“I do handrail work where, if I had to string my Stick welder all the way down the aisle and through the legs and bars of the plant, I’d have to move my truck several times throughout the day to get better access,” says Agan. “With this, I just plug into each little area and find power in the building, and I don’t have to move the truck each time. It has saved a lot of time in a lot of ways that I don’t think any of us were expecting.”

Using 0.030-in. flux cored wire in this application provides three major benefits over Stick welding: less spatter, faster welding speeds and less heat into the weld. Agan reports that the Passport Plus lets him fill gaps quicker than with a Stick welder and that the sensitivity of the Passport Plus has allowed Cactus Welding to switch to a thinner-wall tubing on handrails, which passes savings (as much as half the material costs) to the customer and reduces the strain of working with a heavier material.

“We always tried to use 1/8-in. wall tubing because it was easier for us to weld with Stick. With flux-cored wire, we can go to a lighter material – either 16 ga. or 14 ga. That brings the materials costs down, and it’s a lot easier to get into some of those places, and to hold it while you’re welding. And, a lot of times I’m welding to sheet metal or a side pan that’s not very thick, and it helps balance out when I can weld equal materials and not have to worry about burning through or distorting things, because it doesn’t put as much heat into things (as Stick) either.”

Agan mentions that, when joining handrail to thin sheet metal by Stick welding, he has to make fast, short welds along the entire length of the joint in order not to put too much heat into the workpiece. With the MIG process he can weld continuously without blowing through or causing the material to warp. This creates a stronger weld and gets the job done faster.

“I can quickly run a nice bead down it and move to the next one,” he says. “It saves a lot of time.”

Savings and customer satisfaction
Tally and his Cactus Welding colleagues can perform a wide variety of repairs on different materials with a single machine. The lightweight versatility of the Millermatic Passport Plus has allowed the company to weld faster (without sacrificing quality) and has made life easier on the company’s workers.

“It’s a great machine,” says Agan. “I would consider this for my own personal welder because of the versatility. There are so many different things you can do with it. I can weld on my Jeep as well as gates out in the field or out in the yard, and I won’t have to have a whole lot of power and a very expensive extension cord. It’s one of the first things I consider when I get something off the truck now: can I do it with this or do I need to get everything else out? And it just saves a huge amount of time, which saves the customer money, … which makes everybody happy.”

Tally hesitates to say just how quickly the machine paid for itself because most of his customers are charged hourly rates and he has passed those savings on to his customers. But, with the increased productivity that allows them to move on to the next job faster while still providing superior quality, Tally is confident that the machine paid for itself quickly and continues to provide a great return on investment.

“This machine saves my customers a lot of money,” claims Tally, “and they see that. They realize it saves them money by allowing me to work faster without sacrificing quality. That ensures that we get called back for the next job.”