Vulcan Omnipro 220..anyone use it

marty79

marty79

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Location
Newton, NC
Looking for any personal reviews on this unit if anyone has used it. I'm not crazy about the newer digital welder but some have better reviews than others. (No I'm not buying a Miller 211 lol).
Any other recommendations for good shop 220 welder to handle regular shop usage (like full time usage) thanks
 
hurt4x4 said:
Do you need a multi process machine?
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not a must but was considering since I'd like to learn to TiG weld eventually for aluminum but more concerned about a quality 220 welder to handle any job and day to day use in a shop
 
tsconver said:
I have one. It is a beast for mig. It does 7000 series rod pretty good. Have not tried tig. It cannot find aluminum tig. It is tap and go. I have ran three tanks of gas and probably 4 spools of wire through mine.
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thank you, that is a pretty solid review
 
tsconver said:
I have one. It is a beast for mig. It does 7000 series rod pretty good. Have not tried tig. It cannot run aluminum tig. It is tap and go. I have ran three tanks of gas and probably 4 spools of wire through mine.
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That be scratch or lift arc start....without checking this sounds like a machine without high frequency a.c. for aluminum gtaw.
Screenshot_2019-12-18-08-51-24.png

These are the important numbers. Also proves the duty cycle is for hobby use at best.
 
https://www.hobartweldshop.com/reconditioned-welders-plasma-cutters/

It has been covered in other welding threads but there are a ton of members on here that have been very happy with the long term quality of the Hobart machines. Good bang for the buck, easy to get consumables just about everywhere, proven track record. Keep an eye on their factory direct reconditioned page I linked above. They come in and out of stock often so its worth monitoring regularly.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
That be scratch or lift arc start....without checking this sounds like a machine without high frequency a.c. for aluminum gtaw.
View attachment 308420
These are the important numbers. Also proves the duty cycle is for hobby use at best.
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Yes, it does not have high frequency. I disagree with hobby use. I have welded with it all day long and not had any issues. Online reviews are great. One review a guy just runs beads for an extended time and cannot get it to shut down. Runs it for 30 min non stop if I recall correctly. Is it a professional machine for nonstop welding for hours no. Is it capable of welding axles and cages where you are not welding beads non stop for hours in my opinion definitely. Had several people use my machine that are good welders and they all like it as well. Also have used the Lincoln MP210 and it is a nice welder as well basically same specs as the Omni and welds just as nice. For cost and warranty I would go the omnipro hand downs. At least when I bought mine for $50 or so you could add a 3 year unconditional warranty to it.
 
rockcity said:
If you want to learn tig aluminum, this machine is useless. Save your $ and get a good, dedicated mig for what you need and save up for a good high frequency tig.
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That sounds like the best option. thanks
 
tsconver said:
Yes, it does not have high frequency. I disagree with hobby use. I have welded with it all day long and not had any issues. Online reviews are great. One review a guy just runs beads for an extended time and cannot get it to shut down. Runs it for 30 min non stop if I recall correctly. Is it a professional machine for nonstop welding for hours no. Is it capable of welding axles and cages where you are not welding beads non stop for hours in my opinion definitely. Had several people use my machine that are good welders and they all like it as well. Also have used the Lincoln MP210 and it is a nice welder as well basically same specs as the Omni and welds just as nice. For cost and warranty I would go the omnipro hand downs. At least when I bought mine for $50 or so you could add a 3 year unconditional warranty to it.
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Gmaw 19 volts at 40%. Since it requires dang near all that output for short circuit with
.035 wire is say she's pretty part time. 4 minutes of good output out of ten.
Of course lighter wire will run at lower settings with a bit better duty cycle. Anything heavier then 11ga. For an extended period running high quality beads without large puddle manipulation will be a struggle.
Spray transfer, being mainly an industrial output I want even argue.
For the record John I've saw your abilities and bragging about the chances to use a real machine. And your welds appeared to be wholey better.....don't cheat yourself with a half assed investment. Get machine meant to work as hard as you talk about being able to do. Or buy a toy and learn to only make sparks at less than half the capacity as a dedicated machine.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Gmaw 19 volts at 40%. Since it requires dang near all that output for short circuit with
.035 wire is say she's pretty part time. 4 minutes of good output out of ten.
Of course lighter wire will run at lower settings with a bit better duty cycle. Anything heavier then 11ga. For an extended period running high quality beads without large puddle manipulation will be a struggle.
Spray transfer, being mainly an industrial output I want even argue.
For the record John I've saw your abilities and bragging about the chances to use a real machine. And your welds appeared to be wholey better.....don't cheat yourself with a half assed investment. Get machine meant to work as hard as you talk about being able to do. Or buy a toy and learn to only make sparks at less than half the capacity as a dedicated machine.
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Say what you will but it is as good as any 30amp multi function machine out there. It is not a professional unit but for doing cages or arms or axles it will perform as good as any 30amp machine. That is all I was saying. Will a dedicated tig be better sure will a dedicated mig be better in a 30amp rating maybe

