anyone have a Lincoln cv-250 or Miller CP-200 ?

looking to buy either locally , both come with wire feeders , both about $500 . BOTH BEAT TO SHIT looking .
both about 30 years old . both "supposed to work great" . both similar machines .
lincoln has LN7 feeder ,miller has 10E feeder.

are there any major pifalls to look for in these machines ?
is 5 bills too much money for either?

my only alternative is a Hobart handler , lincoln easymig , miller whatever i can afford new under $600-700 , but i'd rather
have something with a realistic duty cycle and amp rating. i don't care about portability .

In general....
cable and gun condition, feed cable liner, drive rollers, vari speed drive controls working
gas valve not leaking ( much), single phase or 3 phase, cooling fans come on when
heated up.
If possible take some scrap and run them through their operating range for
about 5-10 minutes.
Money sounds ok if they are fully working and the stuff above is ok.
David

Check parts availability on the consumables (tips, liners rollers,etc.) Sometime they update the guns, etc., stop making part, and the old stuff has to be replaced. Happened to me with an older Lincoln 115 volt MIG.

I don't think I would worry too much about the consumables for either welders. I've taken random TIG and MIG worn out consumables into all kinds of different welding supply places and never had an instance where they didn't have in stock what I needed.

-Jim

i was thinking more along the lines of contactors , brushes , diodes , boards in the power supply .... and motors , rollers , etc in the
spooler .

i have 10 cp 200 machines. pretty much bullet proof. crank slides a brush contact on the side of the transformer to adjust the voltage. the brushes that contact sometimes will stick or the surface will become covered in carbon dust. we clean the surface with a small brass cup on a cordless drill. the 10 e feeder has small diameter feed rolls. the most i have paid for used is 350.00 and that was for a miller cp 200 with 10e feeder, factory cart and flowmeter. was in excellent condition. have paid as little as 100.00 for a machine that had low power output.all it needed was the brush surface cleaned. never had any diode problems. only have replaced contactors for the weld power. remember these are 3phase machines.

thanks , that was my initial question . just wanted to know if it's a true tank and won't be a PITA from age ...
my '84 lincoln TIG250/250 is a true warrior , so i wanted to make sure the miller or lincoln 3-phase mig machines were similar.


i prefer 3 phase ,i can run smaller gauge wires . all is good .