Hello! My name is Dan. I am new to this forum and welding. I actually just joined a welding class that starts next week for the next 10 weeks. I am trading my motorcycle on Friday for a Miller 301G generator/welder. No attachments come with the welder, just the welder and a rolling cart. I am looking to get into mostly wire mig but would like to do tig (aluminum) as well. I have read the entire manual for the 301G and am curious what I would need for attachments to get up and going with this for tig and wire mig. There is no list in the manual for parts to buy, you kind of just need to know what you're doing I guess. Is gas hookup necessary with this welder for tig? Any help would be highly appreciated. Thank you guys in advance:drinkup:
dj_elite
Dan said "I am looking to get into mostly wire mig but would like to do tig (aluminum) as well. "
So dan
why the gas rig if you mainly want to do mig or tig?
You would need to buy a wire feeder or a 110 mig would work and or a tig unit for the trailblazer.these are not cheap ,but if youre planning to go on the road then why not start with stick since you will already have the machine and then when the money starts rolling inyou can add to the repetoire.Does the 10 week course cover mainly stick welding,this would also be good.Think about what it is you really want to do and im sure youll get loads of help.
Good luck and welcome
Felon:drinkup:
So dan
why the gas rig if you mainly want to do mig or tig?
You would need to buy a wire feeder or a 110 mig would work and or a tig unit for the trailblazer.these are not cheap ,but if youre planning to go on the road then why not start with stick since you will already have the machine and then when the money starts rolling inyou can add to the repetoire.Does the 10 week course cover mainly stick welding,this would also be good.Think about what it is you really want to do and im sure youll get loads of help.Good luck and welcome
Felon:drinkup:
The course I am taking teaches arc and MIG. I was thinking that exact same thing starting with the arc and then moving to MIG. The deal was kind of hard to pass up that I am doing, thats why such a big unit generator/welder. I also want to freelance and be able to take the unit around. So what I could find is basically for MIG I need either a gun with built in wire feeder or a gun with seperate feeder and thats big bucks either way. With TIG I assume that would be fairly cheap to get going, but is the gas a necessity? I want to eventually get into TIG either way.
You can mig from the Trailblazer's constant-voltage weld output with a portable wire feeder, such as one of the Suitcase line of feeders, or you can use a stand-alone mig, such as one from Millermatic line of migs, and power it from the generator output of the Trailblazer. I use both a mig and a feeder with my Bobcat/XMT combination. I carry a Passport mig for the lighter stuff and a Suitcase 8RC for the heavier stuff.
Tig is the same scenario. You can tig straight off the Trailblazer's weld outputs with an air cooled torch with a gas valve and plug the remote control right into the Trailblazer's 14 pin connector. This will work fine for DC tig welding. Or you can plug a seperate tig machine into the generator ouput, such as a Maxstar 150 or 200 or Dynasty 200 and tig off that. I use my XMT to dc tig from.
Tig is the same scenario. You can tig straight off the Trailblazer's weld outputs with an air cooled torch with a gas valve and plug the remote control right into the Trailblazer's 14 pin connector. This will work fine for DC tig welding. Or you can plug a seperate tig machine into the generator ouput, such as a Maxstar 150 or 200 or Dynasty 200 and tig off that. I use my XMT to dc tig from.
So basically the only advantages of this welder is having all the power from the generator? And the convenience of portability(assuming its on a truck or trailer). Do you guys think it would make more sense to just get a nice MIG or TIG welder? I wanted this unit since it can do it all, but am learning really fast that it can do it, but I will have to buy all the attachments which is going to add up to a lot. Is there a good unit that can do both wire(internal) MIG and ac TIG?
Dan said "I also want to freelance and be able to take the unit around" "Do you guys think it would make more sense to just get a nice MIG or TIG welder? "
Dan
In my opinion from what you have been saying go with the gas rig and get the rest down the road.you could pick up a 110 mig welder for a couple bills and use it in your house or on your rig.Grab the deal take your course and then follow your nose down the slippery welding slope.
Dan said 'Is there a good unit that can do both wire(internal) MIG and ac TIG?"no not without the extra baggage you could use on your rig already.You will need gas for tig and also for mig but if you run fluxcore wire in your mig welder youre good without gas
Felon:drinkup:
Dan
In my opinion from what you have been saying go with the gas rig and get the rest down the road
.you could pick up a 110 mig welder for a couple bills and use it in your house or on your rig.Grab the deal take your course and then follow your nose down the slippery welding slope.Dan said 'Is there a good unit that can do both wire(internal) MIG and ac TIG?"no not without the extra baggage you could use on your rig already.You will need gas for tig and also for mig but if you run fluxcore wire in your mig welder youre good without gas
Felon:drinkup:
The advantage is you have 300 amps weld output to play with from the Trailblazer for welding heavier structural joints with bigger fluxcore wires. You can run 1/16 or .072 wire with a 300 amp machine. The other benefit is you have a very good portable stick welder and of course about 10,000 watts of portable generator power.
