New here, acquired two old (working) welders, hoping to put them into action soon!

[IROCZman15]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and I hope to learn a lot. I will use the search feature to help me find answers, but perhaps a few questions can be answered here during my introductory post.


I am pretty well skilled in the hands-on trades and have some beginner experience with a Mig welder. I have done some sheetmetal work on my vehicles and made some brackets out of mild steel also. All of this was done with my Uncle's Lincoln 140-T Mig welder, both with flux core wire and with gas. I have also ARC welded a tiny tiny bit, but don't see that happening much in the future based on the projects I have.



I recently acquired two well used (but working) welders from family friends who own a super high end Porche restoration business. They had put these welders aside many years ago in favor of some newer units. As they were cleaning out their shop, they offered me the below welders and assured me that they were working. They are! The welders were FREE, but I left them a little bit of cash to buy themselves lunch for the week.









A Linde V-160
P/N 677936 Serial# 113011
(from back in the mid 1980's they think?)



[







A Miller EconoTig
Stock# 903367 Serial# KK162616
(probably about 20 years old?)




[






Both obviously run on 220 Volt power, and I do not yet have this setup in my home garage. I have a plan to put in a sub-panel in the garage by the end of May 2021, and it will be connected to my new 200 amp 220 volt Main Electrical Panel inside the house.


The Linde MIG is old and used, but I wheeled it over to my neighbors house (he has 220 power) and we plugged it in, powered it up, and fed some wire through it. We did not have any gas, but wanted to see if it sparked at the gun so we pulled the trigger and it sparked to life! I was told by the Porche guys that they only used pure Argon with this Mig welder, does that sound accurate? Aside from a good cleanup, some spare tips, and a gas cylinder, can you guys recommend anything I would need to get this MIG welder running and reliable?



As for the Miller TIG, this one we also plugged into my neighbors 220 outlet, and turned it on. The internal fan kicked on and everything seemed to be active, but since it came with no foot pedal, TIG torch, etc we were unable to actually spark it and test it. I'd venture to say that with the proper components/accessories, it will work. However, I have never TIG welded before, so I don't even know what else this TIG welding setup would need. Would the same bottle of pure Argon for the MIG welder be appropriate for this TIG? Do you guys have any recommendations on a beginner's foot-pedal and TIG torch.. keep in mind my budget is kind of tight because all of this was an unplanned gift to me so I did not have surplus cash for this surprise project, yet I do want to make everything operational.


I'll also need a regulator and pressure gauge setup for the gas cylinder(s), any advice? I also do not have the user manuals for either, but I would like to find them online if possible! Feel free to let me know if These welders will be good for me in my home garage basically doing automotive fabrication and the like. any advice, criticism, comments are much appreciated!


Thanks!

[walker]

Nice score! Welcome aboard.

[G-ManBart]

Welcome!

Here's the manual for your Miller:

https://www.millerwelds.com/files/ow.../O303J_MIL.pdf

Pure argon is normally only used for MIG welding aluminum. For steel most people use either an argon/Co2 blend like 75/25 (most common in the U.S.) or straight Co2 (less expensive, not quite as clean, but better penetration). There are other gas blends, but that's something to consider down the road a bit, of if you need to MIG weld stainless.

For TIG you definitely want 100% argon. There are times adding some helium is appropriate to get better penetration, but that's also something for later.

You can get away with using the same flow meter for both machines....the kind with a vertical sight glass and a ball is better for what you'll be doing. You can find inexpensive flow meter/hose combos on Amazon pretty cheap...under $40.

You'll want a torch and a foot pedal to make life easier to learn. Yes, you can learn using scratch start without a pedal of finger control, but I see no reason in making things harder in the beginning.

Here's a typical flow meter/hose combo:

https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Helium-...7072229&sr=8-6

I've used a bunch of torches from this eBay vendor and they're not bad at all. You'll have to confirm the connector size, but they offer the common options. You won't need a valve since the machine has a solenoid. The flex head is very handy to have and a 17 series torch will be enough for getting started...the bigger torches handle more amps, but get bulky.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17-Series-1...Cclp%3A2334524

As far as pedals go, buying Miller branded pedals gets expensive if you go new. I like SSC Control brand pedals....made in Ohio and reasonably priced at $178 (not sure if that's with shipping).

https://ssccontrols.com/product/c810...ontrol-pedals/

[albrightree]

Nice score, I borrowed the linde from a friend for a couple of months, and I loved it. built a small dump body, and a couple of trailers with it. I have the econo twin HF which was before the econotig , but I'm sure its just as good a stick welder, and an even better Tig welder than mine. You shouldn't need more than what Gmanbart has mentioned. They are both simple , dependable welders. The econo tig will be limited to about 3/16" aluminum, but for general hobby/automotive you have a lot of the bases covered. Best of luck , enjoy your machines

[CAVEMANN]

Welcome! Awesome score on the machines, if that linde was running straight ARGON then they were probably welding aluminum.

