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Old 04-24-2016, 03:37 PM
Dyce Dyce is offline
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Default Miller Syncrowave 350 Questions

I am looking at and hoping to buy a Miller Syncrowave 350 monday. I have a Miller 330 I tig weld with now and it works great for steel, but I am hoping the Syncrowave will be better with aluminum. I just want to know is there anything I need to look for before I buy a used Syncrowave? Will the Syncrowave be an improvement? Will it make welding aluminum any easier? The 350 is a bit large but I can get it for $1000 with a water cooler and torch. I feel like I need to jump at the chance.
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Old 04-24-2016, 03:50 PM
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Marty Comstock Marty Comstock is offline
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I have a 250 and would be on the edge of buying a 350 at that price. As for welding aluminum being any easier or harder, difficult to say, I believe you can adjust the hi freq strength and the balance of the square wave, (better cleaning vs better penetration) does your 330 have that?

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Old 04-24-2016, 04:03 PM
Dyce Dyce is offline
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You can adjust the intensity or strength but not the balance.
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Old 04-24-2016, 04:08 PM
retropower retropower is offline
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Another thing to bear in mind ( it affected my decision when looking at a syncrowave 350 in the uk) is power supply. Do you have a suitably large supply. They draw a vast current! I'm sure with the machine you have now you should be ok. I was limited (well I didn't want to have sockets only for welder really) to 32amps 415v 3 phase. I ended up going with a 300amp hitachi inverter pair machine in the end. Couldn't justify a dynasty or a fronius. I reckon the hitachi is a good machine but that's not helping your question!
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Old 04-24-2016, 04:19 PM
SoCalShaper SoCalShaper is offline
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The power needed for it is what would turn me away. I've got an old dialarc hf that is supposed to be hard wired into its own 100 amp breaker. I bought a syncrowave 210 last year which is an inverter machine only needs 30 amps to put out 210 amps. Also the weight of the inverter is much much less. The 210 weights I think 125 pounds but the dialarc weighs closer to 500+. If it's price that is the deciding factor then go for it but you need alot of power to run that machine and not to easy to move around. I paid about 2500 for the sync 210.

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Old 04-24-2016, 04:30 PM
Dyce Dyce is offline
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The power requirements are the same, 70 amps so that doesn't concern me. It runs on 220 single phase.
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Old 04-24-2016, 06:00 PM
John Buchtenkirch John Buchtenkirch is offline
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If by 330 Miller you’re talking about the older Miller 330 ABP (large radius corners on front & rear of the top) that was my very first tig welder. I had nothing but problems welding thin Honda skins with that machine. I upgraded to a 250 Syncrowave and BINGO, those problems went away immediately, the 250 Syncrowave has a much lower starting amperage and I’d just bet the 350 shares that newer technology too. So I’m thinking you will even have better results when welding thin steel. I don’t believe you will need more power to that machine unless you use the top amperage settings so I say go for it, my bet is you will be glad you did as long as the welder is okay and I’m assuming you will be trying it under power before purchase. ~ John Buchtenkirch
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ABP.jpg
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Old 04-24-2016, 06:01 PM
weldtoride weldtoride is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dyce View Post
I am looking at and hoping to buy a Miller Syncrowave 350 monday. I have a Miller 330 I tig weld with now and it works great for steel, but I am hoping the Syncrowave will be better with aluminum. I just want to know is there anything I need to look for before I buy a used Syncrowave? Will the Syncrowave be an improvement? Will it make welding aluminum any easier? The 350 is a bit large but I can get it for $1000 with a water cooler and torch. I feel like I need to jump at the chance.
I had a Miller Snycrowave 200 when I taught high school shop, it had a real nice arc. The square wave itself and it's balance control will be a treat if you are used to regular sine wave units.

If you have the service amps, go for it. The 200 occasionally blew the breaker at its rated max service draw.

The water cooler is a huge plus as far as value added, I looked long and hard for a used cooler and ended up fabbing my own as I was always a day late or a couple hundred short on used coolers.

As far as what to look for, I would ask for a test drive, pay attention to arc start and AC balance. If you do a lot of real low amp work, try it out there, some of the older welders weren't happy down in the real low amp neighborhood even when new. I would ask to remove a side cover and see how much shop detritus has been allowed to accumulate on the circuit boards, less shows good maintenance. In my humble opinion, keeping the boards blown or vacuumed out and positioning the unit where it will suck the minimum of airborne crap in through its cooling fan is key to long welder life.
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Old 04-24-2016, 07:07 PM
Dyce Dyce is offline
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John that is the 330 I am talking about, though mine is older and has a white face. Mark I will request a test run and look it over. Here are the pictures I have.




Thanks everyone for the responses.
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Old 04-25-2016, 11:28 AM
Essexmetal Essexmetal is online now
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The 330 ABP is a slope wave machine where the Syncrowave is a squarewave machine. Let google show you the way the AC waveform looks like. Welding steel will be pretty much the same but the Syncro will have a bit more crispness in the pedal response. It will be night and day with aluminum between the two machines especially on thin material. Nothing the matter with a 330, as with many I learned to weld on one and did not think there could be an improvement until I used a 300 Syncro. Big improvement. There is as big of a functional jump to the new inverter machines as they take configuring the AC waveform to very specific settings. But they are pricey machines compared to Syncros and don't offer as big of an improvement from a Syncro as going from a 330 Goldstar to a Syncrowave does.

All models of syncrowaves have issues with the circuit boards but it seems that the 300's have the problem occur the most. No longer offered by Miller there are aftermarket solutions. The is a factory repair tech that is now out on his own that seems to keep them all running. Brian's Welder Repair in Michigan can help you out if you find there are things with the arc stability and starting that don't seen right. The reostat in the foot pedal can also cause this problem. Does not hurt to pull it apart and visually check it.
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