Jimmy, If You are not a "RED BLOODED" person You might also consider the Miller A B/P 330 or Airco Heliwelder 300. These are the same machine, the Miller being blue, and the Airco being orange. They are similar to a Lincoln 300/300 in capability and price. Allso see what I added above.
I just saw a 500/500 on eBay, it is not a TIG ready model, and has a moving core. The moving core means You can not have remote amperage controll. If You are still looking at a 500/500 check to be sure it is TIG capable.
Hello Dave, Miller had an older 500 amp tig machine which I believe they referred to as having "goldstar" technology, if my memory serves me correctly, this machine was considered stable down to around 2 or 3 amps. Lawrence may have some recollection of this particular model of machine and could possibly shed a bit more information on it one way or another. I had one of these about ten years ago, but the memory isn't firing on all 8 so I can't remember the exact specifics. I would tend to agree with the 300 amp machines as a good choice, the 500's and 600's would probably dim half the lights in town if you throttled down on them and your electrical meter on your shop might go into orbit. Best regards, Allan
Those are pretty good questions.
I learned GTAW on a a Lincoln 300/300 and several old P&H's. I liked the 300/300 quite alot at the time. It was pretty simple and we welded some pretty thin stuff with it (down to 0.020 inconel)
I can't say if a 500/500 would have the same low end... But the owners manual might. It might also provide some useful data on power draw while the thing is running idle.
You might also double check to make sure that the machine your looking at can run on a single phase service if you are planning on this thing living in your garage.
We made boatloads of X-ray quality welds in both Aluminum and exotics with those Lincoln's and P&H power supplies.... The P&H's diddent' even have balence control.
Those old P&H machines were the best darn analog GTAW power sources out there - back in the day!!!
Repaired two of them... one needed another fan motor after being around for a gazillion years, and the other was the main contactor that finally gave out... A testament to quality engineered power sources!!! Beautiful running machines also ;)
Respectfully,
Henry
Allan, My Airco 600 is the same as a Miller 360 A-B/P. I havn't ever measured the low end amps, but the low range on the face plate starts at 20 amps. This model is one of those old Gold Star machines, it has the old plate rectifires with the gold star designation. Miller doesn't refer to this model as a Gold Star anymore, as there is a newer design with that name. I can only use low range on this machine because I don't have it on a heavy enough circut, and because I only have a 200 amp torch on it.
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