[Shop-talk] mig welder

[scott.hall at comcast.net]

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 at cox.net> 
To: "shop-talk" <shop-talk at 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.