Vulcan Omnipro 220..anyone use it

Mac5005 said:
It’s a tool. Some people swear by snap on/matco/binford. Some people are happy with harbor freight/craftsman/kobalt.
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I'm the latter lol
 
I started my off-road modifying hobby with a Hobart 140 MIG. Learned patience, material prep, and watching the puddle. I now have an older Miller 210. Seems like less need for paying attention = lesser quality. I am constantly making myself slow down and pay attention more than I used to. My FIL is a 50+ year professional welder and likes my welds. BTW, I have never had any formal training. Just watched him for many years.

Buy what you can afford and pay attention to the weld. Unless you are relining buckets and dump beds in a shop, a lesser duty cycle isn’t necessarily a bad thing in our hobby.
 
BrianGreen said:
, a lesser duty cycle isn’t necessarily a bad thing in our hobby.
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very true. I've myself have also been using a 140 amp lincoln for 7 yrs, now a Klutch 140 for almost 3 and have perfected Flux and MIg with a 110v welder lol. I've built many rigs with them and can weld just about anything...duty cycle and speed gets annoying though which is why I need to step it up. When I built my car trialer not long ago, took WAY too long to weld it all up haha (I'm naturally fast paced worker/welder without sacrificing quality). I'm gonna be in a shop very soon too so also need a 220 to handle more day to day work volume compared to working at home type of volume.
 
Well I got blessed with this monster machine. This thing is a beast. Little complex to fine tune but playing with the settings I'm getting there.
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marty79 said:
Well I got blessed with this monster machine. This thing is a beast. Little complex to fine tune but playing with the settings I'm getting there.
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That is an exceptional machine. If you ever want to sell let me know. I’ve ran miles of wire through those.

Good find.

There are two short circuit mig settings.

One is CV, the other CC. Learn how to use each for different things and it will make you very happy.
 
Mac5005 said:
One is CV, the other CC. Learn how to use each for different things and it will make you very happy.
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yeah i'm trying to figure it all out with the manual. I'm not good at reading and all the terms but I'll get it lol. how nice it is to have a 15ft lead too unlike the crap 6 footer on the 110s that you get lol.
 
marty79 said:
yeah i'm trying to figure it all out with the manual. I'm not good at reading and all the terms but I'll get it lol. how nice it is to have a 15ft lead too unlike the crap 6 footer on the 110s that you get lol.
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Setting 11 or setting 5. Very different setups.

Screw the manual, just choose each setting and then try it out, adjust knobs & note the changes.

One of the coolest things I did, was get the amperage around 105, then turn the wfs down to slow everything down.

Allowed me to make much slower, more easily controlled welds on critical items, without sacrificing my amperage below 100.

There were on welds that I was testing to verify parameters, so everything was destructive tested to aws d1.1/api 1104.

It’s been a few years, but IIRC, welded sch 80 6” pipe, settings were around 100-105 amps, volts @ 17.5, wfs 175-180 with .035” solid. 75/25 mix. Pipe was beveled, gapped, tacked. Welded with 1 root, 1 hot, and 3 stringer cover passes.

Passed visual, and bend testing and was flawless.

Not saying that’s the end all setup, I was just pushing the machine and settings to see what all I could do, with settings not in “normal” range, and still execute a solid weld with results that meet code.

I did around 50 of these tests with different machine settings just to test theory and confirm/deny suspicions.

With that said, I am a very competent welder behind the hood, and know the shortcomings of short circuit mig, and know what to look for, look out for, and avoid.

I don’t mean that as tooting my own horn, just mean it as, I have countless hours of shield time in a controlled environment destructive testing each and every one of my welds/setup to reinforce what I’m doing right or wrong.

The settings won’t band aid poor technique.

The settings will allow you to tailor a good technique to how fast/slow you like to work, to allow you to execute the best weld you can.

Awesome machine for mig, short circuit or spray. Great for stick work as well, and scratch start TIG on steel.

Glad you pulled the trigger on one of these!!!
 
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Mac5005 said:
Setting 11 or setting 5. Very different setups.

Screw the manual, just choose each setting and then try it out, adjust knobs & note the changes.

One of the coolest things I did, was get the amperage around 105, then turn the wfs down to slow everything down.

Allowed me to make much slower, more easily controlled welds on critical items, without sacrificing my amperage below 100.

