[stefuel]

Looks like they're stepping up their game. This reminds me of a Lincoln Power Mig 210

[Artie F. Emm]

You're right, the LCD screen is a departure for them. I saw this on the review section for this welder:
"We used it every day for a year and it never let us down. "

Every day for a year... but they just released the product. Hmmm...

[Farmwelding]

If they have a shot if me buying a welder from them they have got to step up their guns and stingers. Guns are flimsy and the electrode holders are small and cheap. Just my opinion.

[Louie1961]

There is an extensive post on this over at welding web including a post from the guy who said he was using for a year. Apparently he was a beta tester for them. Shovelon (Terry) over there says he was a beta tester too and couldn't kill the machine and he tried really hard to kill it. Had the TIG torch smoking apparently. I may try and pick one up this weekend for giggles and grins. They are now discounting the mutiprocess unit by $70 and offering a full 1 year "try it and if you don't like it for any reason bring it back for a full refund" guarantee. Assuming the wording on this try it for a year guarantee isn't to weasel-ly, I will bring one home this weekend. The specs on it are way better than my HH190, so I figure I will give it a whirl.

[stefuel]

I like the user interface of the Lincoln and this looks like the same welder in a different case. Looks like a good deal but my next mig will have pulse which I don't think this or the Lincoln have. I don't need another tig or stick machine.

[RayCJ]

Hi Folks...

I picked-up a Harbor Freight Vulcan MIGMAX 215 a couple weeks ago. It's my first MIG machine and I'm new to MIG welding; however, I've been using a couple other welders for a few years. About 5 years ago, I bought an Everlast 205S multi-process machine and taught myself how to TIG weld. It was a brand new model at the time. Looks like I have a propensity to take risks on new models... My stick machine is an AC/DC Lincoln buzzbox and it's about 10 years old now. It's pretty low-tech but is my go-to machine when I need to stick something.

Anyhow, I had to practice a good while with the new MIG machine and all I can say is that I should have switched over to MIG a long time ago. I wish I could comment more about the quality and features of the Vulcan 215 but I have nothing to compare it to. I took a look inside it and the build quality appears to be on-par with the Everlast. It has performed well on a few small projects and I did some extended test-welds (on junk metal) lasting 5-6 minutes at medium settings. It's only seen two 8" spools of wire but so far, it's running fine as far as I can tell.

In case anyone is interested, here's the feed rates as measured with a hand tachometer off the drive roller. The results are the average from 3 tests at each speed setting. The variance from one test to the next was next to nothing, keeping in-mind that that dial is continuous so each setting is eye-balled to the given position.

Vulcan MigMax 215 Wire Speeds

A.0 100 A.5 110
B.0 120 B.5 160
C.0 190 C.5 200
D.0 210 D.5 250
E.0 280 E.5 310
F.0 330 F.5 350
G.0 370 G.5 410
H.0 440 H.5 460
I.0 490 I.5 500
J.0 510

So far, I like MIG welding and am pleased with this welding unit. I wish I had experience with other brands to make a better comparison. If I had any criticism, it's that the dials are super touchy. They don't seem cheap at all but, it would be good if the dials were harder to turn. With gloves on, the dials offer no tactile feedback. I might put some rubber O-rings under the knobs because they're too easy to bump and make a big change when you only wanted to tweak something a little bit. FWIW, the Everlast is the same way. Anyhow, this is a really minor nit. The overall machine quality is a big step up from what pops into mind when I think about Harbor Freight equipment.

Anyhow, just wondering if anyone else here has one and if so, if you have any tips or tricks to share.

Thanks

Ray C.