mig welder toast...

In 2014 I bought this new Rehm 190 mig welder. Both 230/ 400v, highly adjustable top notch machine. No cheapo either.
Fast forward to last week... I was welding not too clean steel, little rust little paint, your average spatter mess, nothing too crazy, when the welder started acting weird like it didnt feed enough wire. Torch was still clean. Never had this problem before with this machine, and since I had an inch to go and I was kinda in a hurry I just cranked up the feed a bit and finished the job. Next day, no wire feed at all... see pic....

Now ,the welder is 7-8 yrs old BUT, I am currently half way through my 4th roll of wire on this unit... The supply shop gave me a great price on a new 3k machine...lol
They also gave me a $60,- invoice for diagnosing this piece of crap I also bought new from them. Maybe it`s me but I would be ashamed to do that.
I won`t be back for a pair of welding gloves there either

sorry, rant over...

I run miller equipment. I have had issues but they have always stood behind them. My tig welder was 3 months out of Warrenty when it let the magic white smoke out of I r. It was a 2500 machine and it was going to be 1800 to repair it. Willer stepped up and replaces parts I payed 15 for labor.

Stuff just isnt built to last these days

lowbudget50 said:

Stuff just isnt built to last these days

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well...ain`t that the truth...


Miller is not a big player in the market overhere. I don`t think there`s a dealer anywhere near. It`s mostly Lincoln, Fronius, Lorch ,Kemppi ,Esab and Rehm.
I had a dutch brand mig welder for over 20 yrs, mistreated and abused, welded miles and it still worked like a champ when I sold it, which I never should have...

I sold my miller I bought as my first welder. Was built in 1976. Worked great. Shouldnt have sold it either!!

About 7-8 years ago my almost 40 yr old welder took a dump on me.
It would spit and sputter and you might know I'm right In the middle of
a pretty big project. Had a couple of bucks in my pocket so off to the
Linclon store and came home with a model 216, love it. I only use it for
heavy gauge steel. Back to my story, a good friend of mine stopped by who
just happened to be an electronic guy. He saw the welder torn apart and asked what was wrong with it? Of course, my smart azz replied, if I knew I'd fix it He told me to pull the circuit board and he would take it home and
check it out. About 3 or four weeks later he stopped by and handed me the board and said try this. Put everything back together and we're back in business. Said he found a bad diode, used his "special" tool to suck out the old solder and install and resolder...13 buck fix, should have called him first I only use this machine for sheet metal now. I think I paid around 1200.00 years ago, think I got my money's worth out of it. won't be able to say the same for the new one....

old one

Tho it's not a mig, I've had the Lincoln tombstone stick welder since 1973. Bought it used from my boss for $75.Last year the cooling fan died but I replaced it with a later model fan from amazon...cheap fix. The thing has never failed. It was still welding when the fan blew but I shut down the project until I got the fan.

Coming up on 30 years of trouble free service from my Lincoln S-175 wire feed welder.

Must be welder day. My Miller 350P is acting up. It will feed wire and arc. The problem is that sometimes it won't send gas. I don't know weather it is the solenoid valve, a relay or something else. I'm not much of an electronics diagnoser. The valve and the relay are about $100.00 each. I'm not sure if it is better to change them out one at a time and see if the first one fixes it. If not then try the second one. Being an intermittent problem it will be hard to tell if it is fixed right away. The other factor is that this happened after changing in a new bottle of argon/ co2. I will swap to another bottle as a first try.

I've always used a Miller mig & plasma cutter & had my current ones for about 15 years now. A couple years ago I had to replace the torch/gun because it had a kink somewhere in the line & wouldn't feed properly... worked just like new after I replaced it.

BoB

Miller stood behind my machine. Inpicked it up.today free of charge!!!!

lowbudget50 said:

Miller stood behind my machine. Inpicked it up.today free of charge!!!!

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good news. I`d say any company should in that situation. I bought my Rehm in 2014, so it`s a tad more past warranty.... I decided to have it repaired though. Hope to get it back next week or so.