[IROCZman15]

Wow, thank you for the great responses guys! Especially G-man, that was super helpful, feel free to keep it coming! This is phenomenal to hear some good feedback from experienced welders. AWESOME!

You guys are probably right, they were probably using the Linde for Aluminum and probably had another welder setup for steel with a gas mix cylinder. That seems like the most likely scenario. I have MIG welded with the mixed gas before on that Lincoln 140T welder I mentioned above. I have never had the chance to weld aluminum; simply just mild steel and automotive sheet-metal. Of course, once these welders are up and running, I would like to start welding different materials, and I am glad to know that this Linde MIG is capable of doing this. Would I need a spool gun for aluminum with the Linde MIG? Or the "gun" that is in the photo above would do it?

As for the Miller TIG, I am pretty sure I know the answer, but I might as well ask to cement my knowledge.... I can ALSO use the EconoTig for mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum? Say for instance, if I wanted to fabricate an exhaust for my race car, and also want to do some sheet-metal work, and possibly built brackets or components out of aluminum, the TIG can do all this right? It is not just limited to Aluminum? I am going to print out the user's manual and read over it in the coming weeks, thank you for sending it to me!


thanks for the info and product links for the torch and pedal. Those prices are right up my alley, especially if they are a quality item for a beginner like me. I know I will develop more questions along the way, and I will do my best to search out the answers before asking, but hearing answers direct from experts is best.

[123weld]

i wouldnt mind seeing some more pics of the red iroc if u already got them at ur convenience. im guessing its an 88+. i had an 86 and a 88. great road cars for the day, plenty of speed/power, and leg room, while still getting descent milage w/ the pfi. mine were black expensive paint jobs, i kept the orig wheels, always ran the orig vr goodyears, and zr's
i wrecked them a few times. totaled the 88. met a tree w/ the 86. i think them blue hawaiins made the tree jump out in front of me one night. the 86 saw a frame shop once, and two front end clips. i always did the sheetmetal/body repairs myself. i had the 86 for around 15 yrs, too much fun they were, my friends had me remove the "o" from iroc on the door, and replace it w/ an "e". so it fit me more "irec", cuz wreck i did. anyway, i like older welders too

[Welder Dave]

Good score! Miller is a 1999 and the linde is shortly before they became L-Tec and Esab bought them out. MT200 gun is no longer available so will probably want to upgrade to a Tweco gun. I'd guess it's a mid 80 to late 80's machine and looks to have spot and stitch weld controls. Spool gun is best for aluminum and that's where pure argon would be used with Mig.

[G-ManBart]

As for the Miller TIG, I am pretty sure I know the answer, but I might as well ask to cement my knowledge.... I can ALSO use the EconoTig for mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum? Say for instance, if I wanted to fabricate an exhaust for my race car, and also want to do some sheet-metal work, and possibly built brackets or components out of aluminum, the TIG can do all this right? It is not just limited to Aluminum?

Yep, you have it correct....the Econotig will weld mild steel, stainless, aluminum, heck even titanium and other stuff as well and all with 100% argon. Really the only limitation is that it isn't a high amperage machine so you won't be able to do really thick material (especially on aluminum) but most of the things you're talking about should be reasonable.

One thing I don't think I saw mentioned was tungsten/torch setup. As far as tungsten type goes, you can really just stick to 2% Lanthanated and not have to even think about it after that. There are some times when a different type might be a touch better, but that's really getting down in the weeds. If you have some in 3/32 and 1/16" size you'll be able to cover the whole range that machine can handle. I've had excellent luck with tungstens from Midwest Tungsten Service on eBay or Amazon. Almost all tungstens are made in China now with just a handful made in Germany and Austria if my memory is correct. MTS has theirs made in China, but they seem to spec out good quality and after using many dozens of them I think they're more than good enough for the typical hobby welder (me) and probably the overwhelming majority of commercial situations as well.

