Lotos Welders? Anyone actually use one?

Berk it, I just ordered it. I'll be the guniea pig. 

My sister-in-law is a manager at a HD, so if it's garbage, I'll just bring it to her. I got the replacement plan anyway as cheap insurance.  

spitfirebill said:

They can't spell aluminum. 

Neither can anyone in this country, it's aluminium  !

Adrian_Thompson said:

spitfirebill said:

They can't spell aluminum. 

Neither can anyone in this country, it's aluminium  !

I just checked.  All three forms are actually correct. 

Well, it showed up on Friday. 

Opening the box, the throw-away "mask" they supplied with it was smashed to bits(which I was planning on tossing anyway) and the welder has a good sized dent/crease in the case. 

Guess that's going back to the store.

AHP, Everlast and Vulcan all  have pretty good reputation for budget machines if you are looking to go another route now.

In reply to Ram50Ron :

I'll bring it back and order another one for now. I'm not in a major rush, and can borrow my friend's again if needed right away. I'm sure it will work just fine, as it's more of a cosmetic thing than anything else, but I'd rather just bring it back and get another one. 

I did take a look at the Vulcan last time I was in HF. It's over $500; not "cheap" by any means. It's nearly $300 more than what I paid for this one. That said, it looks nice enough. The feeder is cast aluminum (not alumium ) and the case/knobs seem nice. 

Looks like Home Depot doesn't have this thing in stock anymore.   The price also went up $100. 

Not sure if I should just try using the thing as-is and relying on the 2-year warranty, or just return it and get a Lincoln 140. I'm leaning toward the latter, but that's $250 more than what I paid for this one. 

Ugh. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

can you get a scratch and dent price on it?

In reply to fasted58 :

Maybe? Considering they don't have them in stock, maybe they will knock a few bucks off if I bring it in. 

I say put it to work. After you've got some trigger time on it I doubt you'll care much about a dent.

your welder arrived damaged?  take it back

When I opened the box, it looked like this: 

Note the completely useless "mask" doesn't have the glass; it was smashed everywhere. The box itself looked perfectly fine from the outside. 

That's the dent. It's almost like the case is bent up in the back. Seeing that this thing was packed really well, I have no idea how it got that way. 

Plugging it in, it seems to work fine. Voltage and speed knobs do things according to the displays. I haven't hooked up the gun yet. 

So yeah, not sure what I'm going to do. I am leaning toward the "bring it back and see if they can give me money off" scenario. It's still cheaper than buying a used one, and if it does die, I get my money back anyway with the warranty. I don't know...

I've been looking at buying a TIG machine. There are so many value-oriented options these days it's hard to pick one.

In reply to pheller :

If you want AC/DC functionality look at the Ahp alpha Tig. I've had one for a year and a half and it is an awesome machine. The inverter machines are so efficient I have been able to run it on 110v for mast jobs. I've done lots of 1/8" thick aluminum and 3/16" steel. The AC balance adjustment is awesome for aluminum and pulse control is a huge perk.

Running the AHP Tig as my only machine does leave me wanting a cheap Mig for higher volume projects. Tig is just so slow when you have a lot of beads to lay.

I have their plasma cutter and it’s been a good machine.

UPDATE!

Well, I ended up keeping it. With all the stuff going on this summer with the wife, I never had time to try and get a discount on it. It's selling for a couple hundred more now, so I'm fine with it. It's still cheaper than buying a used and abused one with less features locally. Anyway... I decided to toss in some flux wire to see if the thing worked yesterday. 

So the answer is... YES, it works. I still need to get a heavier duty extension cord, a tank of gas, a welding cart, and a new helmet (using an non-dimming one now) but it throws sparks and melts metal. And yes, I did ZERO prep on that piece of scrap metal. I found it behind my shed in my scrap pile, and since flux core will weld to anything, I tested it out and made Skeptical Weld Man. 

So far, it seems to work fine. It has a switch that does continuous wire feed when you click the trigger, and you click it again to stop it, which I think is really cool. It seems to use standard consumables, which is a good thing, and it has a cast aluminum feeding mechanism. It should work fine for what I'm using it for.

Once I get a bottle of gas, I'll do a full review. 

Nice, I am pleased to see that it works. Check your polarity. I see a little porosity. Flux core generally is run electrode negative. It is also sensitive to angle and stickout length. And while flux core welds anything, clean metal always welds better.

I think CANOES are made in China. 

Since this got canoe bumped, I might as well post an update. 

I've used this thing on both gas and flux. It works, mostly. I had some issues with it "pulsing" on gas, which is the best way I can explain it. It would zap, pause, and zap. I think it may have had something to do with the wire feed though, as I didn't have this issue either time I loaded it up with flux wire. A lot of my troubles have to do with technique. I had lots of trouble getting that sweet spot where the welds get hot enough to stick but don't blow holes in the work. I have gotten better, and have welded in two floor pans and some other smaller fab jobs with it, and they are still in there, so that's a good thing. 

Would I buy it again? Probably not. A few months after this showed up, the Hammer Store upgraded their welder line with some new mid-priced options that are a lot nicer than this. If this craps out, I'll just get one of those.