DanielW
Well-known Member
- Location
- Haliburton, Ontario
Those old transformer units are pretty indestructible - it'll probably outlive you. I don't necessarily agree with the poster above saying that it's only worth the scrap copper price. Most old transformer welders will plug away indefinitely and make a nice, smooth, stable arc.
I was looking for a new 250-ish amp MIG welder about 5 years ago for the home shop. I wanted something no-nonsense and basic, and had my heart set on the bare-bones, 2-knob Lincoln 250 amp transformer MIG they used to offer. But they had recently dropped it from their lineup in favour of a fancier unit with digital feed and voltage readouts, digital arc stabilization, etc.. Being old-fashioned, I didn't really want/need any of that.
The sales rep at the local welding supply told me that Lincoln owns Century, and they were still selling their old Lincoln 250 model, re-badged as the Century 255. I bought the Century unit for half the price of the fancier Lincoln unit and it's been a superb welder. Shortly after that, my friend (not to be outdone by me) bought a brand new Miller multi-process unit for his own shop (don't know the exact model, but about the same size as mine). The control board on his fried shortly after he bought it. Miller customer service was great about taking it back and repairing it under warranty, but it was during the supply chain shortages and took them a few months to get the parts, They also refused to give him a complete replacement unit - they'd only repair his original one even though it was only a few months old.
So: Nothing wrong with keeping things simple and old-fashioned. If those big old transformer machines were good enough for the folks assembling Apollo spacecraft and Vietnam war aircraft carriers, they're probably good enough for anything folks on an antique tractor forum are doing.
I was looking for a new 250-ish amp MIG welder about 5 years ago for the home shop. I wanted something no-nonsense and basic, and had my heart set on the bare-bones, 2-knob Lincoln 250 amp transformer MIG they used to offer. But they had recently dropped it from their lineup in favour of a fancier unit with digital feed and voltage readouts, digital arc stabilization, etc.. Being old-fashioned, I didn't really want/need any of that.
The sales rep at the local welding supply told me that Lincoln owns Century, and they were still selling their old Lincoln 250 model, re-badged as the Century 255. I bought the Century unit for half the price of the fancier Lincoln unit and it's been a superb welder. Shortly after that, my friend (not to be outdone by me) bought a brand new Miller multi-process unit for his own shop (don't know the exact model, but about the same size as mine). The control board on his fried shortly after he bought it. Miller customer service was great about taking it back and repairing it under warranty, but it was during the supply chain shortages and took them a few months to get the parts, They also refused to give him a complete replacement unit - they'd only repair his original one even though it was only a few months old.
So: Nothing wrong with keeping things simple and old-fashioned. If those big old transformer machines were good enough for the folks assembling Apollo spacecraft and Vietnam war aircraft carriers, they're probably good enough for anything folks on an antique tractor forum are doing.
