How do you tell one mig welder from the other?

Skyetone

Kinda crabby latley
Location
East side
I got the refund!! :D
Now I go buy my 220 mig welder.
I am thinking lincoln (love my arc) but how do you tell what amp rating is good, duty cycles and all that crap. BrdPraey has some dinky 110 with a 15%? duty cycle and it sucks totally.
I am looking to spend under 500$ I also would like to know where the cheepest place to buy said welder is.... Any pro's or cons _a-hole opinions are appreciated.
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
well MOST mig welders have low duty cycles...especially 110V boxes...get a 200A+ box and get the nicest one you can afford...for work I deal strictly with US Welding, for personal I use US, Praxair, Air Gas, or where ever is the cheapest...even though my little buzz box is a lincoln I prefer Miller anyday of the week...thats what I use at work and I have never had a problem with it...Incase you didn't already know Miller and Hobart are the same company and basically the same machines with a few minor differences...honestly I would look to get a hobart handler 175 for about $600 or get the Ironman 210...another thing to consider is consumables...where to get them and how much...shop around, a lot of places (online) will have free shipping and their beginning price is better so you can get it cheaper overall than buying it local...If you want a REALLY nice machine I know someone(Jeremy) who could possibly reccomend one:p
 
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sukaB

Guest
The welds.................................................................

You suck

Hippie's can't weld due to the hair fire issue anywho...

GEEK
 
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Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
MM210 baby, I've had it for a week and I haven't been able to use it until today.I already know I will love it, cuz my bro has the same one. It has a 60% duty cycle. the 175's are only 20%.
 

Skyetone

Kinda crabby latley
Location
East side
Originally posted by Jeremy
MM210 baby, I've had it for a week and I haven't been able to use it until today.I already know I will love it, cuz my bro has the same one. It has a 60% duty cycle. the 175's are only 20%.

Hey suka are you and cruiser buddies now? You sound just like him, wanna give me some input. Fawker :rolleyes:

60% eh... is that the miller? why is miller "better" than lincoln? What "problems" do you get? I know I've run into spooling problems with the ol 110 P.O.S. but what else is there to look for? I really like helping the local economy out, but how much price difference is it to go online?

The one for 600$ is that set up for the gas? What is the whole deal with the gas anyways? I get that if the metal is pre-heated that it welds better, but I don't see that working too well on sheet steel. Is it for tubing and such?

Didn't know hobart and miller were the same.... In my sears catalog they have the IRONMAN 250 60% @ 200amp.... $1599.99 got something that nice for around 500$ LOL
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
you know that flux that's stuck to your rods? well, with gas you don't need any, the gas sheilds the weld to keep the oxygen and other impurities out of the bead. Gas=much more cleaner welds and less spatter. Also, you can weld a lot thinner stuff. Don't get anything smaller than a 175 or you will definitely regret it.
 

Bones

Registered User
Location
Kansas City, MO
I love my Hobart Handler 175. Made by Miller and uses Miller parts. Out of the box the Hobart has some plastic inards where Miller is steel, etc. But if they break, buy the Miller part, and eventually paint it blue :D
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Originally posted by Skyetone
Hey suka are you and cruiser buddies now? You sound just like him, wanna give me some input. Fawker :rolleyes:...

Great minds think alike... I gues....:D

Heres my input Sky...

I have the MM210, is has been a great welder for medium to heavy stuff. Kind've lacks when it comes to sheetmetal but I was told by the guys at US welding that you can re-wire it to only run on 110V so you can do the bodywork and then switch it back to 220V for the bif stuff.

My brother welds for a living, and he does some small sidework at home, mostly light construction (door frames, gates, etc.). He uses my MM most of the time but he just recently bought a 110V that is sold on the Mac truck, I beleive... not that bad for what he paid. It came with the fluxcore wire (non-gas) but also came with the regulator and supplies needed to make it a gas sheilded welder. Even with the flux, it welds pretty sweet for small stuff. I wouldn't do spring perches with it but for light end stuff, go for it.

This being said, I tend to hate 110V Welders, probably cause all the ones I've seen have been the Harbor freight variety and were totally piles of trash... Just my IMHO...

