Please Recommend a Home welding machine

[ThomasAlva]

Hi, I am going to buy a welding machine. I've been told that Lincolns and Millers are both good machines.

It's for home-use mostly. I am familiar with welding, as I do it at work. I just want one for home for some bigger projects, and possibly a side business. The first project will be a work table made out of 2" sqare tubing with an 1/8" wall.

Any advice? What to avoid? What is a must-have option? I'm going to get a 220 volt machine, because a 110 is more like a toy.

I hate listening to salesmen, as they are trained liars.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

[tmarks11]

MIG? TIG? Stick?

MIG is usually the best first step for welding, since you can get good results with little practise, and can lay down long weld beads very fast.

To me, one of the most important thing to look at is duty cycle (# of minutes that you can weld out of every 10 minutes at a given amperage). There are alot of cheap chiwanese welders for sale on ebay and elsewhere, that have really poor duty cycles.

If I were going to get a MIG welder, my money would be on a Miller 210 or 212. Might be overkill unless you want to routinely weld 1/4 steel, but it has 100% duty cycle at 130 amps. This is a big sucker ($1400, 180 lbs, 3020x40"), so it might be a little much for many people. The next step down, the Miller 180 is alot smaller ($780, 72#, 17x10,15) but only has a 100% duty cycle at 60 amps (at130 amps, it has a 30% duty cycle).

TIG welder is a big jump up in price. If you want to weld aluminum, then you will need a machine that does AC. That means EconoTig @$1500 (not counting about another $500 for air cooled tig gun and accessories). My money (literally, as it is sitting in my garage) is on the Miller Dynasty 200DX.

www.cyberweld.com is a great source... seems to be the price leader, ships in 2-3 days, free shipping (important when you are buying welding equipment).

Yes, I am a big fan of blue...

[Den-Den]

You did not mention a budget, if a stick machine will do what you need, I recommend the Lincoln 225 AC/DC. It should last a very long time and is not too expensive.

[ThomasAlva]

Thanks Den-Den and Tmarks111.

I have about $600 to spend. Those millers look real nice, though out of my price range, and those that are within my range run about a 20% duty cycle.

MIG is what I want for now, as I'll be doing semi-precision work.

BTW, is a machine capable of doing 1/8" material OK for doing 1/4" material, so long as you make multiple passes?

[Cruiser]

The 110 units are not toys ! I bought an sp100 a while back when they were coming out with the new model so this one was marked down some. I have used it to weld many things light and up to 1/4" with ease. I run core wire on some stuff and hard with gas most of time. It will fall into your budget untill you buy a gas bottle and a few accessories, but it would be worth it too !

[NC Cams]

Spend the most amount of money that you can hardly afford.

I'd be more inclined to opt in for a TIG capable machine, especially for small or prototype work as this is truly something that can make jewelry.

IF you're welding simple steel tubing roll bars or boat trailers, a MIG should be more than adequate. However, if you intend on welding Chrome Moly or even aluminum, TIG is the way to go. Header work is also better affected via TIG.

A TIG with a "foot pedal" temp control will enable you to weld mild steel and/or thin sheet steel very nicely - depending on your skills, nicer than with a MIG. Headers and other hard to get at stuff also can be easier to weld with a TIG torch than a MIG gun.

Don't go for a stick welder.

Go MIG at least. Once I got my MIG, I never even uncover my Lincoln IdealArc 250 anymore and it was LITERALLY bought brand new. Asside from the first project i used it on, it has held down the floor and held up a tool box ever since.

If it didn't have sentimental value - me and my dad fought bitterly over how to use it properly, I'd dump it tomorrow (if I could) and buy a full featured TIG.

You can ultimately do pretty much ANYTHING except build big bridges with a TIG, MIG's are great for general purpose steel only welding - running aluminum wire thru a MIG didn't impress me at all. The stick AC/DC's are not worth considering unless you're striclty using it for utility, generic mild steel welding.

[DareBee]

Lincoln powermig 180

[Farmers Machine]

My friend just bought the Lincoln power mig 350, it will gas and solid wire mig, flux core, stick, and tig. and remote aluminum spool gun. He nicknamed his new machine "Beer, Bait and ammo" because he can do it all!!! I have the Lincoln precison Tig 375 and could not list anything that needs to be improved on.

[Madclicker]

You did not mention a budget, if a stick machine will do what you need, I recommend the Lincoln 225 AC/DC. It should last a very long time and is not too expensive.

This is my choice for a home machine. It takes real welding skill, but it provides quality welds if the user is up to the task. MIG welding requires a pretty good skill level to make quality welds and makes non-welders believe they are actually making good welds because the "beads" look good.