Portable migs are usually around 180 amps output for 220 volt units and 140 amps for the 110 volt units and limited to a max wire size of .045 for the 220v units and .035 for the 110v units. The most powerful portable mig is the Millermatic 211 at 210 amps output, which runs on both 110v and 220v.
There is no such machine that can do mig with a built in wire feeder and ac tig. The machine just does not exist, to my knowlege. The trailblazer is closest you will come, with both dc constant-voltage mig and ac and dc constant-current stick/tig ouput. You just need the necessary 'peripherals' to play with all it's ouput capabilities.
To do ac tig from the Trailblazer, you will need a high frequency unit, such as the HF251D1.
If you want to give up the ac ouput and self generating capability, there are several machines that can do mig and dc tig, and even a few that have built-in wire feeders. The Lincoln Powermig 350MP and Powerwave C300 both have dc mig/tig/stick output with built in wire feeders. I think ESAB has something like that too, not sure. Without the built in feeder, the Miller XMT series does dc mig/tig/stick, as well as a few of the other Powerwave models from Lincoln.
Basicaly, you really need to first decide whether you need a shop machine or a portable truck rig, then go from there. Having to run a self generating machine all day in a shop would get very old very quickly. Shop machines are next to completely useless in the field without generator power to run them from.
Portable migs are usually around 180 amps output for 220 volt units and 140 amps for the 110 volt units and limited to a max wire size of .045 for the 220v units and .035 for the 110v units. The most powerful portable mig is the Millermatic 211 at 210 amps output, which runs on both 110v and 220v.
There is no such machine that can do mig with a built in wire feeder and ac tig. The machine just does not exist, to my knowlege. The trailblazer is closest you will come, with both dc constant-voltage mig and ac and dc constant-current stick/tig ouput. You just need the necessary 'peripherals' to play with all it's ouput capabilities.
To do ac tig from the Trailblazer, you will need a high frequency unit, such as the HF251D1.
If you want to give up the ac ouput and self generating capability, there are several machines that can do mig and dc tig, and even a few that have built-in wire feeders. The Lincoln Powermig 350MP and Powerwave C300 both have dc mig/tig/stick output with built in wire feeders. I think ESAB has something like that too, not sure. Without the built in feeder, the Miller XMT series does dc mig/tig/stick, as well as a few of the other Powerwave models from Lincoln.
Basicaly, you really need to first decide whether you need a shop machine or a portable truck rig, then go from there. Having to run a self generating machine all day in a shop would get very old very quickly. Shop machines are next to completely useless in the field without generator power to run them from.
Felonyass Monk I think I will take your advice and just get it. I will get the attachments for Arc and save to get a nice MIG spooler gun down the road. TIG is dreaming as of now anyway since I havent even started schooling yet and don't know much about it besides it is choice for welding aluminum. The only welding I have done is ARC back in highschool and I have a Cambell Hausfeld 80 AMP MIG in my garage that I use with flux core wire for small things like 1/8" or smaller since it stinks! Like I said its hard to pass as I was offered a couple of grand and the welder/generator for trade. I will also be able to use about $800 of that cash to invest in welding supplies. Sorry if I'm sounded so spontaneous, its just the deal is in a couple of days plus with welding class coming up my mind is just going like a mile a minute! With that all said what should I look for when looking at this unit? Thanks for all the input guys I really appreciate it!!!
Yeah the bike is worth about $3800-$4000. The trade is the welder on a cart with no attachments and $2000 cash. He said he has attachments but is keeping them and will show me whatever I want to see. I don't really know what to look for on the welder side, I am good with motors and know how to check that part out. It is a 2004 unit with the V-twin Kohler 20hp motor. I do not know the hours.
Hooking up the gas bottle to the Spoolmatic gun is no biggie. Just need the bottle, regulator/flowmeter and hose with connectors. It hooks up directly to the gun, not through the machine. The gun has it's own mechanical gas valve inside to turn the gas on and off with the gun trigger.
For wire welding, I use self shielding fluxcore almost exclusively for welding outdoors and gas shield solid wire indoors.
For wire welding, I use self shielding fluxcore almost exclusively for welding outdoors and gas shield solid wire indoors.
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