Since you're talking about maybe trying some stainless you might consider a gas lens setup for the torch. Gas lenses do a better job of creating a shielded zone, and a happy byproduct is they tend to save you a bit on gas. It's not really a big deal with mild steel, can help with aluminum, but really helps with stainless. They are larger in diameter, so sometimes they just won't fit in small spots, but you can often just stick the tungsten out farther and bump up the gas flow rate a bit and get by...worst case, swap to a traditional cup as necessary.

See how easy it is for us to spend your money?

[IROCZman15]

Again, THANK YOU GUYS! I know there is a wealth of knowledge on this board and I am hoping to pick up on as much of it as I can, but it is going to take some time for me to understand it and let it soak in.


I did not know that Easb bought out Linde. Interesting!
The Linde Mig welder came with the original mig gun, so I am going to stick with that for a while and give it a good cleanup, buy a bunch of tips, and anything else it needs. Hopefully I can find somewhere to buy the correct tips, would ESAB have them, or should I bring one to the local welding supply and see if they can match it? . Since I now have both a mig and tig, I would think I should probably just keep the Linde welder setup for mild steel welding (at least for now). If I want to start experimenting with aluminum welding, I would be better off using the Miller tig, correct? Therefore I can hold off on buying a spool gun and anything else required for mig aluminim, staying budget friendly and novice welding mentality. Then I can just buy a medium sized tank of mixed gas and keep that attached to the mig welder permanantly. Does this sound sensible?


For the miller tig, is there a different type of torch to use with the tungsten rod? Is the torch in the web-link mentioned above by G-man the one to use for TIG with tungsten rod and argon gas or am I confusing different styles of tig torches? I have indeed seen those gas lenses that you mentioned. Even though it will be a while before I even attempt anything stainless, it is good to know I could try a special gas lens if I don't get good results from increasing the gas flow.

I am probably going to order some stuff starting in a week or so. I have been racking my brain on a gameplan for the electrical sub-panel I am going to have to put in the garage to power the welders. That has to happen first, so I am starting to get a list of things needed and a gameplan for that. Also, my racing season and car show season is beginning as well as outdoor yardwork and the normal 40 hour work week... so yea, busy times indeed! I will also need a welding helmet, since the primary one I used to use was borrowed and the other one was non-auto darkening. Any recommendations in the $100 range that are safe and effective?



As for the car, it is a 1987. I have had it since I was 15 years old and I am now a few weeks away from turning 37 years old. It was my daily driver for a lot of years, then a show car, and now a street/strip/autocross/road-course/car-show car. It has a Dart 406 sbc with Holley efi and made 531 hp and 513 torque at the crank in January of last year and this was without the nitrous system plumbed up. Since last winter, I've learned to tune it and I am sure it picked up another 10 or so hp/tq. It also has a super stout 700R4, a moser 12 bolt, adjustable suspension, custom wheels, flashy paint, stereo system, a nitrous-oxide system(unhooked until I get a roll-bar in the car), big brakes, etc. It will be getting the roll bar installed next month.... which I wish I would have the skill to weld this roll bar in, but I do not yet trust myself to do that, nor do I have a tube bender or notcher. I drive the heck out of it and bring it to car shows often.

Instead of me typing a whole lot about it, I will insert some links which give a full writeup about it and a ton of photos:
Overall info that I typed up during a voting competition: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...tm-voting.html
General car build up: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...rior-next.html
Engine install and racing in 2020: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...g-install.html

and the pics ya asked for:







Anyways, I will keep on checking back in with questions and absorbing as much as I can. I want to make sure I have all teh essential items purchased to get everything up and running before I get to experimenting with different metals and projects. So, on the short list for purchasing is:
tig torch
tig foot pedal
tank of mixed gas (for Linde mig)
tank of argon (for miller tig)
tungsten rods (2% lanthentated)
weldign helmet
spare tips
welding wire
welding mask
gas hose and regulator
new gloves
anything else?

[123weld]

wow, alot a work, and probably alot a good memories in the car. i didnt know a 700r, could stand up to that kind a power. i was about late 30's also when i got rid of mine. main two reasons i got rid of mine were, my semi grey hair stood out like a sore thumb in a black t-top car, which made me look like a mid life crisis. the other was all the heat in engine compartment over the years, making the insulation on wires shrink/plastic sensors cracking, and i knew it was a matter of time before it was gonna be a ton of work. i hated to part w/ it though, thanks for posting it

[G-ManBart]

For the miller tig, is there a different type of torch to use with the tungsten rod? Is the torch in the web-link mentioned above by G-man the one to use for TIG with tungsten rod and argon gas or am I confusing different styles of tig torches? I have indeed seen those gas lenses that you mentioned. Even though it will be a while before I even attempt anything stainless, it is good to know I could try a special gas lens if I don't get good results from increasing the gas flow.

