A dedicated area for reviews, thoughts, and feedback on shop/welding products
Ryan
  • Ryan
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Esab is sending a new machine. Should be here in a couple days. It's good to see a multi-national corporation catering to a tiny one man shop. I could have easily been swept under the rug and hung out to dry. They arent messing around when they guarantee 100% customer satisfaction. Thanks Esab.
Semper Fidelis Ooh Rah!
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Great news, hopefully that's the end of the story
Richard
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Ryan
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Got the welder today. Back in business. They got me going with a brand new machine in less than a weeks time. That is excellent service.
Semper Fidelis Ooh Rah!
FuelieNova
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Anymore updates? I am new to the board and considering this machine.
Just curious how the replacement is doing
Tom
Ryan
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Sorry for the delayed response!
It is doing great! Ive put about 15lbs of .045 dual shield wire through and about 20lbs of stick electrodes. No problems so far. I did a crap ton of welding on a 6-way dozer blade carriage for a Case 450. It was riddled with cracks and mangled repairs. I used dual shield, 7018 rod, and 6010 on the project. The Rebel runs cellulose rod extremely well. I use a good bit of 5/32" 7018 and the Rebel seems to run the absolute best with this stuff. Maybe it's me?

I want to note that when I run dual shielded wire, it's on regular mig mode. sMIG only goes to 3/8" and even at the hottest setting I cannot get it to spray. But if you are using this process, you probably have a good handle on how to set your machine manually. When I get it dialed in I love it for spray. It really lays it in there and will bite off more than you can chew for sure. I have read that Esab designed the sMIG to run .035 dual shield but I use .045. I would like to get a roll of it to test it out.

With solid wire the Rebel is smooth and silky. Im also using sMIG mode a little more now when I run solid wire. It's great for quick projects. I think it's a mix between the "ABCD" selections on the cheap welders and a full on fancy synergic.......thing. It doesnt get to crazy but you still have the nice features like burn back, pre/post flow, spot/stitch, and inductance.

The transitioning between processes is very simple. Esab did a great job at remembering the finer points when it comes to a multi process welder. The MIG and TIG functions have THEIR OWN gas solenoids. Awesome! I can go from doing a MIG project for work to practicing TIG on my off time in about two minutes. Disconnect the positive lead to the MIG and plug in my tig torch lug into the positive(or neg) connection. I can leave the torch connected to the gas outlet with it hanging on the cart. Both tanks stay hooked up. Perfect. I can grab my stick lead and have it hooked up and ready to run in a few seconds. The Rebel gets an A+ in the musical leads category.

I am working on a cart for it. It will be dolly style that holds two bottles and has wheels from a wheelchair. Kind of like the one JD Brewer made for his 210MP. Hopefully i get around to it.
Semper Fidelis Ooh Rah!
WeldingJunkie
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    Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:43 pm
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Thats a bummer to hear all the issue you had i was looking at that machine but i decided multi processes have terrible duty cycles and they aren't proven yet. I went out and bought a HTP Invertig 221 and HTP Pro Pulse and a HTP Inverarc 200 all 3 machines are incredible been using them for a while now and not one issues. The pro pulse is amazing im running 4043 right out of the mig gun and the invertig 221 has the softest tig arc ive ever used, my Dyasty 210DX has an arc thats much more aggressive all in all im glad i went with HTP.

One thing ive learned with welding no matter the machine if you are using it to feed yourself have a back up anyway even if its a cheap back up. i have a HTP 200i easy set mig it was a grand its the same as a MIller 211 thats my back up mig.
Ryan
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Still loving this machine! Still no custom cart yet. I just cant make up my mind on how I want to build it. I love the multi-process convenience. This is the nicest non-pulse wire feed welder Ive ever used. I like it so much I choose to swap out spools for small projects instead of keeping a smaller size in the Lincoln 255. I have only used that machine once this year. I love the simplicity of the menu. It is very portable. And it is great to have any process any time anywhere I want. It runs perfectly fine off my generators. As far as duty cycle goes, I did some welding on 3/4" plate with 5/32" 7018 and not one hiccup. That is good enough for me!
Semper Fidelis Ooh Rah!
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