If you plan to.weld all.day on heavy stuff then step up to a professional 50 amp machine.
 
tsconver said:
Say what you will but it is as good as any 30amp multi function machine out there.
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Not sure if you noticed his username...he's kind of a professional. I bet he knows chicken shit from chicken salad
But of course internet forum knowledge trumps that
 
If I needed another mig welder I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Vulcan mig. I've had the protig165 for over a year and it's been great.
I use a miller maxstar150 at work for stainless field work. My protig165 has a slightly higher duty cycle, high frequency start and seems to handle low amp starts better than the miller.
If anything happens to it and you purchase the three year warranty, you take it back to your local HF and you get a new one. No down time waiting on repair. The only negative I see is long term parts availability since HF seems to change brands so often.
 
All I'll say is HF isn't the place to buy a welder if you're doing professional work.
I stand by what I just said based on the definition of professional. Being paid for the job.
Hobbyist use is fine. Just as @WARRIORWELDING stated, it requires someone to monitor duty cycle and adjust use accordingly.
That's not a spray and pray machine.
 
hurt4x4 said:
If anything happens to it and you purchase the three year warranty, you take it back to your local HF and you get a new one. No down time waiting on repair. The only negative I see is long term parts availability since HF seems to change brands so often.
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I have fundamental issues with that concept. I struggle with logic of buying something that costs $1k but has very sketchy prospects of being repaired because the company now carries a different brand or uses a different contract manufacturer in China. Sure, it's just another input into the decision matrix, but it's a tough sell when you get into stuff that isn't on the cheap/disposable end of the price spectrum anymore...
 
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Let's do a test. I've got a Miller 211, Everlast 275 mig, and a Hobart 140. Im down to buy a hf mig and a Lincoln 210 or 180 and see which one has the least shitty weld and how long they can go. I don't think the "high end" hf inverter machines are probably much shittier than the name brand versions. I've been let down by Miller products as many times as I've been let down by harbor freight...
 
"It is not a professional unit but for doing cages or arms or axles it will perform as good as any 30amp machine"

I'm pretty sure we have different levels of expectation or integrity of weldments in mind. For all the things listed in this statement none are where I would compromise performance and most of all safety. To each his own. I'm not trying to be ugly either, but these are exactly the kind of work that has very little margin for poor weld performance. As a hobby builder I would encourage those exact components be built by a reputable, professional source.
 
I think he was referring to how often you hit duty cycle, not wheteher you're laying bubble gum or dime stacks.
 
I just can't help but think if I took, for example, my Dodge 2500 into a shop to pay to get a front axle swapped in, and saw that the main welding machine in the shop was a HF rig, I'd turn around and leave.

Seriously, being in business is 1/3 having tools to do the job, 1/3 skills to do it properly, and 1/3 appearances. The HF would fail on appearances (if not also right tool for the job).
 
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