Can anybody recommend one for the hobbyist?
I use one of the new Hobarts. Hobart got bought by Miller so now all the insides are really Miller. Been a good unit at home.
Jake
I lucked out a while back and snagged up a Lincoln Weldpac 100 at a garage sale. Portable 120 volt unit. They claim it can handle up to 1/4" steel, but I doubt it would have very good penetration on that size of material. Seems to work great on 1/8" and smaller stock. They are about $350 new, so not the cheapest around. Miller seems to be pretty dependable as well. Don't know how much they cost. I'd stay away from the cheap / noname brands. Remember, if you plan on using it to weld body panels, you'll need the solid wire and shielding gas, not flux core. Flux core is fine for thicker stuff, but doesn't make as clean of weld.
Same brand recommendation.
These aren't the cheapest units out there, not by a long shot, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet if you expect to get a quality tool, and unless you drop it off a truck or it gets stolen, or you use it in an industrial setting, and do welding every day, you may not have to buy a replacement unit. Ever. Check out how long their warranty is-it was 3 years when I got mine and I believe the same unit now has a 5 or 6 year warranty.
Whatever brand you decide to go with, I'd get the highest amperage unit that you can run on 110V as a first unit, you may never need a bigger one.
I've had my Hobart Handler 135(amps) for over 6 years and have had no equipment complaints yet. It's rated to weld up to about 3/16" steel in a single pass With good weld penetration, and I can verify that this is an accurate rating. The duty cycle for actual continuous welding time is fairly low, as it is on all of the 110V machines (about 20%max. usable time at the highest amperage setting) but for most smaller and thinner work, the higher duty cycle should be sufficient to weld nearly continuously, which honestly for most work is not something that you are liable to be doing. I've welded from under 1/16" to over 1/2" thick steel several times when repairing farm implements (with the 135A unit), using prepared joints and multiple passes.
Most hobby welding people will never need to weld steel this thick.
I use mine with 75/25 Argon/CO2 mixed gas exclusively because with mild steel it yields a much cleaner weld (compared to NOT using gas), with less splatter, so grinding and clean up are minimized, but some poeple are happy enough with the beads' appearance without using gas, especially if they have only been accustomed to stick welding. For some purposes (like outdoor welding), you are liable to use flux core wire without gas anyway, due to the difficulty in protecting the joint from wind.
One thing that I've noticed with the 135 unit is that the weld penetration is significantly deeper when using the .023 wire at the highest amperage setting, as compared to the .030 wire that the unit can also use.
I think that they now have a 140(amps) unit that will still run on 110V.
P.S. Don't cheap out.
Now that the price has dropped, get a self-darkening helmet right away if you can afford it. (I found one mail order for under $50.00.) If you have even average talent, you'll be amazed at how quickly your welding will improve (and it will be better) when using one of these, as well as how much less fiddling you do compared with a standard helmet, even if it's a flip face or flip view model.
Dragon Wagon:
One thing that I've repeatedly noticed with the 135 amp unit is that the weld penetration is significantly deeper when using the .023 wire at the highest amperage setting, as compared to the .030 wire that the unit can also use. Probably along the lines of: the thinner wire heats up more than the thicker wire with the same current, then transfers the heat to the metal being welded in a slightly smaller spot, so IT heats up more.
Anyway, you have to speed up the wire feed rate (due to the smaller cross sectional area of the wire) to get the same rate of deposition, and it may seem strange but when I'm welding at the thick end of the range of the units' rating, the thin wire seems to work out better for penetration and it also CAN give a flatter bead, (which may be more useful in certain situations, such as when multiple passes are required) although the bead appearance can often be made similar between the 2 diameters when varying wire feed speed and amperage settings.
Good tips goodolboydws! I do have the .023 kit, just not the tank to go with it yet. When I bought it, it had a new 10 lb spool of .03 flux on it which I'm still using. Harbor Freight has the auto-darkening helmets for $50. Picked one up a couple months ago and love it!
dholvrsn, you really can't go wrong with one of these things, unless you live in an apartment. If you do, don't expect to get your deposit back ;).
Buying a cheap wirefeed is just asking for trouble. A good one is an investment, but will last for a long time. Guess you need to assess how much and what kind of welding you plan on doing and go from there.
Me and the old man have a older millermatic 350 it is quite large(you have to roll it around) it had a decent price tag on it at the time. but well worth it. it will weld anything from sheet metal to 1/2 in. only found that out when i was building a suspension for a off-road truck.as for the auto darkening helmets I found it is better not to buy the cheapest one there is, due to the fact that a lot of them are made in china or worse places,and do you think they give a damn about your eyes. spend alittle more and get one with name on it. my old man bought a cheapo one and it wouldn't darken until like two seconds after you started to weld.
robw,
You do have a good point about eye protection here.
