Forgive me welding gods, for I have sinned

[rankrank1]

rankrank1

Well I hope you can be gentle with me as well, the wife bought me a HF 170 amp 240 volt Mig/Wire feed for X-mas I ONLY weld for repairs and misc around the garage. Being an electrician, I had it hooked up in no time and had a 50 foot 8/3 extension cord made. I have only welded with a lincoln AC buzz box for years. I do not have gas hooked up yet but I did a bunch of test welds with the flux core wire this past week end and was truly impressed at how nice it welded. I bought the 2 year replacement plan for I think $40.00 bucks.
OK I know its not one of the top brands but for the price and what I will use it for at the present moment it seems to work pretty good also appears to be DC is that correct?
Go easy on me but any comments on it for a cheaper welder just for the average home owner/shop?
PS --2 in store coupons, extended black friday sale and 20% 1 time discount she had and paid $149.00 brand new add the 2 year replacement plan for 40 bucks I have $189.00 into it

Nothing wrong with this unit as far as cheap wire feeders go. It outputs the proper DC current and you can even mig or run flux core with it so it is much more versatile machine for not all that much more money. Will it weld as good as more expensive offering from Lincoln and Hobart? Likely not, but the price is a fraction of those units too. Your wife appears to be quite a bit smarter than some of the other shoppers in this thread.

Still say someone would be better served to shop for a better 115 volt unit flux core than that $90 HF unit. At one time Northern tool had one for $120'ish that was DC output. Pass over Northern's cheapest offering though as I believe it is now AC output to compete for the HF sucker audience. The cheapest DC output wire feeder that you can buy will always be a much better value. If $20 or $30 increase in price makes that much of a difference to you then you can not afford to weld anyhow.

Read this thread or any other thread covering this welder and simply see how many people have given them away. That tells me the floor space or shelf space in the shop was more valuable than having this welder be in their way. Quite a useful tool indeed to have in your way all the time. Ever hear of anyone giving away even the cheapest of the cheap DC output flux core only machines?

Still waiting for someone to show me a flux core wire (or a mig wire) from any reputable welding wire manufacturer that shows AC as acceptable to run it?

 

[woodlandfarms]

Back to your original question... As you stated and realize, welding quality really is on the operator and not the machine. This said the machines in question will give you a broader range of projects to work on. iMO I would suggest the green box over the black box and I would look at a 200 amp machine. I personally have a Lincoln 180c that I love but would consider hard the everlast 200 if I were to do it again. As for the 200 amps you will one day weld 3/8 and thicker. It will happen so get the power now if you can afford it

 

[Sodo]

No I didn't intend for you to buy one... just get your hands on one and squeeze what you can out of it. Oh, and don't start a fight!

Prostration, abuse, fights, pretending & defending its all history now that 115v has been legalized. But apparently members are still afraid. Welding is like tractor size, chainsaw size & etc. :laughing: i have a 230v generator now, (duroMax XP10000E) I'm gonna have to find thicker material to get folks worked up about.

 

[Shield Arc]

Back to your original question... As you stated and realize, welding quality really is on the operator and not the machine. This said the machines in question will give you a broader range of projects to work on. iMO I would suggest the green box over the black box and I would look at a 200 amp machine. I personally have a Lincoln 180c that I love but would consider hard the everlast 200 if I were to do it again. As for the 200 amps you will one day weld 3/8 and thicker. It will happen so get the power now if you can afford it

200-amps is a good basic Mig welder to have. I ran this weld at 224-amps, 29-volts. With Lincoln's
.030" L-56 Mig wire. You're not going to see that kind of penetration with a 120-volt Mig welder.

 

[Sodo]

No doubt!

But I've been watching this site for awhile and rarely see material that thick (1/2") welded except in test plates. Not in actual projects, and anybody doing projects of that scale has their 240v eqpt already. Most people who buy 120v MIGs do so because 120v is what they HAVE.

If a guy has 240v he buys a 240v machine, even when the only repair he's ever come across is a mower deck.

 

[ThomasH]

Not a thing wrong with that little wire feeder. Their ads clearly show it is an AC fluxcore wire machine. Their MIG's say DC. If you're not going to buy a bottle and use gas then I reckon its fair game.

Sorry, I have seen the results of that piece of junk and it looked like a pigeon walked around and crapped on the steel. The welds on 1/8" angle iron were worthless and came apart. It's not only that it's an AC machine with low power, it won't even weld above 50 amps for long due to the low duty cycle. There was as close to zero penetration on the welds.

 

[Shield Arc]

There was as close to zero penetration on the welds.

Did it look something like this? This is an etched view of the weld I posted above, done with a 120-volt Mig welder. No penetration at all!

 

[ThomasH]

No, it didn't look nearly that good. Imagine sneezing and getting snot on some steel at a joint. Grab one piece and a slight twist and it comes right apart. That's what it was like. Pretty sorry and a complete waste of time, but it gave me a good laugh...

 

[Shield Arc]

When I made that weld, and was sawing it apart for the coupons to bend. The backing plate fell off while being sawed.:shocked:

 

[Reverser]

Re: rankrank1

Still waiting for someone to show me a flux core wire (or a mig wire) from any reputable welding wire manufacturer that shows AC as acceptable to run it?

Well, I pulled out my unused roll of Hobart E71T-11 from off the shelf and it doesn't say AC or DC. :confused3:

So I would say to those using it on AC, if it works for you and you're happy with it, then happy welding.