What's new
What's new

Recommendations for engine driven welder

i_r_machinist

Titanium
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Location
Dublin Texas
I'm in the market for an engine driven welding machine. Our welders here at the plant told me to get a machine that runs on propane. The benifits were not as noisey as a diesel and run cleaner than a gas engine, plus you don't have to worry about fuel gelling.
I would like to be able to mig, tig, and stick weld. Plus something about pulse for aluminum. My son just got a cert from TSTC in welding and I'd like to expand my business out of my shop. Currently when I need to field weld I take my 8kv generator and my cracker box. A good used machine wouldn't hurt my feelings.
So, Miller, Lincoln,???
Budget is $7k
thanks
i_r_
 
I am fond of Miller Trailblazers, myself. I have rented a fair amount of em over the years, they are simple to use, reliable, and will do mig tig and stick. Propane is not as easy to resell, get parts for, or refuel in the boonies, I would just go with gas.
 
I am fond of Miller Trailblazers, myself. I have rented a fair amount of em over the years, they are simple to use, reliable, and will do mig tig and stick. Propane is not as easy to resell, get parts for, or refuel in the boonies, I would just go with gas.

Or whatever fuel matches your truck.
 
Needing AC and pulse just pushed your budget substantially... then again that can be avoided by just running an inverter welder off a generator. Whats your budget?
 
As Ries kind of mentioned it might be a good idea to rent whatever welder you are looking at purchasing and try it out in the field before sinking your money into it. Maybe talk to the rental people and see if any particular welder is more reliable or maintenance intensive.
 
My local welding supply will rent a variety of engine drives, from a stripper Lincoln Ranger up to a Diesel 400 amp machine with a built in compressor. By the day, or week. I realize not all suppliers do this, but its not that uncommon. I think AC/DC is not unreasonable, but pulsed mig or tig for aluminum is going to be an add on. Site welding aluminum is always a pain, and expensive to tool up for. Me, I would think 90% of your needs can be satisfied by stick, scratch start tig, and being able to plug in a wire feeder. Be advised that wire feeders are a big rabbit hole- do your homework. Is your engine drive Constant Current, Constant Voltage, or both? is your wire feeder voltage sensing? Adding wire feeders to engine drives is never cheap, and often requires a more expensive wire feeder.

my best success with that was a Push Pull wire feeder, mine was a Miller XR, which took full size spools, and welded great with mild steel, stainless, or aluminum wire. And cost a fortune- 3 or 4 grand, easy, all up. plugged right into a trailblazer, with 25 feet of whip on the gun, and was a very high quality weld. You get what you pay for.

Which is why so many guys with engine drives just stick weld everything.

I have done a lot of site tig work with an engine drive, hauling an argon tank, and scratch start, but also sometimes hauling a HF unit and pedal and using an aircooled 250 amp torch. It works well, but, again- it costs money, and it has compatibility issues you need to research before you buy.

If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
Make sure you price tig and mig setups that actually work with the engine drive you are thinking of buying- it may surprise you.
You can tig with just a gas tank, regulator, and an air cooled torch- scratch start, or, some engine drives even have built in lift arc. But not everybody is comfortable with scratch start.
 
A friend of mine had a Miller Pipe pro. Similar to trailblazer. It was basicly a XMT304 with a engine attached. The good thing about it was it could be plugged in to 220 power if it was available, so no need to always run the engine. The bummer was (15 yrs ago) it did not do any auto linking to different voltages, maybe the new ones do?
 
A new miller pipe pro is a $20,000 machine. The new ones have pulsers built in, along with USB ports and all kinds of fancy electronics. They were always big diesels, 400 amps, with lots of bells and whistles. If you need it, and are willing to pay for it, and fix it if it breaks, yeah- but as a all purpose rig for home/occasional use, its a bit of overkill.
 
A new miller pipe pro is a $20,000 machine. The new ones have pulsers built in, along with USB ports and all kinds of fancy electronics. They were always big diesels, 400 amps, with lots of bells and whistles. If you need it, and are willing to pay for it, and fix it if it breaks, yeah- but as a all purpose rig for home/occasional use, its a bit of overkill.

Pipeliner friend HAD one....was great when it ran.

Spent more time in the shop than on the job.

replaced it with a red one.
 
