Anyone know anything about PowCon mig welders. Any good???? Brought a used one home to test the other day and no joy. While the basic mach would power up there seemed to be no power to the wire feeder and mig gun. There is an empty fuse socket on the back of the wire feeder unit, maybe the problem??? I was "guaranteed" that it works as it was "inspected and tested" by my welding suppliers repair facility. Ya right. Brought it back the next day. He wanted $450.00 with a new roll of wire.
So I am still looking for a mig.

I have a POWCON inverter power supply 300a with a wire feeder. It has worked well for me. Powcon has been consumed by Thermal Dynamics? maybe or somebody. If a Powcon needs parts I dont even know where to get em. When mine craps out Ill be trying to figure it out I guess.

As far as I know, PowCon went out of business, but these guys sell parts, service, and rebuilt machines.
http://www.arc-products.com/powcon/

The PowCon was an excellent welder, they were pretty revoulutionary when they came on the market. If I remember right either Lincoln or Miller bought them out (and the one that didn't buy them out came up with inverters of their own design). Of course none of that helps you find parts and service for yours. I also what the reasonable life expectancy is for something like that, it has to be aproaching 20 years old. Anyway if you can get that machine going I think you will be happy with it's performance. Zoom

I have a PowCon Plazma Plus. My unit is also set up with the Power-Drive I/E feeder that sets on top. The feeder will not work with the fuse out. It may have got lost during the move. Anyway, I really like this unit. Parts and technical support are available from Arc-Products. I have ordered the manual and consumables for the Plazma unit. Prices are about the same as Miller and Lincoln. $450.00 is a pretty good price for a working unit. Paul

I was training coordinator for PowCon from 1989 through 1993. Feel free to write me, perhaps I can steer you in the right directions. Arc Products, in San Diego, purchased all of PowCom’s stock and spare parts and maintains a repair facility there with plenty of knowledgeable people.

Powcon technology was purchased by Miller. The older miller xmts look just like the powcons except for the color of the case. I've got a really nice powcon 300 amp tig outfit w/ water cooler for sale if anyone is interested...

T

Is the TIG still available?

yup, $1100 with the cooler, water cooled torch, foot pedal, everything.Just email me if you are interested and I'll send some pictures.
t

1-install the fuse and you should have power to the drive. I can email u with the fuse type, etc. upon request.
****the 2 prong spade female/male connection for gun power-to wire feed, if loose, will not power the gun contactor
*****the machine CAN run on single phase---but it's not happy about this, and supposedly is hard on the machine. It's not the same machine-at all, on 1 phase.

2-I've owned a Powcon 300-since new, 1989, in shop environment, mig, air-arc and stick process. Also used with 3 phase in field, inside cogen. boilers; carry it thru the small man door, and get set-up.
Very, very pleased with it. Invertor tech. allows for better, hotter more controllable welding.....saves 80% of the transformer monster's power. 70# power supply instead of 570#--400 amp machine. Does excellent job with stick, short arc, pulse & spray MIG--better than any big old monster, I've ever run.

3-What I understand about Powcon:

-first US company to license the Kempi inverter tech. Miller Elect. bought Powcon--for the Kempi license and Powcon's expertise on inverters. (Lincoln tried and failed with their inverters---throughout the 90's. Lincoln's SST tech.--now, is supposed to be pretty good. If/when I get a new DC inverter--it will be a Miller. Miller supports the customer, much better than Lincoln.)

-Every US nuke sub had 2 Powcons onboard for repair welding--starting in the late 70's.

bb-designs@fastermac.net

I have been running my 300SM with wire feeder on single phase for 7 or 8yrs now with no problems. I've gone through about 30 lbs of .035 wire in that time so not real hard on it either but no problems.