I'm not saying I will buy a mig welder. I'm definitely not, nope. Buuut, what are your thoughts on these 2 mig welders for the price? This one seems to be 115v only which seems a bit eh. Especially since I have 220v access in the garage & will have a separate circuit breaker soon down there up to 100: $490 shipped - Hobart 500559 Handler 140 MIG Welder 115V https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009X43F38/ref=psdc_13400531_t1_B002N4FONE?th=1 This one is considerably more expensive but seems to have 230v access and of course welds thicker material up to 3/8" $900 shipped - Hobart Handler 210 MVP MIG Welder https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004USV5UC/ref=psdc_13400531_t2_B005CGZNMM Also what is nozzle gel and is it necessary? Can I use my 100% argon tank and regulator from my tig welder on the mig or do I need a CO2/argon tank with brand new regulator and hosing for another couple hundred bucks? Again, definitely for sure not planning on buying a mig welder so don't try talk me into it.
You don’t need a MIG!!! 115v units are a waste of money. TIG and MIG’s use different mix’s of gas. What you already have is more than you’ll ever need.
$490 is about the best price I've seen for the Handler 140. I was looking at them about 5 years ago and they were a solid $500 at that time. I ended up buying a Handler 125 for $350. It was my first and only machine and it has performed well for what I need it for. I don't regret my choice though. On the rare occasion that I have a heavy job I take it to someone who has a heavy machine. If I needed to buy a new one I'd probably jump to a 220v. What I should really do is take a course in oxy/acet Pete
First off, I am not a welder by any means ... I just stick stuff together the best I can. Hobart also has a Handler 190, 230v unit. I bought one of these a couple years ago, it has been a great improvement over my old 110v unit. This unit also has a spool gun available. I know of at least one place that currently has it for $650 + free shipping (Blains Farm & Fleet, same place I bought mine from). https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/690871-hobart-handler-190-230v-mig-welder.html Same store also has the 210 for $800 shipped. https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/678611-hobart-handler-210mvp-mig-welder.html
True about the tig being all the machine I ever need but the mig is so much faster and convinient to zap together structural parts. I've been using my friends wire feed which welds like ass but is fast and ok for general small welds. I will be redoing my wet saw lid to reduce the weight and I have close to 100 ft of metal to weld which would take days with the tig. I could probaby do it but I'm not sure it's worth so many argon tanks compared to the speed of a mig?
100% argon doesn't work well with mig. (it's doable, but suxs) You can either run flux cored wire and get crappy welds or get another argon tank that is 25/75.... Called mig mix. Sorry to break it to ya, Hobart's cheaper line like above is all chinese and mexican stuff. I have an ancient craftsman 110vt transformer mig machine that would make a better boat anchor. She's only 105amps and only good for thin stuff. IF and that's a BIG IF I need a mig machine, I'm going to dig deep and get that italian Propulse200 from Stel. http://www.usaweld.com/Pro-Pulse-200-MIG-Welder-s/698.htm OR I'm got my eyes on this bad larry too! http://www.usaweld.com/MIG-2400-Welding-Package-p/602400-24.htm I know 2grand for a mig machine looks like the moon money, but shit a mexican lincoln 210 is still 1600bucks! I wouldn't touch low end lincoln stuff with your money. Just like miller, if it's a machine under 3grand, I don't want the asswaxing you get when buying it new... You should see the stuff this propulse is capable of... How does MIG SILICON BRONZE grab your balls???? It's a beast with aluminum too. Forget the BS spool guns, that's what MILLER thinks you should use. Sorry, but I'm sold on Italian welders. Watch some of chucke2009's old videos, he has been running an HTP mig2400 for YEARS and he abuses the hell out of that animal. You wanna know what separates the decent machines from the junk??? Take a good look at the rollers. Next time you are at horrible freight, lift the skirt on one of their vulcans and you'll see it. If you wanna be fairly fast with the tig, crank that puppy up, lay the filler wire over the joint and drive over it with the torch. Dab Dab crap is for showboating and not any stronger than the lay wire technique. If you are ever unsure about your penetration, the look on her face will let you know... OR Just cut your work off and take a peak. btw, gel nozzle does work, but I never bother with the stuff. A good machine and you'll never need it. (insert propulse demo here) practically ZERO splatter. This is something that has to be seen to be believed. YES, IT'S THAT GOOD! no I don't get any deals with HTP... Wish I did.
Haha I enjoyed your post. I tried the lay the filler wire and drive over it technique. Worked ok but it seems I got a lot of breaking of the weld bead and balling up of the filler wire. I changed the angle of the torch which helped spread the bead out into a continuous weld but it seems a bit iffy to me. Any tips on how you do your continuous welds with laying the filler wire? Top weld is the first bit I laid down and welded over. It kept balling up. Bottom is when I angled the torch a bit and it became more continuous. But this was with 1/4" steel. I need to weld 3/8" steel to 22 gauge steel using this technique. https://flic.kr/p/21eqcjt https://flic.kr/p/21eqcjt
Lean the torch back about 15 degrees with the tungsten pointing straight up the line of the filler rod. Sometimes you have to keep a bit of forward pressure on the filler rod into the puddle so it doesnt skip. If your torch is leaned back too far, you'll melt the filler rod before the parent material has a chance to melt. You are looking for all three to melt at the same time. The perfect torch angle is actually ZERO degrees, but that's not feasible or really possible as you can't see wtf you are doing. I tend to weave the torch across the parent material(s) as I drive over the filler. Try the weave, I bet it helps you.
Good advice. I have seam welded 1/4" with my tig @ 150A and laywire. Not the pretty tig welds but very functional. Proper prep (bevelling+mill scale removal) gets you most of the way there, but I have found with tig that even more important is the ability to hold/fixture your work square and in the shape you want. Tack all over then skip weld all around to spread the heat and minimise distortion.
