Been a while since I added anything to the fleet. I decided a small inverter stick box was what I was after, preferably something that could run 6010 red rod. That narrowed it down to to only a handful, mostly red or blue and big bucks. A relatively new machine out there that came up was the ESAB Rogue 180i. It specifically has a mode to run 6010 cellulose rod as well as adjustable hot start and arc force/dig. People that had them also had good things to say about their capabilities while running on 120V.
I found one on ebay from a pawn shop in NY for $300. Waited two long weeks for them to finally ship it, then it showed up bouncing around in a giant box with no packing, the bottom torn open, and the leads missing. I am working on resolving that bullschit right now.
Today I was able to plug it in and wanted to put it through some paces to make sure it works. Results were surprisingly good in my opinion.
On a 15A 120V breaker, it would run 3/32 7014 at 80A with no issues. It would also open-root down hand run 1/8 6010 lincoln 5P red rod at 78A and a long arc whip. When pushed in tight arc on a second pass, it tripped the breaker after about 4" of weld. I had arc force set at full power 10, so it was drawing more than the set amperage.
Ugly root on dirty scrap
On 240V, it had no trouble doing anything, and the arc seemed slightly smoother. The arc quality is great and just as good as my miller XMT inverter or Trailblazer engine drive. My first impressions are very favorable.
