Mig welders?

[MyCreation68]

I was looking at buying a welder and a buddy of mine pointed out this:
Lincoln 100A 115V MIG Welder
http://www.houseoftools.com/product.htm?pid=14344

Anybody have any comments on this welder? I think it's a pretty good welder and I was wondering if it's good enough for things like body work, frame welding, etc.?

[b569rr]

If I had to have a 115vac mig, I wouldn't get anything smaller than a 125A.

Tom

[dustertogo]

 I'm kind of a Miller guy , but i have used that welder before. It's really nice for sheetmetal when used with gas. If you are going to be using it for thicker metal I would go with a 125 or 130 like Tom said.

  Troy

[motorhead]

 

[abqdart]

I have a Lincoln 3200HD. its a 115v 130Amp use .25 wire and gas and its great for sheetmetel. I can throw in .30 and gas  and do roll cages, bumpers spring relocation kits, what ever. If I throw in the .35 its flux core wire and I weld up 3/16" Vegitable Oil tanks for conversions. Great welder for the garage guy in my opinion.

[jamesdart]

i have that machine. its at least 11 years old.  works great, never had a single problem with it.  my father  bought it to change a body mount in his convertible  lemans he had, he  got estimates to have it done and the prices were outrageous. we pretty much did everything else on the car so figured what the hell, i knew how to weld  so he bought i. like tom said, buying a new machine, id go for the biggest 120v machine they make. check out the hobart line. they have some nice machines for solid prices and are made here in the states.  lincoln and miller are nice, but if you are tight on cash but need a mig, they tend to run a little higher. with all that said there is no chance of me getting rid of that machine to upgrade to a 135/140 mig. you can weld up to about 1/8" without question, so its great for auto stuff, but i wouldnt touch a roll bar with it. just for piece of mind.

[MyCreation68]

ok I looked at two other welders:(hobart is USD the lincoln is CDN)
The hobarthttp://www.hobartwelders.com/products/handler140.html
the lincolnhttp://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?aid=10368321&pid=603315&cpncode=08-21810402-2&srccode=cii_5784816&cm_mmc=CJ-_-pricegrabber-_-D25X-_-100093231&prod_id=100093231&cj=1&com.broadvision.session.new=Yes

[jamesdart]

northern tool usually has really good prices on the hobart line up. whats the conversion between usd and cdn these days?

[1967dart406]

ive got the handler 140 and love it

[abqdart]

I think you are in the right direction, now its just deciding which one. Always the toughest choice.....

[flight704]

 I have a lincoln 135sp it does an absolute great job on the light stuff. gas or flux wire.. for about 500.  I bought mine from the local aga welding supplier but Lowes carries one very similar to the one i  have.  I am not sure on the price but if you have a lowes close by its worth checking into it..  for 35 more bucks i would go with a 135 machine..

I use a miller thunderbolt 225 stick when things get thicker.. I own a fontaine flatbed semi trailer and my lincoln 135 just does not have enough ass for those jobs.   


good luck and hope this helps out.

[flight704]

ps remember those prices do not include the bottles.  My local shop got me out the door for about 600 with a filled botttle of argon and a semi good helmet..  an upgrade to the little dinky hand held sheild lincoln gives you



http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Catalog/equipmentdatasheet.asp?p=2515 

anyways good luck

[b569rr]

check www.cyberweld.com for comparison.

 jamesdart; I just love our miller maxstar 200 at work. they make a straight DC and one with AC for aluminum. We have one of the AC/DC machines. Very nice. It will run 5/32" rod all day long.

[MyCreation68]

I think i will go with the Lincoln 3200HD because it seems to be the best price and value. I'm going to use payroll deduction at work so basically they'll cut me a check for the grand total of it and then I'll buy it and they'll take 50 bucks a paycheck til it's paid back. What I'd like to know is Will I be able to do the little bit of frame work I want to with this welder? I plan to relocate the spring perches and eventually put in a 4 link. And a roll cage sometime(in my street car and my racecar) I will also need to do some front subframe repair on my car(tiny amount of rust in the pass. side frame rail but I want to fix it before it gets bigger) So will this welder do everything I want it to? I need a welder soon because I have something I have to have done by the 27th of february.

[b569rr]

That should be fine at 135A. Get a fat extention cord with the 115vac machines and remember no flux core wire.

Tom

[jamesdart]

oh, one thing that helps, on my little lincoln i added a #1 ground cable and tweco bonze ground clamp as the factory #4 started to take  a beating and the ground clamp was a p.o.s. sheet metal job. there was a noticeable difference in the heat output.

[gregpurcell]

Funny you should post that. A friend of mine started a professional welding shop 11 years ago. This was the machine that he had learned on in his garage. He bought the big Miller welder when he opened, but kept the little Lincoln around for "small" work. It turns out that the Lincoln was his daily machine on 90 percent of his work. After 12 years of trouble free service it died during a job. He immediately went to Lowes where he was fortunate to find one left in stock and immediately purchased it. He says there is no better machine for a hobbyist.

