low-end MIG -- CC?

I've been browsing looking at light-duty MIG welders, and I'm coming up with some questions.

First, does anybody have any opinions on the Northern Tool MIG135? Looks like a fairly nice, 110V machine capable of either gas or fluxcore out of the box. The reviews I've seen of it have looked good, but they've almost all been on Northern's site. Over on a Jeep site, there is one frequent poster who harps on it as being cheap, but he seems to be in something of a minority. The welder is at

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What's got me really puzzled, though is what I seem to be finding in the real bottom-feeders of the MIG world (down below the light-duty welders I'm actually considering): looking at the front panel of things like the bottom-end Chicago Electric welders at Harbor Freight, they seem to list a max open circuit voltage, and list amperages for various switch settings (and also have a continuously variable wire feed speed) -- looking for all the world like they are CC machines. Are they, or am I misreading?

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer
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One of the major considerations when buying a low end MIG is the weight. Once it craps out or you can't find parts, you will be using it for a boat anchor. Buy one with the highest weight.

Buy a good one, and don't look back. A long time from now, it will still be working and you will be happy you sprung for a good one.

I've been welding since 1974, and that's my opinion. YMMV.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

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_200332691

I agree with Steve on this one.

I'm going through this same discussion with a friend who wants to get into welding as inexpensively as possible. HF does a pretty good job of parts support on models they currently sell, but once they become obsolete, the parts supply tends to dry up. Go with a brand name (Miller, Lincoln or Hobart) that's been around forever and will probably be here to stay.

"It is better to pay too much for something than too little. If you pay too much, it is generally only a little too much and you are out only that little. But, if you pay too little, you are apt to find what you bought is inadequate to the job and you are out the entire amount."

You can save some serious money by shopping around: Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply, etc., etc. Look at the web and when you find what you want, print it out. A lot of companies price-match. And a lot of companies offer things cheaper on the web than in their stores, but, if you bring the web ad into the store, they'll give you the web price.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Foster

Check with your local welding machine distributor as well. They often get trade ins that may well be within your price range, and have a much better machine than one from HF..

If you buy a HF mig...for Croms sake..dont weld up a spare tire carrier.........

Sigh

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner Asch

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That sure looks like a Lincoln unit with a yellow paint job...

You want to get a machine from a major manufacturer (even if it's got a Private Label on it) that will be in business for a while so you can get repairs and parts for the unit. Without consumable and repair parts, it becomes worthless fast.

The local welding supply shop may be a bit higher, but when things go wrong (and they always do...) they are invaluable to be friends with because they can fix it.

That Northern number is about the bare minimum, and only useful because 20A 120V is the minimum available at any house or construction site - those size units are used all the time by gate and fence installers.

But to do any structural work in your shop, you need to go for a small to medium 240V unit, and the 185A Miller Challenger is the smallest practical unit for that, and what I picked. Northern has a few Hobart's that fit the bill.

If I ever need anything larger, I'll watch for an engine driven portable welder/generator and put it on a trailer.

Okay Gunner, you can stop beating yourself up on that one. Rest assured that we'll do it for you, though... ;-)

Gunner "took a bullet for the team" to remind everyone that even an expert can FUBAR occasionally... New equipment and not enough practice with it, he didn't get enough heat into the weld and it looked good on the outside - but when you hit a bump the base welds on bracketry get a LOT of stress placed on them due to leverage, and a less than perfect bead will quickly unzip itself. (I wonder if NASA ever got that tire on telemetery...)

The key to any welding is getting proper penetration of the base metals so you have a nice strong weld, and that only comes from lots of welding practice AND good equipment with enough heat for the job AND good design to spread the stresses AND good materials AND good preparation. Fail at any of the above and the weld might look fine, but fail when placed under stress.

If you don't have all the above in spades, DO NOT do any safety critical welding yourself, things like trailer hitches and car frames & roll cages - get your materials all cut and fit together, and tacked together to make sure they fit and work the way you want it, then get someone with beaucoup experience to do the final welding.

Either that, or fake up a few test coupons with the same material in the same configuration, weld them up, and then beat on it hard with a sledgehammer to proof your design & technique. If the base metal gives before the welds and only after a lot of abuse, the welds are good.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

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Key thing to keep in mind - The worse the weldor (you) the better machine you need. A really good weldor can compensate for and work around the faults of some pretty bad equipment, but an amateur needs all the help they can get and fighting an inadequate machine is not helpful.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

I don't think I was clear enough in my original message -- no, I'm not looking at any of the real bottom-of-the-barrel machines. Bottom I've looked at seriously is the Northern Tool; now it turns out that Electric Arc has what looks like a very nice machine that a local welding shop is offering for under $500.

What's got me puzzled is the weird stuff that seems to happen down at the far bottom -- and it looks like these things are screwy to the point of not even being constant voltage.

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

(lots and lots of good advice snipped)

Thanks -- this is all extremely helpful!

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

SteveB speaks truth. A lifetime of woodworking has taught me one important lesson: If you buy a cheap tool, you'll inevitably come back and buy a good one, so you might as well buy the good one to start with.

Reply to
Edward A. Falk

If it were really a Lincoln, wouldn't they say so? It's a selling point after all. More likely they deliberately made a cheap welder to look like a Lincoln, hoping a few more people would buy it.

Reply to
Edward A. Falk

I've never thrown an expensive tool across the shop and yelled "I wished I'd bought a cheaper tool"....

Usenet quote author unknown

Reply to
Jim Stewart

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