Yes, the torch I linked above is what you use with tungsten electrodes and argon gas for TIG. You can put different size parts on the torch for different diameter tungsten electrodes...bigger diameter for higher amperage. For general use and starting out you could probably just stick to 3/32" tungstens and be fine...pick up some 1/16 later when you want to try thinner material and lower amperage.

As far as shields go, you have a lot of options at $100 that will work fine. A Miller Classic is right around that price and a solid choice. I bought an Antra off Amazon around that prices and it's got a really large window for anything in that price range. Even the $60 shield at Harbor Freight works just fine (window is a bit on the small side). I was given a Metal Man helmet that they sell at Tractor Supply and it's surprisingly good for around $100 or even a bit less.

[cwby]

I will also need a welding helmet, since the primary one I used to use was borrowed and the other one was non-auto darkening. Any recommendations in the $100 range that are safe and effective?

I have one of these & like it. Savage A40

https://www.amazon.com/ESAB-07000004.../dp/B084G8XYB7

[N2 Welding]

Wow price is right on that deal. Congrats to having nice family friends. Welcome to WeldingWeb by the way.

I purchased one of these hoods for use as a back up or loaner when family and friends are helping or learning. It is pretty darn good for the money but looks like it might be sold out. Not sure if they restock these. Mine is gloss black not carbon fiber style.

https://usaweld.com/collections/htp-...welding_helmet

[Welder Dave]

A place like Profax/Lenco may have the tips and nozzles. They are obsolete from Esab. I think it would be more cost effective to just buy a new gun. You got the machines basically given to you and now you want to cheap out? They're good machines, treat them as such.

[IROCZman15]

thanks again guys. My replies to each of you are below:

123weld: yes, these cars are good but not great. I had the 700r4 built as beefy as possible. Was told that this is capable of holding 750/775 foot lbs of torque as built. The version of this build has been in many cars faster than mine to date, so its good for now. I raced the car today at the dragstrip for opening day at my local track. best pass was 11.802 at 116mph with a 1.63 in the 60foot, which all was slower than I anticipated, but its the early-season shakedown testing phase.


G-Man: that sounds like advice I can gladly live with. I fully agree that going with the 3/32nd rod will be the right move here for a total beginner like myself.

Gman, cwby, and N2: Also, thanks for the input on on the variety of helmets, or shields as I shall come to call them. I will eventually end up with two of them here, one for me, and one for a curious neighbor or friend who might need to weld something or want to learn with me. Therefore I might get two different kinds and pick which one I like best. Cool, thanks!

Welder Dave: Ok, cool, i will look to see if Profax/lenco might have the tips and nozzles. I have a few welding supply places within a half hour drive and i was considering bringing some of my new equipment over to these places to see if they had stuff (tips, wire, nozzles, etc). I certainly do not want to cheap out, I just all of a sudden have a lot of expenses this springtime. Racing is itself expensive and I am right at the point where I need to install a proper roll bar in the car, I lost a bunch of expensive bushes in the heavy snowstorm this winter, now needing to do a proper subpanel int he garage with a 70 foot run of wire from the inside main panel, and I recently started a job (after loosing a well paying government job) where I make 1/3 of the paycheck I used to make. So I am trying to make some smart choices to properly get me up and running. Some of my neighbors are wayyy excited about the subpanel project and have gone out and started buying stuff for the project before I even came up with a final gameplan! So, overall, sure, i would love to buy a whole new gun, if the need is there and the price is fair. You think i would be able to actually find a replacement gun for this setup? pictures of it below. That black knob on the side of it locks in place and pulls out to release the gun from the machine. Also that rectangular plug connects to it also.




















as always, thanks for the advice! I am very appreciative of it. Within the next two weeks I hope to have the subpanel project well under way and about that time I'll be ordering some of the welding gear suggested above by you guys, Thanks! feel free to keep it coming!

[Oldendum]

Union Carbide sold off the Linde welding, cutting and scarfing machine businesses in July 1985. They became L-TEC - same green welders. Then ESAB later bought them and they turned yellow.

[arcflash]

That Linde is a great running little machine. I have the big brother, the 225.

