Welders, What do you have at home? Options

[seanery]

Hey guys, I'm taking a welding class at one of the local high school adult education centers. I've wanted to do this for a while and for some reason could never convince my mechanic to teach me. We use a Miller 300 (?) that is setup for Mig & Stick. Right now I'm learning stick. I actually made a couple of nice looking welds last night. I want to get a setup for home and don't really know what to get. The rig we are using is way too expensive. I've seen a Lincoln 225 stick only setup for $310 or so on ebay from a guy here in Indy. That would work for most stuff, but I'm sure I'm gonna want to learn to Mig and or tig sometime, too.

What do you guys use and how do you use it (what projects do you do)?

Oh and I'm thinking about an auto darkening helmet. I hate being blind til I strike the arc. Anyone use a Miller Hobart XLix ?



Thanks!

[mr914]

I have a Miller 150, 220V

What you have to be careful of the cheaper 110v migs is that the wire is always hot(engergized) all of the time. Which is basicly a pain as you are putting the gun close to your work and accidently touch the metal and get a spark. (LCD welding hemet is a work around though)

The other problem with the smaller 110v migs is the duty cycle. Some of them are as little as 10%. In other words, weld for 6 minutes an hour. Which is very frustrating when you are trying to weld in a chasis stiffening kit.

As far as LCD welding helmets, beware of the cheap ones! Some are fail light- as in, if it has a problem, it will go into the lighten mode, which is bad if you are in the process of welding. You are better off to have the model that is fail darken.

Also check the sensor arrangement on the helmet. Some of them have two sensors and to darken both sensors need to sense light. If one sensor gets blocked the lens will lighten.

A welding helmet is just like a crash helmet. If you have a $10 head wear a $10 helmet...