well, I've got a miller ab/p buried in the back of the garage, which is what I
learned to tig weld with. it's got a spool gun, stick lead, etc. it also seems
to be wired for three phase, which I don't have. but when I get the roundtuits
after the move, I'll dig it out and should be covered for anything big and
stick stuff, and al/spoolgun mig, I guess.
but it's not terribly (or even a little) portable, and it's not even wired at
all at the moment, and I'd like to build a go-kart with my son that has
suddenly been moved to the front of the project list. I wanted a dedicated mig
anyway (that could be moved around the garage, so I didn't have to get a
bajillion-foot lead). I could just get a buzz box from home depot, but I'd like
a nice machine that could handle almost anything I could want to do. if it's
huge or aluminum I'll break out the tig. but I'd like a 'nice' mig I can hang
onto, pass down to the kid, etc. this seems to me to be like air
compressors--get bigger than you need now, etc., etc. but I've got a monster if
I ever need it, so I don't need the ne plus ultra. but yeah, I'd like it to
handle larger-than-just-tiny-stuff.
so, I thought the 180. but I really don't have a good reason for that. juse
seemed nice. but I learned to weld in a fabrication shop and I'll bet that's
made me spoiled. I don't want to screw around with low duty cycles or crap
stuff. well, to a certain extent, yes, I expect less form a smaller welder, but
we used a lincoln (or hobart--it was red) 110 (or something) buzz box once and
it was horrible. I'd like to stay away from that stuff.
anybody got a180 and like it? or a 212?
thanks.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John T. Blair" <jblair1948@cox.net>
To: "shop-talk" <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2008 12:00:12 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] mig welder
Scott,
I guess that depends on what else you have in the way of welding equipment
and what you want to do with it.
I have a Lincoln SP100, which appears to no longer be made. The now have a
140.
My 120 is a great little machine with what I considered a lot of
features. It's
big advantage is it's 120V and not 220V. It's small, light weight
relatively, has
continously variable speed and current controls. It also accepts the large
(20# ish) spools of wire. I have the gas setup for it and use it as
a MIG welder
not just wire feed (flux coated) welder. I paid about $800 for the welder,
the sleeve for the feed, a spool of .023" wire, the gas bottle,
regulator, gloves,
and helmet. I also purchased an auto darkening insert for the helmet.
I've welded on the chassis of my Bricklin, practiced on various scrap fenders
and trunks lids to see how it did on sheet metal. It's has meet most of my
welding needs. But I'm not trying to weld anything very thick. When I took
a MIG welding class at the local community college, we used a very big Miller
machine that was 220V. These monsters weren't cheap by any means. We
were running .043" wire and I could not get the hang of welding thin sheet
metal with it. I kept burning through the metal. But on large (1/4"
and above)
plate, I didn't have any problems with the big unit.
I also have access to O/A and a stick welder for doing thicker
stuff. So I just
needed something that would do sheet metal, not 1/4" and above stock.
Also what metals do you plan on welding? These small welders work great
on steel, but can be problematic on AL. While most say you can weld AL, you
really need a different gun that pulls the wire, instead of just pushing it.
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