[IROCZman15]

Small update:

I am mostly done with the sub-panel install in the garage. Ran 44 feet of 3-3-3-5 service cable from my 200 amp panel inside the house to a plastic junction box right at the inside wall of my basement foundation. Here I will be connecting it to 3 gauge wire (and 8 gauge ground wire) and it goes underground into the garage. In the garage I have mounted my old 125 amp sub-panel box to the wall which I screwed a full 8'x4' sheet of 3/4" plywood to. There will be a 50 amp Eaton Hammer-Cutler breaker here which then sends power to the outlet for the welder, which will be one of those 50 amp black plastic outlet boxes. I am waiting on the breaker and some connectors to arrive in the mail to finish the install.

However, in the meantime I printed out the owner's manual for the Miller EconoTig (thanks G-man)

and just today I ordered a few components:
- two of the 10 pack 3/32" rod 2% lanthanated
- a gas flow meter with 80" of hose
- the ESAB A-40 helmet
- Lincoln K2979-ALL MIG/TIG welding gloves
- the TIG torch G-man suggested, but with the option of a 25 foot hose, the flexible head, and the Dinse 35-70 connector
- the SCC foot pedal C810-1425 which is the 14 pin plug connector and with a 25 foot cable.

grand total of the above including shipping was $535

next I need to get over to the local welding supplier and get a medium sized tank of mixed gas and a medium sized tank of argon
-and I need to find out the best way to get a hold of some replacement tips for the Linde MIG or I will just clean up what I currently have

Thanks everyone. So far, the adventure is going well!

[IROCZman15]

So, sub-panel complete and had the welders up and running 3 weeks ago after most of the part orders arrived. Got an 80 cubic foot tank of mixed gas, and an 80 cubic foot tank of pure argon gas.

I can take pieces of scrap metal from work, but most of it is painted, coated, powdercoated, or has some type of heavy duty coating on it.

I am at the stage where I wanted to see if the welders functioned normally so I was NOT concerned about spiffy-clean pure metal. I simply buzzed off the paint/coatings just enough and tried to make sure the welders did what they were supposed to do:


The Linde Mig welder seems to be working great. So far, no complaints. I played around with wire speed and whatnot and it did good on some thicker mild steel.

The Miller EconoTig welder also seems to be good.. on mild steel... on DCnegative. I didn't get to crazy with it yet, but I can push a puddle without any filler rod, and also I can do a little bit while feeding ER70S-2 Rod.

However,
....for Aluminum,
......everything is totally haywire....and nothing seems to be working at all !
I can not get a puddle formed to push, and if I increase the AMPS, it just melts through or sags the base metal. There is hardly ANY in-between. If I keep the amps low and use the foot pedal, I just sit there sizzling the aluminum and making scorch marks. If I turn the amps up, it puts craters in the base metal and also melts globs off the filler rod before I get the rod close to the "puddle" which is more of a wildly spraying mess. I have tried the blue 3/32" lanthanated tungsten both with a pointed tip on the electrode AND with a rounded blunt tip. I am using a #6 cup on the tig torch, and my flow meter is moving pure argon at 15. Teh welder is in the AC setting, but it does not have advanced AC controls like many welders of the new age. I have tried angling the torch from pure vertical to about 30 or 40 degrees on an angle. Obviously, the more angle, the more heat is pushed away, but I tried it. I have tried super cleaning pieces of aluminum with clean grinders, clean wire brushes, acetone and cleaned the filler rod also. In frustration of not even being able to make a clean puddle, I gave up on all the extra cleaning efforts (for now) until I can figure out what in the heck is missing and why I can not get even remotely close to starting an aluminum weld. I have tried this for several hours during the past 3 weeks using various changes and adjustments after watching dozens of videos and doing my own reading, but I don't know what I am doing wrong, or if there might be something awry with the welder internally or its settings. I mean, take the ER4043 filler rod out of the equation, Even with no rod, the puddle isn't forming right. Using the foot-pedal and adjusting the amp settings across the whole spectrum, and can't get anything that looks like the start of something good. Is it possible something is wrong that is outside of my control?

Currently, forget the "Stacking dimes" hopes and dreams I had, as I am stuck being confused and making messes.


Aluminum :







quick Miller TIG butt weld of mild steel:


millter tig of stacked mild steel plates:


I know that none of the steel welding is good, but I am not trying to be good/great yet, just trying to see that the machines do what they are supposed to. Kinda bummed out about the roadblock I have hit with the aluminum situation.

Anyone with any thoughts or suggestions?

