You can post the sky is blue on TBN, and someone will tell you that's wrong.
Enjoy your 110 volt welder.
Flux Core Amps vs thickness
- Thread starter JCoastie
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Enjoy your 110 volt welder.
/pine
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Well...If someone has never been outside and lived inside their entire life inside and never looked out the window...they would have to take your word that the sky is blue...But people that have actually seen the sky know for a fact that it's blue...
enjoy your shrouded life...!
GeneV
Elite Member
WranglerX
Super Member
This is why I installed a dedicated 30 Amp circuit for my HH 140...
GeneV
Elite Member
You upped wiring for that, I assume? If yes, what's the point running a 30 amp? Might as well run a 50 and get you a 220v outlet.
But I'm just here to help the o/p who's posting about the FC90...so I assume he's just got a regular 120v outlet with 15 or 20 amp breaker.
WranglerX
Super Member
Just so you know, I have two 240V 50 Amp outlets in garage, one for electric drier and one for what ever reason I need it for.... Years ago (12 to 14) I sold my 240V stick welder as I was no longer using it, about 7 years ago I needed to get back into welding and decided to try a 120V MIG, so far it seems to do about 98% of my needs the other 2% that is to big for my capabilities I farm out ... My only regret is that I did not buy the Hobart 21OMVP at the time but then I didn't know how much welding I would do.... Yes I uses 10 Gauge with for breaker (larger than code) to dedicated receptacle, maybe all of 3 feet and use a 25 foot 12 gauge extension cord (Handler manual says I can go 56 feet with 12 gauge e-cord) and when it comes down to bottom end the pigtail on welder its self is only 14 gauge....
And yes it all meets code, did you know there is special section in Nation Electric Code (NEC) compliance instruction just for "welders"...
GeneV
Elite Member
Gotcha. I now got a 240v in my shop when I need it, that's where I welded up the plow for the massey. This time around though, I decided to try doing the forks on 120v in my garage, was pleasantly surprised that my amico welder never tripped the breaker or even hit the top of it's duty cycle. Just the fan would turn on ever so often.
California
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Not much happening in this Welding sub-forum so I'll toss in this update.
Last couple of days I've been practicing with this Amico MIG (flux) 130 dual voltage wire welder. I like it.
Everything I've welded over 15 years with my various welders has stayed welded. But I'm not as good as I would like to be at making a straight bead without stopping to get back on a straight line. I need practice to improve my hand/eye coordination.
After getting all dialed in - set to about 60% on both the current/wire speed and the voltage, and running beads on top of 1/8" plate, I tried switching the welder from the usual 240v outlet to a 110 outlet to see if it would weld as well.
It welded identical. Great, I thought.
But a moment later making a second 3" long bead - the 20 amp breaker tripped. And I'm only 6 ft from the breaker. That's not enough productive time to think this welder is useful on 110 volts for heavier material.
I was judging penetration looking at the puddle, and the cavity sometimes left at the end of the bead. I saw penetration half way through the 1/8" plate. So with 1/8" material, a properly beveled joint might weld up ok with 110 volts and current turned down to where the breaker lasts a while. Larger? Quarter inch? No. I don't think so.
YMMV etc.
JCoastie (OP) did you eventually buy a welder?
______________
* Amico MIG-130A Flux, Dual Voltage. Truly portable!
* HF MIG-180 with all the mods. Heavy.
* Grizzly H8153 Stick/Tig 130/160.
* Wards PowrKraft AC-230. Stick & carbon arc.
WranglerX
Super Member
About your 20 amp breaker trip..... My Hobart 140 running near top settings drawn about 24 amps.... Yes the 20 breaker rating in manual is a joke.... Installed a dedicated 30 amp breaker with 12 gauge wire and all is good.... Yes by national electric code it good.... Check manual on you Amico and see what actual KVA load is when full out....
5030
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Never used flux core wires, always solid gas shielded wire. My issue with flux core is the spatter and if I want spatter, I can SMAW weld. Again, I much prefer TIG, but TIG is slow.
WranglerX
Super Member
I stick to solid wire and shield gas.... Tried TIG, but old eyes and lack of coordination only caused me to ball up tungsten's and never quite got the hang of TIG... But I really don't have any need for TIG....
California
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Manual for this is a joke, just generic instructions that would apply to anything similar. Extension cord size, safety, diagrams of good/bad welds, etc. I can't find KVA.
Specs from Amico website:
- Rated Input Power: 230V~15 Amp & 115V~30 Amp
- Current Range: 130 Amp @ 115V & 230V
- Rated Duty Cycle: 80% @ 130 Amp
- Nominal DC Open Circuit Voltage: 60V
- Power Factor: 0.93
______________
* Amico MIG-130A Flux, Dual Voltage. Truly portable!