[Crazy68Dart]

My dad has a Lincoln 110, it works great, for light stuff.  I have a Craftsman (Clarke) 110, which works great for light stuff.  I also have a Lincoln 175 Pro Mig from Lowes, that I have heavier wire in for heavy stuff, (cage, etc.).  I researched this stuff a ton, and the retail versions are NO different than the pricery "plus" versions, other than the infinite voltage control, which I don't think is necessary anyway.

[MyCreation68]

Well I went and bought the 3200 HD today. a very nice welder. The instructions to assemble the carriage and that stuff are pretty basic and kinda confusing tho. Lots of information on welding. a nice sized book on safety and hot to weld and a video tape. I bought a Haynes manual to get a good idea on how I need to weld and do this stuff right.

[WRAITH]

In my humble opinion Wild-Man,...I'd go ugly early Bro. Buy the biggest machine you can. I would go with a 220 powered unit (you'll get a better-more capable, unit this way) even though it requires pissin' off the Old Lady when you disconnect the drier . Personally I weld a lot. I have a Miller 251 with dual bottle holders (for 90/10 Argon Co2 Unimix(for steel) and 100% Argon(for aluminum)) I have a spool gun attachment for Aluminum. I would suggest running as long a ground and gun cables as your machine will support(consult your dealer). If you do buy a small hobby unit, Cool but make sure that you at least have the option to run shielding gas brother. This will allow you to weld cleaner with much less splatter than flux core. Flux core is great if you must weld outside (in slight wind dusty/dirty) conditions but in a controlled enviroment (closed shop/ garage with adequate space/ ventilation...) you can't beat gas. Good luck!

[attachment deleted by admin]

[MyCreation68]

I got to use it on saturday a bunch and used about half the provided flux core wire. So much fun. I layed a few beads(really crappy looking but not to bad for a first timer and then I welded up a grille for my racecar. So much fun. I'll post pictures later in the week before I paint it and after it looks pretty good but it's not the greatest but for a first time go at fabricating something like this I think I did alright.

[Jim13]

Cool.

I bought a 140 lincoln the other day.  The guy I bought it off of is coming over on Saturday and we're going to blow through a roll of wire just playing with it.     

[b569rr]

The reason the welds mat not look that great is the flux core wire. Flux core is great on structural steel, not cars. 

Tom

[abqdart]

  Just go get your self a decent welding cart....OR build yourself one out of 1x1 and some angle, get you some practice with the flux core wire. Then go to your local Airgas or Liquid aire, some place that sells 75/25 in a 80 cubic foot bottle, I think thats what I have, its not the biggest one but its in the middle. While your there, pick up some .025 and .030 wire for GMAW and DONT forget to reverse the polarity on your welder, the directions are on the welder access door. Get yourself a couple box's of .020 and .030 tips and dont look back! That mess you get with Flux Core wire will be a thing of the past and your welds will look 100 x's better.You will be glad you did.

[Tejas]

I just bought a Lincoln 3200 HD this weekend too!
I also got a Hobart auto darkening helmet, gloves, chip hammer, a second spool of .030 wire.
I still need to get a bottle for it and set it up.
I've never welded anything in my life but I'm ready to learn.
I have a welder buddy that's going to come by and get me started.
Hopefully by next weekend I'll be able to start practicing with it.

[MyCreation68]

Just go get your self a decent welding cart....OR build yourself one out of 1x1 and some angle, get you some practice with the flux core wire. Then go to your local Airgas or Liquid aire, some place that sells 75/25 in a 80 cubic foot bottle, I think thats what I have, its not the biggest one but its in the middle. While your there, pick up some .025 and .030 wire for GMAW and DONT forget to reverse the polarity on your welder, the directions are on the welder access door. Get yourself a couple box's of .020 and .030 tips and dont look back! That mess you get with Flux Core wire will be a thing of the past and your welds will look 100 x's better.You will be glad you did.

It actually came with a pretty good welding cart it's only like 2 inches off the ground but it's got room to hold a small tank. Only hard part I had was I kept flashing myself with the weld. I expected to wake up in the morning with my eyes all red and sore but that didn't happen. it was so much fun tho cant wait to do more 

[abqdart]

That cart it comes with wont hold a good size bottle. I cut mine up and used it for soemthing else. Trust me, You will want a good size bottle. When your friends find out you can weld, you will want a big bottle. I have the same welder and I love it!

[jacks62440]

Anyone buying a new machine can Not go wrong with the Maximum Power you can afford . The more you weld the more things you will want to try. You may just find yourself trading up in awhile, then you loss $$$  Follow the instructions and practice, It's not that hard.  Watch the Fumes !!!   Jack