Oscar wrote:Funny you should ask. If I do use the MIG, at the moment it's all 100% short-circuit right now. This is only because I still have two tanks of C25 that I need to get rid of, so I can exchange them for pure argon in order to get some extra reserve tanks of Argon to run my pulsed-spray mix.BugHunter wrote:What % of the time would you say you use yours on short circuit vs spray? I ask because I could see me almost never running short circuit again.So yea once these two tanks are depleted, no reason to short circuit ever again. And if I wanted to I could still use a C10 mix anyways.
Oscar, do you do much welding with gas shielded flux core? I have really been enjoying it as a process for heavier gage welding and the 75/25 is something to have handy for that process. I am gearing up for pulse and spray and will get a dedicated bottle of 90/10 for those modes. I do a fair bit of vertical / out of position welding so will be curious to see if pulse transfer will get the same penetration on heavier material that gas shield gets me. Sure is a fun hobby we have,
I have FCAW-G wire but I don't really use it to be honest. Just wanted to try it. If I ever do want to use it, I can always mix 75/25 easily with my Frankenmixer, using a tank of Argon and a tank of CO₂. Besides, I can make my MIGs run FCAW-G in pulsed-spray in one of the pulse programs that is meant for another wire type. I just have to use my super-secret Ar-CO₂-O₂ gas mixture and some voltage tweaks. I can weld (with FCAW-G wire) down to 16gauge with 035 and down to 14ga with 045 wire.Chris H wrote:Oscar wrote:Funny you should ask. If I do use the MIG, at the moment it's all 100% short-circuit right now. This is only because I still have two tanks of C25 that I need to get rid of, so I can exchange them for pure argon in order to get some extra reserve tanks of Argon to run my pulsed-spray mix.BugHunter wrote:What % of the time would you say you use yours on short circuit vs spray? I ask because I could see me almost never running short circuit again.
Oscar, do you do much welding with gas shielded flux core? I have really been enjoying it as a process for heavier gage welding and the 75/25 is something to have handy for that process. I am gearing up for pulse and spray and will get a dedicated bottle of 90/10 for those modes. I do a fair bit of vertical / out of position welding so will be curious to see if pulse transfer will get the same penetration on heavier material that gas shield gets me. Sure is a fun hobby we have,
I run Lincoln 71M on 100% CO2, and it works fine. It is also much cheaper than 75/25. Go find a used 20 lb CO2 tank for around $50 and it gives you as much gas as a 178 cu ft C25 tank. The refills are crazy cheap, and I don't always have to go to a LWS to get refilled.Chris H wrote:Oscar, do you do much welding with gas shielded flux core? I have really been enjoying it as a process for heavier gauge welding and the 75/25 is something to have handy for that process.
Multimatic 255
I'm actually in the middle of this decision myself.Louie1961 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 29, 2020 9:52 pm if it was my money, I am spending the extra $600 and getting the higher amperage and duty cycle of the MM255 every time, and most especially if you plan on welding aluminum. The 25% duty cycle @ 200 amps of the ProPulse just wouldn't cut it for me. I like to play with dual shield flux core which normally runs at about 240 amps. Double pulse/pulse-on-pulse adds nothing to the weld integrity, it is strictly aesthetic, and therefore it has no value to me at all. I also really like the idea of the MM255 being tuned/having a welding program to do short circuit MIG with 90/10 gas, thereby offering the possibility of using one gas for both short circuit and pulse spray. I am not sure if the pro pulse has that capability or not.
While I agree that the MM255 is a much larger welder in terms of power, the problem is that you need to buy the $1500 spool gun and have this big bulky thing, or you buy the push pull gun and it's almost as much as the welder, putting you in the $6k range which getting close to the PP300.
From what I can see the PP300 not only has a lot more power than the MM255, has far more settings than the MM255, but it also gives you the following options:
36 Series whip for $180
26 Series aluminum whip for $150
Water cooled mig gun $350
Water cooler for $500
Push/pull gun $2195.
So:
PP300 with grounding cable, 36 whip for steel, 26 whip for .045 wire rated at 260amps: $5825
Miller with stock gun and push/pull with march rebates: $6520
Miller with stock gun and 15' 200amp spool gun: $5000
At this point I'm pretty torn. I would like the form factor of the miller and push/pull gun, but I would also like the wide ranging options/settings and power of the PP300, but it would be huge on my cart, and I probably don't need to weld more than 3/8" ever.
If there was a pp255 with more duty cycle, I'd for sure go that way.
schu