Dont Bother Buying Second Hand

[Mogzieno1]

I bought a second hand 151EN last year and its the biggest mistake ive ever made! Ive had nothing but bother with it, ive still got problems with the wire feed despite servicing the torch and now it wont strike an arc

Anyone thinking about buying secondhand, just wait and get a new one

 

[malcolm]

It can be a problem buying second hand especially for first time welders. You'd generally expect to have to fit a new liner, tips and all, and most first time welders won't realise servicing is required.

Diagnosing other troubles can be painful too - I had someone come along for help learning to weld. I had him bring his welder and it turned out he could weld fine just his welder needed fixing. With nothing to compare against he thought it was him.

Though on the other side of the coin it's possible to buy brand new welders that are poorly specified or just don't work very well. Again with nothing to compare against the welder will think it's them.

 

[malcolm]

That was a general thought - nobody brings up the topic very often. Not aimed at yourself.

For yourself the load tests in the SIP liner page might be worth doing. Failing anything obvious there my 155T had misaligned rollers due to wear in the plastic pivot. I bodged it with a sliver of metal in the end of the pivot. Could be something similar.

 

[Justme]

I bought something new once & it was broken on arrival. Dont buy new

justme

 

[madkayaker]

get really old then its usually bomb proof

 

[shenion]

get really old then its usually bomb proof

With a 35 and a 30 year old welder and a 60-year old lathe; i would tend to agree