I got one. It's been good. It's fussy about having all the input amps it wants when you first strike an arc though. So when you stretch out some input cord or wire it up, don't cheat it. If you lose your arc on a strike, and the blue light blinks for 10 seconds, that means lack of juice. 800 is good, I have 3 miller inverters, but next time I buy, I think I'm going to try Lincoln.

 

Reason I mentioned that is because in the part of CA that I'm in,new industrial areas are on 208v. So if the primary voltage on the machine says around 230, and figuring temp power on jobites w/ a bunch of other crews working, you might be close to your 15%. I had to order mine. Miller makes a cst 280 that goes down to 208, they say its the same as the others, except they just give it an extra half a turn of coil.

 

I had a similar experience as 123weld. Was working a big power plant shutdown and temporary power was run everywhere. Where there were several machines sharing a supply it wouldn't stay running. When it would go out, you had to turn it off and back on. Got to be quite a PIA. Welded nice when it was on, though.

 

I have my own and we have six that go out on jobs. All the guys like them better then the Maxstar 200's . We never had any kind of power issues. Our power source is normally single phase which may make a difference. We use 6010 and 7018 Lincoln rod and runs fine.

 

If the one you are looking at is an older on. and it turns out it won't work on the 230 volts. There is a fuse inside the will blow if 460 is applied and the voltage switch is still set in 230. You can just replace the fuse or get a ptc fuse replacement module from miller. Clips right in. The newer units already have the fuse replaced.

 

Excellent. The temporary power panels on each floor of this project really aren't overloaded too badly-- mostly 120V hand tools 'n such, battery chargers for handheld tools, or at night charging the man-lifts.

I'm only burning 1/8" 7018 all day... 6010 when I'm making up for bad fit. I don't really need much more than 130-140 amps at 100% duty cycle. I have some tig brazing I need to do on this job, too, and it would be nice to not listen to the scream of the 302 for throwing out a 40 amp arc to heat the edge of some black wrought iron sheet joints.

I didn't hear back from the fellow today. I wonder if it's sold and he forgot to take down the CL ad.

 

Never heard back, multiple emails sent. It's a bust at this point I think.