500.00 More Of My Dollars Going To China.

Well, the welder arrived today. (three days instead of two). I was so excited to get the thing out and tested, that I just ripped open the box and started assembling the thing. Apparently blinded by my excitement, I completely overlook the bent flat corner of the chassis.
I hook the thing up to my 220 outlet, get out two pieces of 1/8th scrap mild steel, and weld the piss out of it. I'm not used to having a welder that at half power will absolutely melt 1/8th" plate, so I'll have to learn this machines' heat settings compared to the maxxed out settings I had to have w/ the Lincoln.
I hooked up the spool gun, and w/o prepping the scrap pieces (which I shoulda did) I also melted the snot outta those two pieces as well (only much more hideously than the mild steel)
I'm confident that I'll get accustomed to the machine quickly, so the fact that I couldn't make a pretty weld on aluminum outta the box don't confront me. (long as I get my rent by Friday)

So I decided to remove the Lincoln from the HF welding cart, and replace it w/ the logos. When I went to set the new unit in place of the Lincoln, it wobbled like I was setting the thing on top of something. I looked underneath, and there was nothing there except one thing. An outwardly bent bottom, (as in from the inside out)

So now, I finally start to look at this thing. The front left corner has sustained an impact hard enough to completely distort the chassis. Clearly this thing has fallen from pretty high up. The internal power transformer is probably what dented the floor outward.

I actually attempted to straighten the bent sheetmetal before I realized that the whole case was distorted. I figured that the corner just got smacked and sisnce it worked wasn't gonna get all pissy over a cosmetic issue. But when it wobbled on the cart,.......that made this be a "now I gotta return it for a new one" kinda deal.


Initially the outward appearance of the box didn't alert me to possible damage. After I saw the welder, I looked at the box a little closer... There is is. A tumble from probably 6 feet or more, and the only thing inside to cushion the welder was some of that soft foam like stuff that they surround stereo equipment in now days.

The seller has these pics, and my similar story. . It doesn't matter where the thing came from, or whether it was Chinese or made in the USA. Had either of them fallen from a high shelf, they'd both look like this one. I guess now we'll see if doing business w/ an offshore company is worth the savings.

95BlueStallion said:

Good luck, hope it works out well. I hate that sort of thing, got screwed off Ebay once for the sum of over $400 due to a shady company.

Click to expand...

Well to you and anyone else looking in, I made my own luck. Not even giving the seller a chance to react to my email, I decided this morning to open the case up and see what it looked like inside.
Inside the thing there are two massive transformers screwed to the floor of the case(if that's what they are actually called). The Impact of the fall had them looking like the foundation of a building after an earthquake. Both of them leaning inward towards each other. Additionally, there was some heat sink kinda ding dang deal that was bent way down that was attached to a capacitor in between the transformers. At 9:00 AM this morning, I decide to take the thing apart, and straighten the case (since everything actually worked, and there was no visible breakage inside)

By ten I've got the thing gutted,and I'm standing on the case floor trying to persuade it back to normal. That quickly gave way to a 2lb hammer and a 2x4. After a few strategic "whacks", the case started to come around to where I thought it would go back together the right way. Once back on the bench It was simply a matter of screwing the screws, and putting all of the wires back on the way they came off.

Once that was done, I plugged it in and powered it up.

It works. And although it ain't perfect despite the fact that it's brand new, It beats having to box it back up, and wait for it to get back, then wait some more for the new one to come.

When I hear back from the seller, I'm gonna ask that we forego the whole exchange process provided he'll acknowledge that I got a unit that was damaged in shipping, should anything go wrong w/ it during the warranty.

madspeed said:

meh, I'd still file a pp claim

Click to expand...

what is a "pp claim"? It got dropped, nobody peed on the thing.......

I didn't buy it pay pal. Like I said, it works fine. We'll see what dude says tomorrow (if anything)

95BlueStallion said:

Well now it will be void of any warranty since you opened her all up and beat on it with a hammer... But, hopefully nothing important inside those transformers was loosened, and you wont have to worry about it. My son's cheap remote control crane from China died the day after Christmas. While it wasnt $500, it was a simple reminder where I want to buy my stuff going forward (even though my Ebay screwing was from a company in Dallas).

Click to expand...

Nope, wrong again. (That makes two in a row for you now).
The seller responded yesterday w/ a RMA link that would've been freight prepaid there and back by them if I wanted to return the dented piece. I told them what I did, and they acknowledged that they understand I opened it to fix damage that occurred in freight.

So it's all good Jeeves.

elarm1 said:

I wish I had you to give me a welding 101 class. I've never tried it but I know I can do it with a little help. So on your scale of 1-10 with 1 being the worst, how is the welder? @madmike1157

Click to expand...

I'm telling you if you can pull a trigger, you can MIG weld. It's just a matter of practice. A wire welder is the easiest damn thing to learn to do proficiently there is when compared to the other ways of fusing metal together. If you don't mind getting burned occasionally from an errant weld spatter, (usually happens when you are laying down, and goes inside your ear) the learning curve after that is fairly easy to master.
As for the welder I bought and had to hammer back into shape to make it right.... had it not been damaged I'd have to give it a 8 right now. The spool gun is visibly cheaper made than some of the other "name brand" pieces I've seen, and was kinda a pain in the ass to load.
As for it being a "perfect" machine to learn on I believe that it's not, only inasmuch as it is less forgiving than the little 110V Lincoln I learned on (and still have). The new welder is strong enough at 175 amps to weld most anything up to 5/16" plate in a single pass, and the related power that comes from that requires you get the heat right elsewise you'll burn through thinner material in a hurry. ( The Lincoln was great for 1/8" stuff, and once set for that rarely required I do anything for thinner stuff other than change wire speeds)
The caveat to buying a 110v box is that (if you use it to build a car) you'll need more than it's got after a few years of doing it. I have limped by with that little dude for a dozen years, but I had to make concessions to insure good weld penetration/appearance by beveling the mating surfaces of thicker material (like the .140 wall steam pipe I made the exhaust manifold out of).
Had I had either of the two boxes I have now, (the TIG, and the new Mig) I wouldn't have had to do any of that. The TIG, (and the lengthy practice that comes w/ it) would've allowed me to build that thing outta 304 SS thin wall tubing instead. The new Mig would've just Blazed away w/o all the prep that had to be done instead.

RaggedGT said:

Doing a little old thread digging today, figure enough time has passed to ask ; How's the New welder set up going? What has become of the old Lincoln-Collecting dust in the corner? Lol late to the party but the New set up looks pretty good.

Click to expand...

I am perfectly satisfied w/ the new welder. Never so much as a glitch, and this thing must've fell from 6' as bent up as it was when I took delivery of it, so it has more than passed it's "beta" test with me.
The lincoln has become a stumbling block. No matter where I put it, I'm having to step over it. It needs to go.

RaggedGT said:

Looked like a Great set up for the price. Glad the damage was mainly cosmetic. If Alabama wasn't so far away I'd give your old welder a new home lol

Click to expand...

The freight from here to KY probably wouldn't be bad, the thing does weigh about 50 lbs though.

RaggedGT said:

Looks like it would cost around $40 bucks lol so not to bad to ship

Click to expand...

That that would put you in the old Lincoln for around 90 bucks to your door.