Which gun

[Shimmy1]

Have a 13 year old Miller 12RC suitcase. It was a bargain-bin special when we got it, came with a lighter-duty Bernard gun. It has served us decently, other than it's unique enough that when you order (nothing is stocked) consumables, you better get plenty and order more when you get low. Anyway, I think it's time to finally upgrade since one of my guys is a very competent welder, we're getting bolder with our projects, and this light-duty Bernard is in need of a liner anyway. Not looking for something that will run .062 Dual Shield, but if we're welding tooth adapters, want something that isn't going to fry your hand.

 

[1693TA]

I have a 400A Tregaskis/Bernard on my suitcase feeder and like it quite well unless really out of position as it's large. This one is predominantly used with .047 innershield wire, or aluminum as the feeder has a gas solenoid. Also have a Tweco 200A gun that is setup for this same feeder. Both are 15' length. I've not had any problems with consumables for these.

Your feeder should have a receiver for a Tweco back end so your possibilities are very wide. Find something comfortable in the hands would be my recommendation for the current you typically run.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

We run the 250A Profax leads here.

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https://www.profax-lenco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Profax_Catalog_2324.pdf

 

[Vetech63]

Don't be this person

 

[Junkyard]

Tweeco spraymaster is one I had on my shop machine for a solid 15 years. Just replaced it. I can’t count how many rolls of dual shield and solid wire it ran before we replaced it. Multiple liners over the years as well.

 

[Welder Dave]

I'd get a 300 or 400 amp Bernard BTB gun with Centerfire consumables.

 

[Shimmy1]

View attachment 305047
Don't be this person

Why not?

 

[Vetech63]

Why not?

That is supposed to be a motion gif. Took all the fun out of it

 

[Stick-man]

I run Tweco #4's. Consumables are available everywhere.

 

[Welder Dave]

So are Bernard.

 

[Shimmy1]

Right or wrong, I picked this one up from Linde last week. It came with a 30-35 liner, so I grabbed a 35-45 liner while I was there as well. Haven't tried it yet.

MDX-250 MIG Guns | MillerWelds

Welding torches and guns from Miller Welders combine advanced technology and professional performance so you can focus on the welding job at hand.

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[Welder Dave]

These are a brand new gun so don't know anything about them. The only thing I'd be concerned about is heat as it's only a 250 amp gun. Dual-Shield could easily hit 250 amps. It looks way better than older Miller guns.

 

[Shimmy1]

These are a brand new gun so don't know anything about them. The only thing I'd be concerned about is heat as it's only a 250 amp gun. Dual-Shield could easily hit 250 amps. It looks way better than older Miller guns.

The majority of our repairs use from 130-175 amps. If we ever find ourselves needing more, we would probably need a bigger power source than our little XMT 304.

 

[pushbroom]

I have that gun on my miller 255. Only had it for a couple months but its been good. Got some dual shield to do this summer so we will see then.

 

[Welder Dave]

An XMT 304 is an industrial 300 amp rated machine that tops out at 400 amps. I've run dual-shield around 300 amps on XMT 304's and plenty of 1/4" 7018 at over 300 amps as well. I've spent an entire 10 hour shift just pouring 1/4" 7018 on a nozzle and repad on a 2 1/2" thick vessel. Actually there were 2 of us and and another 2 guys on day shift. The repad was cut for a 24" nozzle but the nozzle was only 20". They figured it was cheaper to fill with weld than make a new repad. It took 2 welders 2 1/2 shifts to weld. We couldn't use dual-shield because it wasn't approved for pressure vessels at the time. There was hundreds of pounds of rod used on that job. It was by far the biggest single weld I ever worked on. The XMT 304's never skipped a beat. I liked that job though because the time went by fast. Nobody bothered us. We had to preheat with 2 tiger torches (weed burners). It was still fairly hot the day after we finished welding.

 

[Shimmy1]

The only regret we have on the 304 was not buying all three on the sale. Got the one for $675 about 5 years ago, the other 2 went cheaper.

I'm not a master welder by any means, but it is almost as smooth welding as our Trailblazer. Some guys think you can't weld unless you have a 400 pound transformer welder, but we seem to get along ok. We are currently looking for another 12RC suitcase so we can be set up for both .035 and .045. It's a bunch easier to swap leads than drive rolls, a liner, and spool.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

The only regret we have on the 304 was not buying all three on the sale. Got the one for $675 about 5 years ago, the other 2 went cheaper.

I'm not a master welder by any means, but it is almost as smooth welding as our Trailblazer. Some guys think you can't weld unless you have a 400 pound transformer welder, but we seem to get along ok. We are currently looking for another 12RC suitcase so we can be set up for both .035 and .045. It's a bunch easier to swap leads than drive rolls, a liner, and spool.

Same here on the regret..... We got a XMT304 / 22A setup and haven't had any problems with it. Great traveling machine.

 

[Welder Dave]

An XMT is a high end inverter and probably has a nicer arc than a Trailblazer. However for Mig root passes they are almost too smooth. I prefer a conventional machine like a Dimension 452 over an XMT for solid wire Mig. Both are excellent machines though. The XMT will never last as long though and if one of the boards gets fried, it's time for a new machine. It's usually not worth fixing an XMT if something goes wrong. Transformer/rectifier machines will last 50 years and longer. XMT's in heavy industrial use would be lucky to get 20 years, 15 would be more likely.

 

[MarcusZ1967]

Currently running CP-300(x1), CP-200(x2), Dim 302 (x3) (all S-60 feeders) and that XMT unit. We have one of those new Lincoln Power Mig 360MP units... "seems" to run good but finding the correct parts from our vendor has been interesting.

 

[Welder Dave]

Dimension 302's are good but don't have digital readout to set your volts and wire speed like the 452's. At least on a couple I used. It might be an option though. Lincoln is known for changing consumables which makes it a real PIA if you have older and newer Mig machines. I think it was on Powermig 256's where they changed guns and consumables mid year when they first came out. If a shop had 255's or early 256's they used the same consumables but if the got a newer 256 they'd have to get different consumables. Really really stupid in my opinion.