Is this a good deal?

[jerry shannon]

I do not weld but would like to get into it. My pole barn used to wired industrial and it has it's own pole, transformer and has 440v. I never use it however. I have a farmer friend that has a Miller CP200 welder, on a cart minus the bottles but is set up for Aluminum welding. It comes with the wire spool and handle and wire. I am told this can be changed over to metal welding. He wants $400.00 for the entire set up. As I have 3 phase he thought I would be interested.

Question, is this unit worth it. It is about a 10 year old welder but look to be in a great shape. The farmer said the wire feeder is worth 6 to 700.00 bucks alone if I sell it .

 

[Shield Arc]

I've used them in the past, just don't remember a lot about them:confused2:. I've also used the Airco version. Price doesn't seem all that bad.
Miller Model CP200 Flux Cored MIG Welder with Style He 6 Wire Feeder and Cart | eBay

 

[ThomasH]

Jerry -

I would be somewhat careful in that 1) getting the service turned on in many places if it's 3 phase have minimum monthly charges; and 2) there are different types of three phase power (delta versus wye). The CP200 and S52 feeders that I have seen around here (Atlanta) sell for $800-$1200 and seem to take a while to sell because they are older and fairly specifically voltage source dependent (can't be used on single phase without heavy mods which require engineering, must be used on the correct type of service).

That said, for $400 it has a hefty copper wound transformer and is fairly bullet proof, if it were me, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. It will probably outlast all of us...
Good luck!