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I was reading a thread over at the steel soldiers website just now. A man had posted a question regarding what type of welders are worth considering for someone who hasn't welded in years etc. I was surprised many of the respondants mentioned staying away from 110V home welders. Why would this be? Now not being real knowledgable, at the time I bought my welder, I went with a Lincoln weld pak model 3200 110V unit. I couldn't afford much bigger than that and actually didn't want anything bigger. I made sure it was a good enough unit for light automotive work such as welding patch panels etc. My unit has (for me) worked out fine and I don't see a need for a bigger unit, and don't understand why someone would steer someone away from these units. I can see if they are trying to weld 1/2 steel etc, the nof course a 100V welder isn't going to d othe job. Just wanted to hear your onions regarding 110V home welders.

Nick,
I just posted pics in my album of my floorboard weld job. I welded them in with my buddies $129 harbor Freight 110vac flux core wire welder. I was more than skeptical that it would be hot enough. I was prepared for a wire "stickfest, blow the garage breaker marathon" not so.
It worked very well on the 1/8" skid plate I used for my floorpans. I was really surprised. I had not used a MIG gun in about 10 years. I ran a couple practice beads and I was ready to go. I am going to use it to patch my tailgate before I give it back. If I didn't have one to borrow I would get my own for the house.

I've got a Craftsman MIG which I like. I'm just getting started at welding but it seems to do the job for me.

The so called home owners welders are ok for very light duty occaisional jobs I would guess. I'm not experienced with such machines. I would suggest paying close attention to the recommended duty cycle the machine is designed for & being sure it meets the need for the maximum intended use. I do know that stressing a machine past its recommended cycle time will bring out problems with the machine sooner than later. Once it starts to overheat, you will have problems & a short machine life will soon follow. We have a mig machine that will weld 5/8" thick material in a single pass, will run low enough for light sheet metal work as well. We can run it all day without duty cycle issues. People tend to use light duty machines for bigger jobs than they were designed for. May be that this is what brought out the discussion about 110V machines on the other forum.

110V welder is fine for home use, I have the same weldpack and for what I do at home its great, especially for the light sheetmetal work. Now at work I use a big old lincoln arc welder, but I weld much heavier stuff with that!

I use my Hobart 140 mig all the time. It was recomended by one of the welders at work. I figure if he owns one and is satified with it I would be too. No complaints, but if I have to do something heavy I still resort back to the old Lincoln 250 amp stick welder.

Agreed. I kinda knew when I bought mine I'd not have a need to weld more than about 1/8 in steel. I think my welder is rated up to either 3/16ths or 1/4 in but I doubt I'll ever need to use it for that. It did a great job on the patch panels I needed to weld on my truck, and also was more than up to the task of welding my kid's go kart frame back together, etc. I guess if I ever find a need for something bigger, I'll pick up a larger unit. I haven't stick welded since high school, and may pick up one of those for some larger jobs, we'll see.

All I do know is whenever the local kids break something on their machines, they come right to my house. So far I have welded one other kid's go kart back together and put another one's muffler back on the bike using my welder. I get the practice I need on their equipment. I always expressly tell them "no guarantees" so if something fails their dads will probably still sue me but it has't happened yet.....

I too have the Craftsman 110v MIG/flux wire combo welder and it works great (although I am still getting back into the swing of it after not welding for 30 years). Heavy duty extension cord w/ breaker out to the parking lot-no problem. No circuit breaker issues in the hooch, no extension cord issues (caution-don't use a cord longer than absolutely necessary).
Gary

..materials.

Remember that the little guns are *little*.

I weld 1/4 plate quite a bit repairing our range targets, pepper poppers and the reationary target toy boxes.

Remember that tacking together larger projects and using filling beads in sections will let you work on heavier stock and not overtax the working time of your 110vt box.

I have an older 110v Millermatic, love it.



kevinL

In my opinion, a Miller is the best brand going these days, especially in a production situation.

I have a MM135 and it works GREAT. 1/4" is the MAX, but I have a 20 amp circuit in the garage, and its 100 ft from the breaker in the house and does not pop the breaker, and does sheetmetal just fine. A few mice features are the cold lead untill trigger pull, die cast feedroller base, quick change rollers, and overcycle protection (it shuts the machine down if you run it too long, or too hard). It will also self protect if you get a hard weld between the stinger and the workpiece.

I also run a MM135 for most of my work.
I have successfully welded about 10' of continuous weld
on 1/4" stock with it on a single project ( qualifying that there was set up time between each weld (duty cycle wise ))
A welder friend of mine told me a little trick that seems to work well for me. Even if you run flux core, use the combo gas with it.
I have found that the welds are a little more predictable with a solid core though.
Anything more than 1/4" or hard facing I revert to the stick welder.
All in all I am very happy with my Miller.
J.B.

The only 110V "home welder" that I ever used was a "stick" type and not worth the powder to blow it to smithereens! It was useless for frame work or constructing anything out fo anything heavier than 1/8" mild steel. On sheet metal work, by the time you managed to strike an arc with it, you had already burned a hole that would require filling. Of course, this was well before the day of gas-shielded, wire-fed welders, but I still remain leery of them.

Lincoln Weld-Pack 3200, MIG/TIG Argon/Co2
NORWELD, Stick
Between the two machines, I can do almost anything needed.

I have an ESAB smashweld 250 (250 amps) 380v triphase. It's awesome although you have to be very carefull to weld thin metal. I don't know if it's because it's big or my lack of welding skills, probably the latter.