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Thread: Michigan
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17th Jan 2019, 06:12 PM #1Banned
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Michigan
Hey all, I was in Total Tools today and noticed they have quite a lot of Michigan welders and paraphenalia. I bought some 2.5 rods at $15 a pack not expecting too much but hey, they turned out to be quite all right so it got me thinking about Michigan welders, has anyone had any experience with them.
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18th Jan 2019, 09:39 AM #2Diamond Member
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Michigan is a Total Tools house brand - I've seen people ask about them on other forums, haven't come across anyone who has posted about their experience with one yet.
Given the majority of welders on the market are Chinese machines with whatever logo and artwork the Australian company emailed the factory, there's no reason they shouldn't be on par with Chinese machines in the same price bracket.
Similar to you, the only Michigan stuff I've used is wire for the MIG, which seems to work just fine.
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18th Jan 2019, 11:02 AM #3Most Valued Member
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I noticed them for the first time earlier this week.
I see the trend now.
Detroit for their house brand power tools, Michigan for the welding gear.
Note to self - if the brand in TT is an American city.....
Steve
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18th Jan 2019, 11:41 AM #4Banned
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Huh, feeling slow today...
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19th Jan 2019, 01:44 PM #5Most Valued Member
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I had a look at the specs of their 250A mig and compared it to a BOC smootharc and a unimig of the same amperage.
Michigan $999, BOC $1293, Unimig $2655
Michigan 10 voltage steps, BOC stepless inverter, Unimig 21 steps
Michigan 25% @ 250A (32A supply), BOC 35% @ 250A (32A supply), Unimig 70% @ 250A presumably on a 32A supply also
Michigan 93Kg, BOC 45Kg, Unimig 116Kg
Michigan 4m MB25 gun (230A CO2, 200A mixed gas), BOC 4M MB36 gun (360A CO2, 300A mixed gas), Unimig 4M SB24 (250A CO2, 220A mixed gas)
Clearly, you get what you pay for and in the case of the Michigan, while the cheapest of the trio, it is easily the worst performing and lowest specced machine. When comparing transformer machines (Michigan and Unimig), weight is a good indicator of quality - more metal in the transformer and possibly type of metal (copper versus aluminium), but inverters cannot be judged against transformer machines based upon weight in this way. I doubt that the Michigan would be a pleasant machine to use as every effort seems to have been made to place cost higher than function on the priority list.
It dismays me that the Unimig, which is a strong performer on paper is only specced with a piddling little gun that will prematurely fail if the machine is used to potential.
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