and it looks ok compared to when it rolled off my trailer from the auction. Any secrets or tips to this thing to make it better?

[jreynoldswelding]

Tip #1: Crate it and ship it to: MY HOUSE! Nice find. I would say blow it out and run it for awhile.

[7A749]

I had the SP 150 kissin' cousin to it.

A great machine. If you got it for less than $500, you did pretty good.

Just put wire in it & use it, best tip I can offer besides what J Reynolds said!

[mark12]

I got it for 200 bucks so I guess thats real good. I'm waiting to get 220 service to the big shop to use it. I have a Millermatic 140 right now, which has been great, but I think this sp-200 will be good also. I want to see the difference between the miller 140 and the sp-200 first hand.

[Fegenbush]

First off, you suck. I can't find deals like that to save my life. Second, awesome deal. We look forward to seeing pictures of the results.

[goinssr]

Originally Posted by Fegenbush

First off, you suck. I can't find deals like that to save my life. Second, awesome deal. We look forward to seeing pictures of the results.

What he said!

[engnerdan]

Copper colored wire would be steel hard wire. They copper coat it I think to keep it from rusting. Should be a tag somewhere on the spool listing what it is.

-Dan

[Broccoli1]

Originally Posted by mark12

Any secrets or tips to this thing to make it better?

Paint it Blue

[buggyman]

I have a SP-200 also

These were/some of the best migs Lincoln has ever produced. I got mine a year ago, it is a GREAT welder.
Well first, take that stupid bracket off of the lift!
If you want two tanks, make a duel top holder.
Then get it wired in and WELD, WELD, WELD, oh have fun too.
P.S. use the stitch from time to time, it works very nice.

[mark12]

Well I got power to use the welder now.....playing with it this morning. I do have a couple of questions....I started on some scrap.....what is causing all the drippings? I bumped the power down 2 clicks and also dialed back the wire speed, but still got the drippings. Is this because I don't have any gas on it? Also noticed it almost looks like a torch when welding. I can flames around the tip when I weld too. I am used to seeing a whitish film when I weld with the millermatic 140, with this sp200 I'm seeing a brown/copper film around the welds. This wire says spooled alloy steel, dia .030, AWS A5.18, ER70S-6 if any of that helps.

[BCRD]

I'm betting you have flux core in your millermatic 140 (flux core does not require a shielding gas, and leaves a whithish / grey powdery film that wipes off), and the wire in your new mig is solid wire, which absolutely does require gas. You will not have any kind of reasonably good results wthout gas. If you don't want to use gas, buy a spool of flux core for it.

Jason

[Broccoli1]

http://www.praxair.com/praxair.nsf/0/c56dbfa8e80d0dbd85256ab300140b28/$FILE/P-8126.pdf

[mark12]

I had a feeling it was because I didn't have gas on it....I will pull the bottle off of my millermatic and hook up to the sp200 and see what happens then. I will report back the results. Thanks for the quick replys!

[mark12]

OK so I think I'm getting the hang of the adjustments on this thing....snapped a few pics the first two are with the sp200, one is after I brushed it with the wire brush, the last is from my millermatic 140 running .030 flux core wire. I've never ran solid wire with gas through it, but running solid wire with gas on the sp200 is night and day difference.

[Fegenbush]

Remember to switch the polarity if you switch from gas to flux core. Your tips will thank you for it.

[BCRD]

Originally Posted by Fegenbush

Remember to switch the polarity if you switch from gas to flux core. Your tips will thank you for it.

To clarify, it is electrode positive for solid wire, electrode negative for flux core.

Jason