Ask your self if you really need to do TIG Al work in the field. If you do then ill second the option of Genset/inverter tig because that is the easiest way you are going to get Good AL tig work in the field. Just be sure that what ever Inverter you get can handle being run off a generator, not all of them can.
Even DC tig and mig/fcaw are cheap enough, its the adding HFAC that adds the $$$
Any Genset can scratch start DC tig, you just need the torch and a bottle of argon. Constant Voltage for mig/fluxcore is usually a separate part but fairly common, and that will cover MIG on Al(with %100 Ar) as well as everything else.
All that being said A Vast amount of field work can be done with Stick if the Welder(Weldor? the person not the machine...) is good enough. They make Al Stick rods and if the application isn't super picky they can be good enough. They Were good enough to put together WW2 Era Aircraft carriers...

Also, Propane is better for running the thing Indoors, like warehouse/large factory with no outlets, so if your job is outside get a gas/diesel unit.
 
Thanks for all the time spent on the replies!customer
I'm back. Anyway, you guys have given me plenty to research, and being i_r_machinist and not i_r_welder, I didn't know you could stick weld AL.
Thanks again!
i_r_machinist
 
AL Stick rods, while they work, Do kinda suck... And are kinda hard to run. Try them in the shop before taking them out to the field thinking that you have an easy answer...
They start FROZEN, and the last few inches of weld are a dead sprint to keep ahead of the part trying to melt through... The middle of the bead will be OK. You REALLY have to clean the part up after as well, the flux is pretty corrosive
 
AL Stick rods, while they work, Do kinda suck... And are kinda hard to run. Try them in the shop before taking them out to the field thinking that you have an easy answer...
They start FROZEN, and the last few inches of weld are a dead sprint to keep ahead of the part trying to melt through... The middle of the bead will be OK. You REALLY have to clean the part up after as well, the flux is pretty corrosive

Use remote control to lower the current towards the end?
 
Ally stick rods.......right about sucking.....dunno about working.....and turn to gel in 5 minutes on a damp day........I must say ,Ive never used any engine welder bar Lincoln......except a home made one from a airplane genny when I was a kid....Lincoln stuff works.....and is reliable...but my Lincoln stuff isnt recent.......and IMHO all electronics are failure prone...
 
I have an ancient Lincoln Pipeliner. 6 cylinder IH overhead valve gas engine. Smoothest steadiest arc I have ever welded with. The engine makes so much power and has so much torque that you get almost no speed change between arc on and off.
 
The old DC Lincolns were/are the best welders ever made.........I had one was flooded with salty water .....hosed out the grass,drained the sump of the 3/152,started it up,wouldnt weld,put a brushstone against the commutator ,weld current straight away.......it did a 6 month steel pipe job,at the end ,the welder said he wanted to buy it,took it for part payment of wages.I also have a collection of 400AS with perkins diesels......they were gold once ,now sell for scrap price ,cause no one under 60 can stick weld anymore.....I has a welder workin on one job,his welds were so smooth ,people thought they were ground off after.He could weld cracks in the goosenecks of 637 scrapers,you could just paint over them...people thought they were factory machine welds....The new Lincoln Rangers are nice,and quiet,but I never trusted high current electronics to be reliable.......commutator and carbon brushes ...and a reactor for current controll......nothing to go wrong.
 
Worked on a job with a yankee crowd called CBI,latest hi tech gear ,all driven by a big genset.......they were machine welding tank seams.....one shift weld,next shift gouge out faulty weld........they burnt out half the fancy gear gouging,had to use my old fleet of Lincoln 500 AS with 4 cyl perks for gouging.....no voltage reduction,safety officer had to look the other way......Job went six months over time due to all the faulty machine weld.The sandblasters and painters sat every weekend twiddling their thumbs on double time due to the welding delays.
 
I would agree that for all day, all week, all month pipeline welding, or for welding heavy plate on construction equipment on site, a big old diesel lincoln 400 or 500 is a good rig.
But that is not even vaguely what the OP wants or needs.
He wants a once in a while, easy to use, relatively light duty machine that is not fussy, and parts and service are local and available.

In my opinion, he will be much better off with a relatively low end model of either Lincoln or Miller, new.
It will do what he wants, weigh half as much, probably outlast him with low hours on the meter when his kids or wife sell it.
The good thing about occasional or hobby use of a new miller or lincoln is- they just work, and hardly ever break.
No, they arent as good for passing inspections on 36" oil pipeline welded in the field.
but he wont be doing that.

KISS.
 








 
Back
Top