As Negitiv3 mentioned, your surfaces to be welded have to basically be surgically cleaned prior to fusion (welded). Surfaces sanded/ground down to white virgin metal And thoroughly solvent cleaned. I’ve gotten into the habit of solvent cleaning before and after sanding/grinding that want I’m not embedding impurities into the metal surfaces. Seems to be working.
I wonder about distortion of the metal lid. It needs to be continuously welded to seal in oil that will be inside. I can tac weld to start with but skip welding won't cut it.
I would go with MIG given a known amount of welding to be 100 ft, one time investment, good for all sorts of workshop construction. gas, wire and gun consumables being the upkeep costs. You can get a mixer valve and get a bottle of CO2 so you don't really need premix. good to have if you plan to use sodium silicate at any point.
I have a few CO2 tanks that I use for my fishtanks. A mixer valve sounds interesting. I'll have a look into that. Seems like it might be the cheapest way to go.
You don't necessarily need a MIG machine but you won't regret buying one, either. I could probably teach my dog to weld with a properly set up MIG machine because the vast majority of the skill you need to use them properly lies with knowing how to set the machine up for what you want to weld. The rest of it is guiding the tip along. I'm not a professional welder so the consumer lines from names brands like Hobart and Lincoln don't scare me away. At least I know I can get parts and some accessories for them when I need to because the company will still be there. The sure enough cheap Chinese/Indian units like you'd find at Hazard Fraught tend to be a use-it-till-it-breaks proposition because you can't find parts or consumables for them. In the 120V vs 240V machine debate, the thing you need to cognizant of is the machine's duty cycle and it's maximum output. A 20amp 120V circuit only carries so much current and that's going to limit the scope of what you can weld relative to a larger 240V machine. If you need to weld a lot material larger than say 3/16"-1/4", you should probably look at a bigger machine. Also, don't buy a machine that doesn't AC/DC+/DC- current changing ability. Different type of welds call for different polarities and it's worth your money to buy a machine that covers them all. You don't *need* the gel - it just keeps spatters from sticky to the tip and gas nozzle. Like Jason says though, if the machine is set properly, you shouldn't see a lot of spatter. The only time I've had spatter issues is welding with A/C voltage but I've also got a cheap machine and that may have something to do with as well. The last thing I'll tell you about MIG machines is they use a slightly different power supply arrangement than a TIG or stick machine. MIGs weld with a semi-automatic pulse of wire. That causes the arc length to change frequently so MIG power supplies deliver a constant voltage rather than a constant current like a TIG. That's why all the MIG machines you're looking at have a voltage adjustment knob on the front, rather than amperage. And to make a quality weld, you really want to spend some time and learn how to set the voltage correctly for the stock you're welding on. I had to pass destructive testing in college and it was amazing how a couple volts either way would cause a weld to fail. I'm pretty sure that once you buy one and get it setup correctly, that you'll love it. MIGs make welding pretty easy - just point and click.
Here's a thought, buy the most expensive lincoln mig HD sells, use it and take it back in a week. Use a credit card, they CANNOT deny you a refund. I call it the HD tool rental program. Not my fault they don't rent mig machines. lol.
I've had the 140 for over 5 years. Welded everything including my furnace. I wish I would have sprung for the 210/dual voltage machine. I have a TIG machine but it doesnt beat the ease of the MIG hot glue gun.
Quick related question for everyone. To lighten the lid weight from 208 lbs (death machine/guilotine) to a more reasonable weight of 30-40 lbs I want to cut out panels leaving 1 " margins along the edges of the lid. This will leave a framework of steel behind that I can weld 22 or 24 gauge metal onto to seal up the lid. My question is how to cut through the 3/8" steel? I recalculated and it is about 40 feet of steel I need to cut. I don't have a plasma cutter and rather than buying one I assume I can use something like a .045" cutoff disc for my angle grinder? In your experience roughly how many feet of 3/8" steel can 1 of these blades cut through before getting too small to use? I'm trying to figure out how many blades I'll need for the cutting, I'm guessing maybe 10? 20? More?. The good news is I feel fairly confident I can weld the wet saw vice assembly up with the tig welder without screwing it up, so I don't need the mig for that. I was thinking the mig would be great for welding the 22/24 gauge to the 3/8" for the 40 feet of welding I have to do. 20170512_150851 by Zapins, on Flickr
The zip disks I get in Thailand will do a foot in 1/2" steel with practice. It's all about technique and keeping the cut perpendicular to the work. Go off angle and the disks get eaten up pretty quickly. Yea, that's good and fast work for MIG although welding thick to thin requires some technique as well. What's living in the box?
OMG.. 40ft of 3/8" steel??? Water jet or cnc plasma. Screw cutting that thick stuff with a grinding disc... You'll be there for a month! PAY THE MAN! You'll never weld that 3/8" stuff with a 110 mig machine. For that stuff, you NEED the HTP2400
Damn I was hoping I could squeak by with the angle grinder. Sounds like its going to be close to 40 discs then? Which is around $80 bucks. The alternative is a saws all or a jig saw (ha ha ha might as well whip it with a piece of tooth floss for all the good those will do me). Problem with the plasma cutter route is that my compressor is tiny. One of the little pancake ones so I'd have to wait a while between cutting. I might get a few inches cut before having to charge. And buying a new compressor AND plasma is pricey. Same for the mig. I feel a bit trapped, nobody rents the tools I need and nobody I know has the tools for me to borrow. Extremely irritating. It's like 200 for a bigger compressor, 400 for a plasma cutter, 800 for a mig. I could probably buy one of those items, but all together, that's some cash right there.
