Bernard Q guns

Bondo · Jun 17, 2015

I have had Bernard guns on all 5 mug welders for the last 7 years. Now that they sold out I have had issues with every gun I have tried. Bad quality, stripped threads, etc. Yesterday I put a new 150 amp gun on my Invision 352 mpa and in less then a half hour, I got sputtered from the wire. I was welding only 1/8" stainless so I wasn't over using the gun. I only order the 100% duty cycle guns but I don't know what the difference is between these new 60% duty cycle guns. I haven't had problems with my older guns (150, 300, and 400 amp guns)

I am looking to start switching out my guns to better quality ones. What do you guys run. I only run the 150 amp on my 3 Miller passports.

Matt_Maguire · Jun 17, 2015

Is there any reason you're not using the Miller roughneck (maybe the price & it actually looks like an old Bernard product)?

Since Binzel discontinued the alpha series torch I don't think there is any reasonable price option out there that works good. Tweeco eliminator torches are good if you stay away from the off brand consumable parts out there for them. The Bernard - Tregaskiss getting together just makes for an unknown quality right now from folks I talk to lately.

Lincoln is still making their typical sledge hammer sized & weight guns for a given amp range (250 & up)...

Good luck getting help from the LWS...
Matt

WILLEO6709 · Jun 17, 2015

I just put a 400 amp bernard on a Deltaweld 451/S74 combo. I like it so far but it has not burned a lot of wire yet.

rb07565 · Jun 17, 2015

If you're looking for heavy duty, you should have a look at Tweco. They are a little bulky but pretty durable

SteveBausch · Jun 17, 2015

Purchase New Old Stock from an ebay vendor is what I'd consider.

Set up and save a search on the part number.

SteveBausch · Jun 17, 2015

Purchase New Old Stock from an ebay vendor is what I'd consider.

Set up and save a search on the part number.

Bondo · Jun 17, 2015

I have an old Miller roughneck you can have. That thing is junk, from new it was a PITA. Even the Miller reps said so that why all Miller mig welders started coming with bernards and they discontinued the roughnecks for all standard guns.

I don't care about price. I want quality, when I weld for industrial customers on Saturday and Sunday, the gun needs to run problem free. I keep liners and stuff in stock but you can't fix junk in the field.

adama · Jun 18, 2015

Thats a shame, have not needed a new burnard torch in several years, they just keep on going, not sure what model we get, but its the one with the contacts that just twist in a 1/4 turn. IMHO there the best mig torches i have ever used, they hack real industrial use, the shrouds all fit nice and tight - dont wiggle around etc, a quality item! The binzel torches seam to always eat consumables, over heat shrouds etc, there duty cycles are pathetic, IMHO for a MIG torch to be rated for a given current, you gotta be able to lay welds 6" long at a production rate all day long, they don't even come close! they never seam to run as smooth either, probably due to the too short of contact tip.

Bondo · Jun 18, 2015

I have all the Q guns so all the consumables are the same for 150-300 amp guns. It's very convenient. These are the guns that the contact tips just slide fit. I travel a lot with the guns and they get beat up, I have even had a forklift drive over it once.

Now Bernard is making a "60%" duty cycle gun which WTF is that? You save like $1 per gun... And I don't know what the difference is as the end user. So I could get a 60% and not know it.

I know a lot of people run tweco and I am looking that way.

DDoug · Jun 18, 2015

Is not the LWS warrantying these ?

I would think with a failure happening in such a short time, they would
want them back and be providing you with new, no questions asked.

Did you "Run it up the flag pole" all the way to Bernard ?

hobbyman · Jun 18, 2015

Some people do not realize that air cooled gun ratings are based on carbon dioxide. The gas chills very effectively. You have to de-rate approximately by one third if you are using a mixed gas.
I am retired now but Tregaskiss was the best at the time. It is now branded under the Bernard name. The primary advantage when they were first introduced was that everything was interchangeable. If you drop a beam on a gun lead all the parts at both ends can be reused and the cable can be replaced or shortened. They also were one of the first to put an extra switch wire inside the lead so that if you had a break you just used the spare wire rather than toss the lead cable.

http://www.bernardwelds.com/files/TG001_T_Gun_Semi_Automatic_Air_Cooled_350,_450_and_550_amp.pdf

adama · Jun 18, 2015

Never knew the rateings were based on co2, i do know that with cored wires its even worse. That said, one of the places i use to do a lot of welding had a lovely 400A CEA plant, then strangled it with a 350 amp binzel torch. Using 1.2mm hard faceing on a agricultural job you had to stop and dunk the torch in a bucket of cold water about every 18" of weld or else the insulator on the crap nozzels would catch fire. Borrowed a friends 600A burnered torch last time i had to run the hard faceing job, job finished in but a fraction of the time, plant cranked up to full and zero consumable usage, before with the binzel, they were going through contact tips by the packet every week. I think people miss how key a good torch is to MIG, especialy once you go north of 1/4" plate and have decent lengths of weld to lay.

Other thing i always find is theres less splatter - clean up with the burnered torches due to the better contact tips.

Bondo · Jul 6, 2015

Update:::::

I talked to my welding supplier and I was able to get a 200 amp Bernard Q gun. The 200 is way superior quality compared to the 150 gun. I have used it for a few days now and beat the hell out of it and it is still running fine. I purchased a second one and I like it. The only thing I see is the trigger connections are now on the outside of the gun housing but other then that, quality!

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