<good info snipped> Just know going in that you can't buy skill. I think it's hard to resist the feeling that if you spend 3-4x more for a machine then it should work that much better and easier. But other than that, this is a case of where I don't believe there is such a thing as a beginner machin...

I would put the valve before the one in the machine (between the outlet or the regulator and the inlet on the machine), so it would in essence, cut off the gas while the internal one is still open. But there would be no gas flowing from the tank at that point. So no accumulated gas. I agree with wha...

So I guess this sort of leads to the question of what actually IS a reasonable post flow time? I'm not a pro at this stuff by any stretch. Any thoughts? This seems to be cited as a major drawback for this machine in many people's eyes. Is this actually that big a deal? Sent from my iPhone using Tapa...

Thank you very much for the very informative post. Lots of good info there and in the post you linked as well. I do have some 5356 in the form or MIG wire around here I think, I may try that on some scrap to see how it works for me. I have not had time to give any of this a try, but hope to get to i...

The post flow does seem to be a major gripe with this machine. It is interesting to note that pretty much the same post flow arrangement is used in the Miller Diversion series: "Postflow is preset for one second for every ten amps of output, with a minimum of eight seconds for DC or AC." s...

I did look at some of them pretty closely and did some reading, but in the end decided that the big name and local support on the lincoln were a worthwhile trade-off of somewhat higher price and somewhat fewer features for me. I figured it will be a long time (if ever) before I find myself longing f...

I bought one a short while ago. With the caveat that I am probably one of the least qualified around here to give an authoritative opinion, I would say so far, so good. The machine seems to work fine, and is still way more capable that I am. I think the compromises that Lincoln made to hit the price...

Appreciate the replies, and I do understand the message. This is not in a work environment (I know better and work around hazardous stuff of various sorts in my "real" job) and is only for my own use. The most I have used it for is dragging the occasional log across the yard and similar no...

Poland308 wrote:Running welding current through any lifting device is big no no.

Well it will be through only the handle, with the handle removed from the unit.

As a general rule, are all cast aluminum alloys weldable? I have an old and quite handy CM chain hand winch. It is a much older version of this: https://www.cmworks.com/Hoists/ManualHoists/LeverHoists/Puller/LeverHoist The body and handle are cast Aluminum of some sort. Somewhere in its past life, s...

Glad someone is thinking about better visuals than with these bulky helmets. The prototype in the video can probably be brought down to a pair of sunglasses in size with miniaturization. In that video, the contrasts are much better than thru even an expensive helmet. Indeed. In reality, the contras...

I suspect the OP means something similar to this: http://www.lampert.info/en/products/jewellery-106/puk5-welding-technology-for-goldsmiths Sort of like a combination of TIG and spot welding, pretty specialized. No direct insight if it would work for aluminum, but I suppose it will if used within the...

In the one instance were we thought this was an issue, we had the gas sampled and analyzed at a lab. I don't know what that cost but suspect it was not inexpensive but it could be worth it depending upon the application. Just asking as I have seen several references to that in various posts here.

Hi all, Been lurking here for a while, lots of interesting stuff to take in. I have noted in some of the "troubleshooting" discussions here and elsewhere there has been mention of making sure that you don't have "bad" gas (argon, CO2, mix, etc) or contaminated gas messing up your...

This is some interesting video about just this sort of thing, "augmented reality" and "high dynamic range" video for welding. The explanations can feel a bit slow going stick with it, some cool stuff here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygcm0AQXX9k