There were on welds that I was testing to verify parameters, so everything was destructive tested to aws d1.1/api 1104.

It’s been a few years, but IIRC, welded sch 80 6” pipe, settings were around 100-105 amps, volts @ 17.5, wfs 175-180 with .035” solid. 75/25 mix. Pipe was beveled, gapped, tacked. Welded with 1 root, 1 hot, and 3 stringer cover passes.

Passed visual, and bend testing and was flawless.

Not saying that’s the end all setup, I was just pushing the machine and settings to see what all I could do, with settings not in “normal” range, and still execute a solid weld with results that meet code.

I did around 50 of these tests with different machine settings just to test theory and confirm/deny suspicions.

With that said, I am a very competent welder behind the hood, and know the shortcomings of short circuit mig, and know what to look for, look out for, and avoid.

I don’t mean that as tooting my own horn, just mean it as, I have countless hours of shield time in a controlled environment destructive testing each and every one of my welds/setup to reinforce what I’m doing right or wrong.

The settings won’t band aid poor technique.

The settings will allow you to tailor a good technique to how fast/slow you like to work, to allow you to execute the best weld you can.

Awesome machine for mig, short circuit or spray. Great for stick work as well, and scratch start TIG on steel.

Glad you pulled the trigger on one of these!!!
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thank you very much for the advise...especially since yeah the manual is bunch of mumble jumble to me lol. I'll try and play with those setting you mentioned ..got me exited now. I had it going descent but couldn't get amps/volts to match wire speed so it was burning great but wire speed wasn't what I wanted. I'll keep playing with it now that I know where to start.
 
Chris_Keziah said:
If I were to go out and buy a new mig welder I'd probably look heavily at Esab's Rebel 215ic and Everlast275p. If you want to dream look up Fronius. For Tig I'd look into the Ahp 201xd (planning to purchase soonish).

On a side note I use a Lincoln 216, there is absoulty no replacement for knowing that your machine can weld longer than you can
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The rebel is junk for mig welding. Evidently I have missed something because nearly every machine that is smaller and isn't a dedicated phased setup isn't any better than the omnipro. I'd say the stick welding is actual better than the miller that is in its league. The mig works just fine if you know how to play the duty cycle game and tigging isn't bad, and for those saying you can't tig weld aluminum, you can't run pretty ass instagram welds but it does weld it. Guess you don't know everything there jack. Everlast is a awesome tig welder, but that's it and its Chinese as well. Esab welders are a joke for mig welding, they are slow compared to a cheap machine and Lincoln probably has the best mig welder but like I said, if it isn't a dedicated setup for that process phased properly then you are going to have to deal with the down sides of these types of setups. I was actually shocked how good the omnipro performed at all tasks which is something that no other company has been able to do. So, not a bad purchase especially if you are gonna abuse it to begin with.
 
Holy Thread Revival LMBO LOL LOL
I actually have gone through a couple machines since 3yrs ago, several Lincoln machines, and I've actually stuck with the Titanium 170. Why? Because you just can't beat the in-store exchange "IF" and "WHEN" something happens and when you do fab work full time for a living, I can't afford to have a machine go down and be stuck without one. For this very reason I went with the Titanium and paid for the extra 4yr warranty...it breaks, you go in and get a brand new one that day, no questions asked. Northern Tool and HF does this and that to me is gold. I love the big brands too but when they break, and they do, you SOL for weeks usually and I can't have that.
Having all that said, 1.4yrs now welding on this Titanium 170 and I have absolutely 0 complaints other than the 8ft lead lol. It honestly Migs just as good as any other machine I've used!! Maybe cause I'm a pretty decent Mig welder and know how to dial it in, idk but I love how it performs for a $485 machine. I can transport it easily at 24lbs when needed on 110v, I run 2 11lb spools through it a month and I've never thrown duty cycle yet. I weld on 18.5v mostly and again for the money, you really can't go wrong for such a cheap machine. I've always believed it's not always the machine but more the operator. A good proficient Mig welder can/should be able to weld pretty decent with almost any machine if that machine is in "proper" working order and I've not found one yet that I can't weld with.
I'm not saying a production shop could run this Titanium but for the average joe doing home hobby or even the average guy building his/her rig, it's a plenty of machine to do the job.
 
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