Mig welder advice? experience?

[Rumnhammer]

welder

I have a lincoln 125+ from about 6 years ago, it was a bobby labonte special that didn't sell at a welding store. On par with the current lincoln 135 it is a 115 volt welder with infinate heat and wire speed settings. The lincolns to get are the ones you buy from a proper welding store. They are different animals from the ones you get at home depot.
As in better quality build and more windings, the easiest way to tell the difference is that they are more expensive. They will be in the $600-700 range compared to the $300 range for the lincolns at home depot. This welder has been fantastic and has easily handled every welding job I have asked of it in the last 6 years.

One like this would be my first choice, followed by a equivilent Miller followed by a Hobart Handler 140 which also is an outstanding welder that operates off of 115 volts.
A lot of people will tell you that a 220 volt welder is better and it is, however perhaps 75% of the welding that the hobbiest will do can be done with a 115 volt machine and it lets you use any common household outlet that is over 20 amps.

I also have the aluminum conversion kit for this welder, and it also works great!! I had a lot of neigh sayers tell me that the welder didn't have enough heat to do alumnium welding, and that a spool gun was required, while this is true if you are welding aluminum thicker then 1/4 but I have found that anything thinner then that is perfectly doable with this welder. That crap about the spool gun is rubbish too, since the conversion kit includes a teflon coated feed line you don't have any feed problems with it either, it really make the welder more versital being able to weld aluminum with the same welder too.

Run far away from those HF welders, they are a waste of money.
Chris Rummel

[billthekat]

i would recommend goung with the sheilding gas over the flux wire. much more "profesional" looking results.
aslo remember, wen you do it right and everything is set good, it should sound like frying bacon....

[Mike McKown]

Exactly!

[Dave G]

I've got one of those 90 amp HF jobs and I like it just fine. Can't do heavy stuff with it, but for most everything I've wanted to do it's worked well.

[stefan]

#1 Stay away from flux core at all costs, Id take stick before flux core any day. Flux core wire is 4x the price anyways so your not saving much. For shielding gas you can use CO2 if your cheep.. or as I prefer 75%argon/25%CO2, for a few bucks more. Look into buying your own tank, the purchase price will less than rent after a few years so its worth it. Or you could probabally find a used tank cheep. A 20lb tank will be plenty big for home use and shouldn't cost more than $100 new. From what I hear CO2 is less than $1 per lb in the US.

#2 power... Go 240v if possible. You wont regret it. If you dont have the proper plug there super easy to hook up. I wired up a 60A sub panel in my parents garage with plugs, if you can rebuild a motor you can do some wiring.

#3 Stay away from the chineeze junk, especially the ones with just HIGH/LOW settings, exct. Personally i'd only touch a lincoln. The lincoln I have at home welds wayyy nicer than the miller I use at work... and the miller is worth 8k, Sure it has more power being a 600v 3ph machine but it dosent weld nice at all. I have used a simillar miller 180 240v model and I found it pathetic... (no offense to miller guys) it had less power than 120v lincolns i've used. I have the lincoln 180 with infinate settings.. it is the niceset hobby size welder i've ever used. As someone mentioned though, the lincolns sold at the box stores are cheeper machines. With the current models the better machines have a much better transformer and a cast drive block, as opposed to a plastic drive block in the retail models. The better machines are typically sold at welding stores exct.

Just some quick tips, please ask any other questions. Welding is my day-job.

[Hot_Wheels]

whats the model number on yours stefan? can you make a specific tecomendation for me? i dont have 240 yet but im learning house wirring at school and will probablt put a panel in the garage soon. someone said tig is easier? i know tig can go from a few hundred to a few thousand i just want something decent that i can grow with. whats the plus and minus of mig vs tig?

[stefan]

http://norfolk.craigslist.org/tls/847332470.html

Found this, not sure how far away that is from you but it looks like a good deal.

Mind you it is only 120V but if I cant change your mind that would be a good deal.

Just noticed you mentioned in your 1st post that welding with a 120v machine is easier... not sure if you meant electric hookup easy or using the machine easy... but if you meant using the machine easy... deafinitally not... with the 240 machines the weld will flow much nicer even on comparable low settings.

Not sure if the tank colors are the same in the US but if its the same as around here that tank is for CO2/AR mix. If you wanted straight CO2 would would have to ither get a different tank or change the valve because the threads are different.

[stefan]

whats the model number on yours stefan? can you make a specific tecomendation for me? i dont have 240 yet but im learning house wirring at school and will probablt put a panel in the garage soon. someone said tig is easier? i know tig can go from a few hundred to a few thousand i just want something decent that i can grow with. whats the plus and minus of mig vs tig?

