After an extensive and exhaustive investigation into this little machine I was finally convinced to buy one.
The thing is amazing!
Esab is considered the "Ferrari of welders" by many in the welding industry. I am amazed at what this little machine can do. I weighs only 26lbs. My miller 180 weighs 73lbs and I was getting damn tired of lugging that and my generator around.
The weight is what appealed to me as well as the inverter. It is very stable on generators. It even welds ALUMINUM without a spoolgun!
The gun has a ball at the base that moves in a circular motion making it very fluid on fast passes as well as welding in tight spaces.
The hose is super strong 600lbs with quick detach ends and not clips!
It has a strap to go over your shoulder to move around the shop with ease. I also has a places for the cords to wrap up.. ALL THE CORDS.
The rig came with a FULL SPOOL OF 030 not just a little test spool.
I can't say enough about it. Super clean, very powerful and portable and so many nice features for the cost $950.00.
Read the specs for yourself.
http://products.esabna.com/EN/home/a...ddy®_mig_c200i
Here are a few jobs I just did with it.
It took me a while to get it dialed in. The readouts are digital and you need to convert from standard to metric or metric to standard. There is no fractional readout It is going to take me a while to get fluent with that part of it. But I can tell you when the thing is dialed in it is VERY VERY NICE.



Comes with a FLOWMETER!!!!

First welds right out of the box. Test welds.. They are jumpy to say the least. It took me a while to get the power/metal thickness parameters equal.



I love this machine!
It is more comfortable than my Miller 251 and my Miller 180 and is more stable. My Miller 180 is very touchy on my generator. This rig I can't tell the difference for a second from the shop single phase and my genni.
The housing is super strong and the internal parts are metal not plastic. Loading wire is a breeze.
I will keep posting on its performance.

 

Nice, i used an older version Esab and it did some of the easiest and nice welds ive ever done.

Your welds look pretty good btw

 

Thanks..
I spend the summer working on our ranch out in Utah and from time to time we have to have big metal things fabbed up for whatever purpose and I find it interesting every one of these machine shops I deal with use the big Esab's. These machine shops are non stop all day long welding dairy equipment, feedlots, tractors ect. Really heavy thick metal.
I asked a guy in one of these shops why they use the Esab and he said "they are literally bulletproof I wouldn't use anything but an Esab." One guy told me "we occasionally use Millers and Lincoln's but Esab's are running all day long. They are in another class entirely."
Until this little rig came out I had never considered buying one. For my applications the bigger Esab's are overkill. If or when I get a decent shop of my own I would buy a big Esab and probably one of their Tig's.
So far this little rig has been ideal.

 

Good luck with your new welder!!

I guess in your neck of the woods Esab must have a real good rep around here most people swear at them not praise them.

Funny thing I know two Miller reps and Two Lincoln Reps and of Course Pat Belsole The Hypertherm rep

I have never seen the Esab rep

 

I agree. I work repairing welders and plasma cutters. Esab is generally considered garbage. Usually it's Miller or go home. Good luck with your new Esab, i hope you have better luck than most of our customers.

 

Go into an industrial fab shop and you won't see Miller or Lincoln, it's all ESAB. Great machines.

:wabbit2:

 

Pretty cool Toyospearo!

might wanna put your skills to use building a tank stand/cart..if that tanks goes 90 degrees the wrong way...bye bye flowmeter

 

yea well thanks for making me jealous ha ha i know what to ask for for christmas

 

Yes! That is next on the list. I just pulled the rig out of the box that day and started in.

Here is something interesting Esab is doing with their rigs -
This is from an Esab rep..
"You might want to ask your lws about the 100 day guarantee we have. At ESAB we have what we call the 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you buy any standard equipment from us and do not like it, you can return to the LWS for a full credit/refund. Might help in trying our stuff out and not worring about being stuck with it if it doesn't fit what you are doing. "

"I will say this about the Caddymig 200I. It is an inverter based machine and has a feature call Q-set. This is a feature that some of our new genteration of welders has. It is built for short-arc and will set the parameters for a perfect arc regardless of wire size/shielding gas. All the operator has to do is set the wire feed speed and make about a 5 second weld for the machine to calibrate it self and then you will be good to go. Remember , this feature is for short arc only, you will need to set it manually for flux core and you can always turn it off it you don't like it."

 

Like I said I am out in the industry every day I seldom see Yellow welders any where it is a regional thing. Come to think of it none of the Air Gas Branches or GTS/Welco have any Esabs on the Floor.

Now Dressel Welding Supply Pushes Lincolns because they can`t sell Miller.

I don`t think I ever saw a Esab in a show room now that I think about it.

 

i beg to differ. at least around here (mid-atlantic) the fab shops run mostly Miller Syncrowaves.

 

The mech shop at the job I just got laid off from all had Millers as well.


Oh and does this mean we can see a bigger and better flatbed from ya?