There is the possibility of having a problem with ANY auto darkening helmet, name brand or no, import or no. There is a certain lag time with ALL of these helmets, usually a very small fraction of a second, (generally as short as 1-2 THOUSANDTHS of a second up to maybe 20 thousandths). Even the shortest amount of lag time to full darkening has a CUMULATIVE effect, as does any helmet shield "leakage" where some light from the welding flash sneaks past the edges or through gaps of the shield/helmet and makes it to the users eyes.
If I were going to be using a self darkening helmet in an assembly line situation, welding all day long through hundreds or possibly thousands of on/off cycles, you can bet that I would get something with the shortest possible lag time. With few welds per day, or with only occasional use however, the cumulative exposure using a shield with a longer lag time is obviously not as high as even a much faster-to-darken helmet used for many more cycles.
Using the above example, compare a 20/1000 sec. speed helmet with a 1/1000 sec one. It would take 10 times the number of weld cycles for the faster helmet to equal the total exposure time, but if the slower helmet was only used for 10 weld cycles per day average and the faster one for 200 per day average, the total exposure would be the same.
With global manufacturing and assembly being the standard these days, simply buying a "name" brand or one that may have been associated with one particular country has (with rare exceptions) much less meaning than ever before.
Many of the essential and critical COMPONENTS for tools and accessories such as the wire welders and helmets (and most power tools) are themselves made in unnamed factories across the world, with the same components being used in many different brands and the finished products only labeled after the machines are completely assembled-from parts that may come from several different countries and be assembled in yet another country.
Due to this typical modern manufacturing model, the traditional reputation of brands themselves have become less important, while the warranty, accessories, parts availability AFTER warranty expiration and the ability to obtain service on the tool or machine have become more important.
Many of the cheapest tools have no warranty at all (or a meaningless one that entails spending more money to send it in for repair than it would be worth to fix)., and yet with limited use they may still fill a need for cash strapped buyers. As always, high price or low, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) should be a guide.
Unfortunately, your father obviously got either a bum helmet shield or possibly the batteries are just shot in his or making poor contact, slowing the darkening time time down dramatically. Think of how weak batteries in a flash camera slow down the recovery time for the flash between pictures. It's the same principle.
A welding shield that takes anywhere near a second or 2 to darken should not be used, unless no other one offering better eye protection is available, in which case, it's still going to a LOT better than using nothing at all. Be safe.
Can't hardly beat this deal http://www.toolking.com/productinfo.aspx?productid=17860 even the pros use one of these smaller units when the job doesnt call for something bigger, they are just more practical then a big 250 or whatever.
Shucks sell a 90 amp flux wire feed welder for $179.00.for the hobbiest it should work fine.But buy the helmet.
Hi all,
Haven't been around the site in a while due to drowning in projects and clutter.
I weld for a living and have a Miller wire feed with a separate attachment gun that I use for aluminum wire. I've had the unit for some time and am happy with it.
I agree with just about all that I have seen in this post. I would agree that you should get a good unit and pay the price as an investment, helmet and all. However I would also agree if you don't have a shop or are planning to move in the future, the 110 units will more than suffice for any welding you need to do on Pinto's, or just about any vehicle.
Just a word of advice though. If you plan to do any overhead under a vehicle on jackstands, (having to lay on your side instead of standing up), be sure to wear ear plugs!
You haven't lived until you get a nice round ball of spatter down your ear canal. You hear and feel the wax boil.
Your first reaction will be to jerk your head away from the pain. When you do the vehicle does not move.
Trust me on this one.
Al
Good point I had never thought of that,not having it happen YET.I'll take that advise.And there are a great many things that create that jerk.I dropped a ratchet and in trying to dodge it gave myself a nice mouse on the forehead with a caliper.Such Fun.
Ditto, earthquake.
Don't forget the tiny pieces of rust and road that seem to always find a way to get into your eyes at the least opportune moments, eye protection or no.
And welding sparks or blobs down the front or back of a shirt or right through the top of nylon sneakers or on the top of your head right through a thin baseball cap is no fun either, as I quickly discovered a few years ago. Not enough follicles left up there to lose any more than necessary now.
Much as I hate the bother, in addition to the always sensible long gauntlet gloves and helmet, I shortly took to wearing leather boots, a closeable collar at the very least (if not my combo burn resistant cloth and leather sleeved welding shirt), and a welders cloth cap with the bill turned around backwards to protect my neck ALL the time when welding. If you're anything like me, you'll sweat like an overworked team of horses in the Summer, but at least end up with fewer holes in your hide.