I would look for something uses... but go 220V, you;ll want it later...
:D
 
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Bones

Registered User
Location
Kansas City, MO
My 220V Hobart will do sheetmetal nicely. I switched from 0.030 wire to 0.024, but it was more difficult :confused: and I was blowing through like crazy. I would have thought the opposite. This is on paper thin Toyota sheetmetal as well. It's even better using the thicker gauge I used on my firewall. If I can do it you can :p
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Originally posted by Bones
.... I switched from 0.030 wire to 0.024...

I run .035 wire, mabey I sould expiriment with it a little more. Like I said, it isn't impossible to weld sheet metal with the 220V, just not as easy as it is with the smaller ones. I did do all the metal replacement in my cruiser with a Hobart 220v, it was as great welder that we used at the shop. We had two of the Hobarts, and I tell you what...those things have some mile son them and keep working just fine... the only thing that has broke is the adjustment handle, and a pair of vise-grips solves that...

Kindv'e funny that alot of the Hobarts that I have seen have the power adjustment handle broke off.... whats up with that?:D
 

RockMonkey

Suddenly Enthusiastic
Originally posted by cruiseroutfit


This being said, I tend to hate 11V Welders, probably cause all the ones I've seen have been the Harbor freight variety and were totally piles of trash... Just my IMHO...

Yup, all the 11 volt welders suck. Hell, that's not even enough to start a car!:D
 
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sukaB

Guest
We use the big bad Hobart and she works great.
I havent had one of my welds ever have a problem.
 

kb7sei

Registered User
Location
SLC, UT
I run a Lincoln SP-175T. No problems, great capacity, great welds. I've run a few 10lb spools through it with no feed problems. For fab work, I would recomend no less than the 175A welders, Lincoln or Hobbart/Miller. It's a matter of prefference as to which one is "better" IMO.

Duty cycle is all relative. For someone doing fab work, the 20% I have is fine. I've hit the cutout once, and that was while welding my front spring hanger for my SAS together. It took me about 30 minutes to hit it on high power. For home fab work, I think that's enough. For professional use, it may not be. The lower the power setting you use, the longer you can go as well. I used 1/4" for my hanger and had a lot of welding to do on it. When I welded to the frame, which was about 1/8", I went for over an hour without hitting the cutout. I wanted a break before the welder did.

My biggest reason for choosing the Lincoln was that the consumables are available everywhere. I can buy contact tips at Home Depot or Lowes! That's real nice if I need one on a Sunday afternoon. Not that contact tips need replacing often, but it's nice to know I can get parts when I need them. I've only needed it once, for wire. I think they carry most of the consumables for Lincoln at HD. I have nothing bad to say about Miller welders though, good machines and worth the money.

I would also recomend getting gas. The wire then costs less and the welds are better. I run C25, but CO2 is cheaper and works well if you want to save some money.

For $500, you're probably looking at the Hobbart Handler 175. $578 at cyberweld. Get that and run flux till you come up with $100 or so to get a gas tank. It comes with everything you need to run gas except the tank. Even if it's a little more than you were looking to pay, nobody ever complained about having too much power available. :D
 

Bones

Registered User
Location
Kansas City, MO
Originally posted by kb7sei
I would also recomend getting gas. The wire then costs less and the welds are better. I run C25, but CO2 is cheaper and works well if you want to save some money.

For $500, you're probably looking at the Hobbart Handler 175. $578 at cyberweld. Get that and run flux till you come up with $100 or so to get a gas tank. It comes with everything you need to run gas except the tank. Even if it's a little more than you were looking to pay, nobody ever complained about having too much power available. :D
Never tried CO2, I might have to give it a shot. I have 2 powertanks. Are the welds as good?

I also reccomend getting the tank ASAP. I ran out of C25 Sat. night and was SOL (didn't know CO2 would work...duh!) Tried tacking a few items with flux core and gave up. The welds were horrible and splatter all over. I'm just WAY to used to my setup though as well.
 

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Originally posted by Jeremy
Cruiser, definitely get rid of that.035 wire! Get you some .030 and you can weld sheet metal all day long.

I should have expirimented a little more with thw wire size, but it all worked in the end. Plus we now have the 110 MIG so it will take care of all the light duty stuff. :D
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
The 30 wire will do heavy fab too. I've done 3/8" with it and I've done 20 gauge with it, even filling big gaps in 20 guage.
 
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