well i've been told that lincoln, miller, and hobert are the way to go for welders, most of them being $600+ But right now Sears has this Hobert 115v Mig welder for only $350. Now i dont have any experience welding so i thnk this would allow for for me to learn and not be a piece of crap and break after a using it for a while. also to use argon/co2 would i have to buy anything special? Anyways here's a link, give me some feedback on this please!
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...seBVCookie=Yes

Brandon

 

This would be a greate welder and hobert is one of the best names in the buisness but welding with flux is much different and harder IMO than welding with gas (argon/co2). but look at it this way if you learn on flux than welding with gas will be that much easyer to pick up. that welder is not set up to be able to add gas at a later date there might be a conversion kit but im not quite sure for that model.

 

the add says it is upgradeable for solid wire (not flux core) so it probibly has a plastic or rubber hose that you you can connect to a shielding gas bottle. at least thats how my brother has his 90amp welder set up. not a heay duty cycle. but with some time and effort you can get full penetration using different weld preps on 1/4" steel. great for body or bracket work.

 

Home Depot has the Lincoln for about the same price, and is also upgradable to gas (IIRC $100 for the upgrade). I went to Harbor Freight and got a flux core MIG to learn on, they are on sale often for $99, but do not upgrade.

 

Hobart is what i have my hobart is the handler 135 mig. with gas. ive had it for 6 years.. no problem..

 

you'd be MUCH better off with something like
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...TOOL&ihtoken=1

 

i guess i may as well spend the extra 150 now, i'm going to upgrade to gas anyways. So i'll place my order today and get this one and i should be good for a couple years until i get better and learn how to TIG. Then i'll upgrade to one of those.

 

if you plan on working with steel, a mig welder is perfect for home use. but if you are going to want to do aluminum you may want to look at tig with high frequency start. just somthing to keep in mind.

 

The HH125 is $350 and the gas kit is about $80. Overall, $430. The HH140 is worth the extra $70. Wire feed ckt is more advanced.

TIG takes a lot longer to setup and weld. Try doing tack welds with a TIG on a vehicle. Go with the MIG. TIG is good is you eventually have a lot of alum., S/S, or fancy steel to do. Yeah, I have an AC/DC TIG.......but I use the MIG 99% of the time.

This brand new Clarke 130EN that I got off EBay for $175 with a bad wire connection that needed to be fixed welds much better than I expected. The Hobart HH line are still better machines though.

 

Sounds like a familiar upgrade path… I started with an HH135 (the 140 is the current name for the upgraded version of the 135), and have added a synchrowave TIG and a plasma cutter to my collection, this is what my welding cart looks like now:

To be honest, I still use the little Hobart handler most of the time, the synchrowave is more of a “I need to do something aluminum” or “someone will expect this to be tig welded” thing and the MIG gets used for most of my stuff.

 

I never get sick of seeing your set up eventually...

 

heh, did I post that in another thread? woops... funny thing is that one of the shop or welding boards out there there was a thread about putting the thing together and I never put up finished pictures and I can't remember which one it is...

AAMOF, now that I think about it, I think that this is the only board that I posted pics of it on...

 

You want to compare duty cycle (time you can run the thing vs letting it cool) , the current it puts out (Amps) .. and it's other features, such as addon for alum, infinate heat setting/wire speed
You won't be happy unless you are welding with gas. I have a 115V lincoln, with 4 heat ranges and infinate speed control... I weld with .030 and .023 .. the .023 would be for body metal.. I've build many things with it.. It loves 1/8" steel.. but i've welded up to 1/2" no trouble.. you just have to make more passes.. and go slower.. all you do is point and click.. with the flux core.. you have to chip. also an almost standard feature on the gas migs, is that the power doesn't go on the wire until you press the trigger.. Some of the cheaper ones are live all the time but does''t feed the wire until you press the trigger..
Anyways.. personally I would stick to Miller or Lincoln.. but Hobart is supposed to be just as good a name. steer clear of the cheap welders though that are in the 70A-80A range.. probably not going to get hot enough for your liking.

 

It was the thread wher I was posting pics of the welds I was making and you/junkclter were giving me pointers IIRC the title was "what welder" and the poster wanted to weld a cage...

 

It would be nice to learn on, but don't expect to be welding much thicker than 16 gauge exhaust tubing without burning through LOTS of material. I had to fab up an X pipe for a buddy on a similar machine and we went through an entire spool to get everything to hold together properly. I've welded with better Argon systems at my one friend's shop before and those things melt that metal like butter. The cheaper ones you have to hold it there for a long freaking time and go super super slow to get the metal to melt and join.