once in a blue moon some metal projects come up, ie: building an amp rack out of metal for added support, welding up exhaust pipe, making brackets etc.
what kind of cheap bang for your buck welder should i be looking for. there so many different one's out there. any help or advice would be appreciated. also non gas ones would be awesome. are they any good?

 

i have the lincoln 3200HD, its frome home depot, but it works amazing! id go for that, i think the weld pac is like 400 for everything

 

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We had some work done recently and one of the contractors had a little Lincoln 140C on his truck. My neighbor had recommended the 180c which uses 220v. The contractor agreed that it would be good, but not everyone had 220v taps available.

I'll probably go with the 140C which is adjustable, gas, well built, popular in the area and can be used just about anywhere electricity is available.

 

Scott H. ----Hit it right on the nose. I purchase the Lincoln 140c last summer, then i tried the miller 140. the difference is night and day. sold the Lincoln @ a 200 loss just to get the miller. it is that much better of a machine. Also the lincoln machine has "Potted" dials, meening if you break one you have to replace the 500.00 pc board, bad design and not made in the US (Italy). The millers drive system stinks but the arc quality is far better and more forgiving for the occasional welder.

 

ya im looking to get one too, but what powers them? while i was in alaska we had a lincoln wire fed that we hooked up to a big miller gen set, is there a set up i can just plug into the wall?

 

+1 on that. its big enough to work on all the sheet metal needs around my house.

 

yea thats what i was thinking too. i want one where is portable anywhere and i can just plug it into a wall. i was looking through harbor freight for some jack stands and misc small suff i needed. and saw a ton of welders that didnt need gas, whats that all about and how do they work?

 

when the ad refers to "Gasless" their not referring to gasoline. it refers to shielding gas. All mig welders use electricity of some sort. The "Basic" options are solid wire or flux cored wire welding. with flux cored no shielding gas is required but you will burn much hotter, lots of spatter to clean up and after each stop of the weld you will need to clean the weld with a wire brush. using solid wire you will get much cleaner welds and use less heat. the gas requires for solid wire is 75/25 (argon 75% / carbon dioxide 25%), great for sheet metal but vary expensive, option 2 100% carbon dioxiod. much cheaper lasts longer but more spatter and more clean up, not so good on sheet metal becaues theres mor het needed.

all the welders mentioned will all plug in the wall and all will opperate the flux cored wire. if you want to use the shielding gas then you must make sure there is a gass silinoid on the welder. recap the welders miller 140 / 180, lincoln 140c/180c, weldpac, weldpac hd, hobart, clark, auto arc, esab and a few i am sure i missed.
http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/onephase.php
http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Cat...rowse=101|241|

something that might help out as well
http://www.millerwelds.com/resources...ur-skills/mig/

 

really? i paid $100 for a tank and its $20 to exchange it for a full one each time i use it all. i didnt think that was too bad