* HF MIG-180 with all the mods. Heavy.
* Grizzly H8153 Stick/Tig 130/160.
* Wards PowrKraft AC-230. Stick & carbon arc.
California
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- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
Really, I'm not making splatter to a degree that I care, on my work that is mostly farm repairs. Here's a recent photo of a hitch adapter I made for my Subaru and Focus Wagon, to carry a cargo rack. (I don't intend to use it to pull a trailer).
Note my tiny beads on the upper half, no larger than the periods in this text. (The beads at lower left were there on the original item).
I'm not welding anything that needs to look respectable. I welded this with flux core using the larger HF MIG-180. The splatter with this little Amico welder is the same.
'Good enough for the girls I go with!', as an old Carpenter buddy used to say.
---
Added: another minimal-splatter project using flux core and the MIG-180. Frame on this old rusty back blade didn't have space for the Quick Hitch hooks to slip under its pins, so I added new pins farther forward. Nothing gorgeous, just functional.
This photo can be enlarged to inspect:
Back blade adapted for QuickHitch.
______________
* Amico MIG-130A Flux, Dual Voltage. Truly portable!
* HF MIG-180 with all the mods. Heavy.
* Grizzly H8153 Stick/Tig 130/160.
* Wards PowrKraft AC-230. Stick & carbon arc.
Last edited:
ROUSTABOUT
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Only thing useful to me about the little migs. We use them in the chicken houses to weld rooster pan feeders. Houses are 600', four of them, so it's good with extension cords and a 4 wheeler. Parents, brother an me live close, within a mile. Brother has a large miller wire welder and a large Lincoln stick welder with a hand dial on it. I just have an AC DC Lincoln. I bought dad a stick welder so I'd have one at his shop when I needed it. He usually gets my brother to weld anything serious. But I welded the cattle corral. I mean round crowding pen, rolling divider gates, it all works like a professional charm.
5030
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Big or small sand no matter what process is used, everything is in the prep. Poor prep equals a poor weld.
arrow
Super Member
Pretty beads take a lot of practice. Peeps who weld for a living make pretty beads.Really, I'm not making splatter to a degree that I care, on my work that is mostly farm repairs. Here's a recent photo of a hitch adapter I made for my Subaru and Focus Wagon, to carry a cargo rack. (I don't intend to use it to pull a trailer).
Note my tiny beads on the upper half, no larger than the periods in this text. (The beads at lower left were there on the original item).
I'm not welding anything that needs to look respectable. I welded this with flux core using the larger HF MIG-180. The splatter with this little Amico welder is the same.
'Good enough for the girls I go with!', as an old Carpenter buddy used to say.
---
Added: another minimal-splatter project using flux core and the MIG-180. Frame on this old rusty back blade didn't have space for the Quick Hitch hooks to slip under its pins, so I added new pins farther forward. Nothing gorgeous, just functional.
This photo can be enlarged to inspect:
Back blade adapted for QuickHitch.
______________
* Amico MIG-130A Flux, Dual Voltage. Truly portable!
* HF MIG-180 with all the mods. Heavy.
* Grizzly H8153 Stick/Tig 130/160.
* Wards PowrKraft AC-230. Stick & carbon arc.
It's like golf. You aren't gonna do what the pros do but eventually you sink the ball.
5030
Rest in Peace
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- 28,967
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- SE Michigan in the middle of nowhere
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- Kubota M9000 HDCC3 M9000 HDC
Why I prefer TIG. It's usually pretty (once you master the technique of 'stacking dimes'....) Problem is, it's slow.
GeneV
Elite Member
I take pride...in my grinding skills.
not2old
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I bought my first mig about 40 years ago because it was a pain bringing apartment fire doors home to use an old "tombstone" It was a 120v Century and welded the doors while still on the hinges just fine even though the circuit I was using was sometimes hundreds of feet away from the panel. I then bought a Lincoln 250, 300A machine for bigger work and became unsatisfied with the little machine. Since the work I was doing required 120v I bought a 140A Miller. This newer, better quality machine was better to use. Now retired, I still use it for material 3/16 and thinner, using .023 wire rather than taking the time to replace the .035 I use in the bigger machine. The duty cycle is fine for smaller projects, and I do notice it works longer using the 20A outlet in my shop. I would use it for 1/4" material if I didn't have the bigger machine and think that the average homeowner would be happy with one like it. I have never used flux core wire.
arrow
Super Member
Not my preference to look at.
I like when the weld looks like you just used caulkng on a seam as if you ran your finger down the caulk line.
I tried that with welding but its not worth it cuz it hurts abit.