Mine is the 180C, The best hobby size machine lincoln makes. In the 240 volt lineup they also have the PRO180 which is the retail model (look how they throw PRO in there to try trick you... sad) And there is the 180C and 180T (the welding store models). The T model is Tapped voltage which means the voltage is like 1..2..3..4..ect Compared to the C model which is continusaly adjustable like a volume knob, (much nicer) They also have the 140 series (same thing, C, T, PRO) except 120v.

Those are the current machines they are making (longer rectangle shape)


MIG is absolutley easier to learn, and is much more pratcial. MIG you can easily teach yourself. TIG is very hard... It is kind of like oxy-acetylene welding... except you have an electrical arc with shielding gas. You use the arc to heat up the metal up and then you go along your joint mixing the two pieces together while adding filler with a filler rod. Very tricky. Its very slow and your hands have to be steady. Its usually used for welding aluminum, stainless, exct.
MIG is much simplier. Its mainly meant for welding steel. But you can still weld aluminum and I think SS with different wire and gas.

For your average home projects I would recomend the machine I have. Or atleast a 240v machine with infinate settings.

Especially with welders, check around for used machines. I always see lots of deals on used hobby machines.. I guess people pick up welders and give up trying to learn how to weld.

I cant stress enough to go with 240 though. Its a completley different experience.

Personally when I have a garage of my own I want to get a full size machine with pulse arc mode, adjustable induction, exct. But if your just learning to weld we wont go there ;

[skeeters_keeper]

Wow, thanks for the info Stefan, good stuff!

I have heard that 240 is better (as far as weld quality and easier to use) than 120v, 120v is just more portable. I have a 240v breaker in the garage (not sure how many amps; i think 60) but no plugs, it would be super easy to add them. The thing with 120 is you can take it to work, a friends garage, etc and not have to worry about getting a 240 circuit.

I would like to use gas too... though I never have. How hard is it to get the tank filled? Also, how much gas do you use while welding? (obviously, i have no idea about gas, lol)

For what I'm planing on doing, I think 120 w/ flux core would be plenty... the other stuff would be awesome though, but for welding something once a month (or less), is it worth it? that Pro Mig 140 is about 2-3hrs away, I may have to head out that way next weekend, if I do i'll look into getting it while i'm out there, thanks for the heads up!

[FB71]

the gas you use is Argon/CO2 mix for mild steel, TriMix or straight Argon for stainless. Haven't done aluminum yet, so I don't know what gas to use for that. You get the gas from welding or compressible gas distrubutor. Depending on the size of the bottle, it'll run you $50-$150, and should last you quite some time. It's used as a shielding gas, to prevent oxygen from contaminating the weld.

[stefan]

If you think you have the need to take the welder to other places I guess 120v will be better. Keep in mind that most 120v welders will call for a 20 amp plug (12ga wire)... and 90% of the 120V plugs you will encounter will only be 15a, so the plugs will be wired with thinner (14ga) wire, reducing the output of the welder, and will most likely lead to tripped breakers.

Personally I havent found much need to take my welder out and about. Most projects can be brought over. And when I do have to go out I have a long 8ga extension cord that I could use to get power out of dryer outlets, stove outlets, exct with the correct home made adaptors. Or if there is a panel near by I can take the cover off and throw in my "quick welder plug" - a breaker with a short length of wire and a recpticle on the end that i have put together.. Takes maybe a minute. Probabally shouldn't recomend this because I just take the cover off, clip the breaker in, with my wire/plug hanging out and go! Dont even have to shut off the power! but thats just me.. hehe

75% argon/ 25% CO2 is the most common mix for mild steel. But straight CO2 is still perfectally usable, and will be much cheaper, most likely less than $1/LB. A small tank such as the one advertised for sale in that ad holds roughly 20lbs. 75AR/25CO2 (C25) Is usually sold as a named gas at large welding chains.. Praxair calls it autoweld.. air liqueed calls it blueshield 6 exct.. to fill a small tank with C25 will cost roughly $50-80. The downside with CO2 is that you get much more splatter and I find the arc is much more violent, and the weld dosent flow quite as nice.

A small tank should last you a long time if your just useing it for odd jobs. I'm on my 3rd tank I think.. a 20lb'er should last you for maybe.. 4 lbs of wire.. hard to say i dont pay much attetion. It will last for quite abit of welding anyways.

Regarding tanks... lookout if you buy a used one, some are owned by gas companies. If there is a company stamped on the neckring, dont touch it. Get a customer owned one, if you buy one from a gas company usually they have a trade in program, where you can just take your empty tank in, you pay, and they trade you for a full one. This way you dont have to worry about hydrotesting every 5 years, because your getting a fresh tank everytime. If you get a used one that is the same style/size as those a certain gas company uses you can usually just take it there and they will trade it for a full one even if you didn't buy it there.