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!

[J P Stein]

I borrowed a Lincoln 110v MIG rig from a buddy....he wouldn't sell it to me.
I think the model is LCN-K692-3....at least that's what my Summit catalog says. 500 beans, with out a bottle. MIG is a hell of a lot easier to run than stick and leaves no slag.

It is limited to welding 1/4 in steel, tho.

[seanery]

After I get stick down, is MIG easy to learn?

[airsix]

I have a Hobart Hander 135 MIG. It's great. Runs on 120v, is easy to move around, comes gas-ready, and is powerful enough for most home projects inculding anything on a 914 (will do 1/4 inch in one pass). It's very well made and has given me zero reasons to complain in 3 years of use. It is easily my favorite tool. Get a bottle of 25/75 shielding gas - don't use flux-core wire unless you are welding outside in high wind. Flux-core sucks rocks. Welding mild steel with gas is so easy anybody can do it well with just a little practice to get feed speed and heat right. I think it's the perfect starter unit. Of course it's too light for fixing a broken track cleat on a D11R CAT, but for anything the home user needs it's great. I only paid $350 for mine (after Christmas sale)
-Ben

[cha914]

MIG will be a piece of cake after you learn stick...its basically point and shoot...

When I move into my house I will probably be picking up a 110 lincolin like JP described above...about 500 new and I have seen a few go on ebay for half that. And I agree with Ben...be sure to use shielded gas as it is so much nicer than flux core wire.

The only other thing I might do is get a sightly bigger mig that you can add a TIG attachment on to, as I am hoping that I can get good enough to make pretty tig welded cages and such...but for everything else a small mig would be plenty.

- Tony

course I also want a plasma cutter to go along with my welder...better start saving now...

[Lawrence]

I was really lucky, and stumbled on a rental shop that was auctioning off some of it's older equipment.

I bought a rental Hobart Handler for a pittance. Even though it was well used as a rental, it's never failed. Gas or core-flux wire capable, it's been a real workhorse, and worth 3-4 times what I paid for it.

When the time comes, I'll buy another Hobart.

If you don't have an electronic display welding helmet - that should be your second purchase.

-Rusty

[Gint]

Millermatic 175 I didn't want to have to buy a little unit, sell it off at half price, and start all over again. I can convert this unit for TIG for around $400. Not sure at this point what that involves, but my local weld shop said it be done on this unit easily.

[jdogg]

Santa Claus brought me a Daytona Mig 888 combi this year. www.daytonamig.com
It is a 135 amp unit, can run flux core or gas, and came with regulator, etc. for gas. All I have had time to try is flux core, but gas is coming this weekend. Great little welder so far, haven't been able to heat it up enough yet to shut it down (duty cycle is 30%@130amps IIRC). Real easy to use. RacerChris tells me though that it may not have the heat to weld .120 wall rollbar tubing unless you pre-heat the pieces first.
Cost about 450 beans - it's all I'll ever need.

[MJHanna]

The helmet is the best thing I have purchased for welding. You don’t have to move your head and accidentally move off your starting point. Once your try it you’ll never go back, kind of like Porsches (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Mueller]

Welding thick material is fine, but with our cars, you'll want the capibilities to weld thin sheetmetal as well.

You need to look at the spec sheets to ensure that the welder will be adjustable enough to use on the thin sheetmetal

I bought mine on-line at this place: http://www.salesco.com/migs/

I think I have the Century 155G model.

So far I've used it to weld on a new qtr panel on my car plus a bunch of other projects. If I was to buy another one (which I am thinking of doing), I'd get a 220v instead of the 110v for the times that I want to weld thicker material more easily.

Ditto on the auto-dark helmet, best thing I bought for welding besides the welder (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[airsix]

I'll add that I'd go for a 135 Miller or Hobart before I'd go for the little Lincoln. At only 110 it's borderline in my oppinion. The little welders that will do 135-155 are just right. (just my oppinion)

-Ben

[Bleyseng]

If you are just doing cars and light metal you can't beat the Lincoln Mig Pak for about $300. Get a bottle of shielding gas and you can weld anything from 20 gauge to 1/4 inch. If you are welding bigger stuff rent it.
Geoff

[TimT]

I have a craftsman mig, Its probably made by lincpoln, miller or century. Its about 18 yrs old and hasnt missed a beat.

The auto darkening helmet is one of the best things going. Like Mark said you never lose where you are going to strike the arc. One thing to keep in mind when you buy the shield is to get one with multiple sensors. Sometimes if the sensor is partially blocked the lens wont darken. The shield I have has 4 sensors.

[Mike T]

I bought a Campbell-Hausfeld MIG105 wire feed. 120v. It came with the regulator setup for gas. It was a factory serviced model. I paid $269.00 with shipping. All I needed to do was get the bottle. I've had it for 2 years and am very happy with the performance.

Mike T

[rick 918-S]

I have a Snap-On (made for them by Century) mig welder I bought about 18 years ago. I can run aluminum wire, It has spot timer, stitch timer and a bunch of other useless crap on it. I had it in my body shop and all my employees tried to wreck it so they didn't have to work. (that never worked) I paid like $ 1900.00 bucks for the thing! Now a similar welder would cast about $ 600.00. I used to have an AC/DC buzz box from Montgomery Wards of all places. They used to sell top of the line tools. It was stolen. I miss that welder. It worked great. When I was 18 years old I went to Vocational School for welding. I used to weld at a ship yard. I've welded just about everything from thick rust caked bulkheads to aluminum pipe. We used to have to scab patches in the standing on wet 2X10's. Your gloves were wet so you'd have to drop the welding rod and catch it with the stinger to avoid getting shocked.

[seanery]

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm thinking about the Miller Maxstar 140 Combo Stick/Tig.

Or

Millermatic 175 Mig Welder.

Comments, suggestions? I like Miller and don't mind paying a couple extra bucks.

[ss6]

I've got a Lincoln 175 MIG, but you won't go wrong with one of the "known" names, ie Century, Miller, Hobart, Lincoln, etc. Try to opt for TIG capability, especially if you want to do body sheet metal. MIG with gas will do it, but you will have so much more control with TIG, especially for thin stuff, and you'll have to look pretty hard to find ANY thick stuff on a 914.

[mskala]

I picked up a Campbell-Hausfeld flux/mig 80 off ebay
completely new for $199+ship. I normally think twice
before buying with ebay, but this thing was described
wrongly as not mig so that nobody else was bidding. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif)

I've used it and been trying to learn, of course people
are right that thin metal is quite a challenge. Anybody
know if a slightly less-darkening helmet is acceptable
and available? At minimum juice I'm flying blind.
Mark S.
'70 914-6

[Gint]

I'm thinking about the Miller Maxstar 140 Combo Stick/Tig.

Or

Millermatic 175 Mig Welder.

Seanery,
I bought the Millermatic 175 so I wouldn't have to ever buy another unit. I wanted the variable voltage control and the ability to upgrade to TIG. Haven't used it a lot yet, but I don't think I'll ever regret this purchase decision.

[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...