Mate is safely ensconced in one of my barns for a few days due to a problem with his electrical supply to his unit which is now diagnosed as a blown resin joint on the cable, and they are coming on Monday to repair it.
Just his luck, he had ordered a Lincoln Powertec 365 and it was delivered just after his power had blown, I got a call HHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLP and agreed to let him use a barn for a few days as metalwork is his living, so he turned up with his lorry and his new machine on the back. Fortunately it was on a pallet so I could lift it off with the teleporter, and he began assembling it and found he had forgotten his plug and his MIG wire, so I supplied him with a plug and a roll of 1.2mm and 0.8mm wire and off he went.
Having used many Lincoln's over the years I have found them a durable and robust machine and the first thing I noticed that there was a distinct downturn in the quality and durability of the casing, compared to earlier Lincoln's it appeared quite flimsy. It is to be a machine used only in his workshop so this is not an issue for him but may be an issue if used as a transportable machine.
On 1.2 wire it held a lovely arc at medium and high settings and you could use it for most types of work due to the removable wire feed unit and standard 5M umbilical and its wire feed was smooth and consistent and you could use it as a long and short arc welder without issues, and for push and pull work.
On the 0.8mm wire it was pretty much the same up to the maximum power capacity of the wire, the upper range of the 0.8mm wire was only the mid range of the machine.
All the switches seemed robust and the range selector was a very stiff and precise action, the power selector was a little less precise, but issues did arise at the lower power settings on thinner material, my issue was I couldn't fine tune it for use on vehicle bodywork and I assumed it was due to the fact I use an invertor machine and can get it dialled in perfectly for me. Mate also found the same problem and he does a reasonable amount of sheet metal work, you have slightly too much power on one setting and slightly too little power on the next position down, we did try to compensate by altering the wire feed rate but this did little to overcome the problem.
We ran the machine on CO2 and Argoshield and it performed well on both gases.
Overall I felt slightly disappointed as Lincoln's have always been a durable and robustly built machine and I feel it has been unnecessarily cheapened here, and the issue of the inability to fine tune it at low power settings may be a concern for some.
As a workshop machine being used at its medium and higher power settings it is a fine machine with consistency and a very stable arc.
Just his luck, he had ordered a Lincoln Powertec 365 and it was delivered just after his power had blown, I got a call HHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLP and agreed to let him use a barn for a few days as metalwork is his living, so he turned up with his lorry and his new machine on the back. Fortunately it was on a pallet so I could lift it off with the teleporter, and he began assembling it and found he had forgotten his plug and his MIG wire, so I supplied him with a plug and a roll of 1.2mm and 0.8mm wire and off he went.
Having used many Lincoln's over the years I have found them a durable and robust machine and the first thing I noticed that there was a distinct downturn in the quality and durability of the casing, compared to earlier Lincoln's it appeared quite flimsy. It is to be a machine used only in his workshop so this is not an issue for him but may be an issue if used as a transportable machine.
On 1.2 wire it held a lovely arc at medium and high settings and you could use it for most types of work due to the removable wire feed unit and standard 5M umbilical and its wire feed was smooth and consistent and you could use it as a long and short arc welder without issues, and for push and pull work.
On the 0.8mm wire it was pretty much the same up to the maximum power capacity of the wire, the upper range of the 0.8mm wire was only the mid range of the machine.
All the switches seemed robust and the range selector was a very stiff and precise action, the power selector was a little less precise, but issues did arise at the lower power settings on thinner material, my issue was I couldn't fine tune it for use on vehicle bodywork and I assumed it was due to the fact I use an invertor machine and can get it dialled in perfectly for me. Mate also found the same problem and he does a reasonable amount of sheet metal work, you have slightly too much power on one setting and slightly too little power on the next position down, we did try to compensate by altering the wire feed rate but this did little to overcome the problem.
We ran the machine on CO2 and Argoshield and it performed well on both gases.
Overall I felt slightly disappointed as Lincoln's have always been a durable and robustly built machine and I feel it has been unnecessarily cheapened here, and the issue of the inability to fine tune it at low power settings may be a concern for some.
As a workshop machine being used at its medium and higher power settings it is a fine machine with consistency and a very stable arc.