[123weld]

sounds like ur on the ball w the elect and all. the steel looks good. the alum : i never used that machine, but could be the high frequency isnt right/working. my machine has a start, and a continous option for high freq. continous is for alum. it should make a more buzzing sound, kinda like a frankestein electricity type sound. maybe someone else familiar w/that machine will come along

[IROCZman15]

thanks!
I'm hoping someone on here that has some knowledge about what they may see in the aluminum photos can chime in too!
I have played with the settings quite a bit, and still, can not get the welder to act properly on aluminum,, even some pieces that are pretty thin.

This is weird, confusing, and a little upsetting.

Any thoughts ?

[123weld]

id call miller elect, and ask the secretary for " machine troubleshooting". shell ask u the model of ur machine. then the guy in that dept , will ask u the serial #. they will walk u threw to make sure u got it set properly to determine if its working properly, miller is good about that. then come back/let us know

[IROCZman15]

Had a chance after work today to call Miller Tech Support on the phone. They were very friendly, but were not able to really dig into much troubleshooting with a model/serial number this old. i was told that Miller had limited info because during this time the engineers were doing a things a variety of ways before standardizing things better. The tech had me check ohms resistance on the upper left terminals of the circuit board, which showed about 1.3 ohms resistance. We also switched those wires and had the same results. I spent a good 15 minutes poking my head and fingers all around inside the guts of the machine making sure connections seemed good, and checking terminals for tightness. I had done some research on here, and learned that occasionally people have had success in taking apart the insides of the "range/polarity switch" and cleaning the contacts. So I did this, and was super excited to see that there was gunk and junk that needed to be cleaned off.

Dirty:


Cleaned up:


Sadly, once everything was cleaned and reassembled, not only was I not not able to weld aluminum, but I can't weld anything. The tungsten/torch now only produces an incredibly weak, dismal, skinny speck of a blue electricity at times, and usually it does not produce any electricity at all. It made an electric noise, not the usual sizzle noise, but more of a frequency "tone". To add insult to injury, I smelled electrical burning and looked over to see a small puff of smoke coming out of the front of the machine, right where the "electrode/gas out" torch hose is. Turned everything off, and unplugged the machine.

smoke looked like it was coming from here and also there was a touch of soot and a smokey electrical burning smell to the soot:



I am currently really bummed out and pretty defeated. Had a working machine for steel and all I was hoping to do was to get it to weld aluminum too. Sadly, things went backwards, and now nothing works. Now I am trying to learn electrical schematics (which is way over my head) to rectify this. Kinda hoping this is fixable; spent a LOT of money on parts for the welder, gas cylinders, an entire electrical sub panel in the garage, and now I am unsure what to even do next. I have a limited knowledge of electronics, but am pretty quick to learn ( I wire and build police cars for a job).

What about a Miller Welding repair technician or shop? I went on the Miller website and it pulled up the local shop 4.4 miles away, but instead of "tech service" it is listed under "sales". I also can NOT afford an expensive repair bill or someone just throwing parts at the machine in hoped of getting it running. Would love to fix it as I had started to get excited for all these upcoming welding projects I could tackle in the nearby future. Very bummed out at the moment.

misc pics:


what is this and what does the button do. If i press the button in, it does not stay in, so what is the purpose of the button/device?

[123weld]

thats a terrible story. i was hoping something wasnt set right on the machine for alum, or at least an easy fix. i have very little knowledge about you problem now. but if i were u, id start a new thread about ur problem to capture the attention of those who can help. label it under "miller " category, and title it appropiatly asking for help, and put ur pics/info from the above post in there, along w/ ur latest findings, and i think u'll get some help
here is an example:
https://weldingweb.com/vbb/threads/7...t-control-amps

at least the tank/regulators/elect panel can be used on other things. i wouldnt take it to a repair facility - too much $. if the parts to repair what u got are too much $, theres lots of choices of little 150 amp dc inverter machine the size of a kids lunch pale that tig steel/stainless (not alum) from a couple-few hundered bucks. i got a miller 330 abp for alum, its older than urs, and miller has helped me, so that excuse/story there giving u dont sound right. for my troubleshooting my machine (maybe urs too), theres a guy w/ last name "johnson", that is helpful. i think his first name is "cliff" , if it isnt cliff, its something similar that sounds cowboy like. he's helped me out more than once, and i usually hold out to talk to him. anyway, , theres still hope for ur machine , start a new thread. look at the bright side - how much u learned already