New inexpensive trimode welder

[rangerfredbob]

Oh, I know there's a diffrence in warranty and standing behind the product, I got the 200 before I looked deep enough into the Everlast world, the 170 was just too good of a deal to pass on...

 

[alexpops]

FWIW ... my biggest complaint with the "cheap" welders (regardless of paint color, since they all tend to come from the same place at that price point -- by and large) is in the design specs and duty cycle. Paying a bit more for better components & specs lets me actually get some welding done instead of tacking then waiting for it to cool down. I wound up needing to do a quick trailer jack attachment on an old boat trailer while at my place in CA (where I don't keep my good tools). Figured let me try the cheap HF option since I have decent welders and a shop in FL & this is only going to be used when I'm in CA (rarer & rarer these days) for quick jobs when absolutely necessary, so the 110/125 wire feeder should be fine even if it takes a few passes. After grinding/prepping, what should have been about 5 minutes of welding became ... press trigger/strike arc/see puddle/start tying the two pieces together/progress 1/4 inch/thermal shutdown/stuck wire/clip wire/smoke 2 cigarettes/reset thermal switch/repeat. At Max it wouldn't go longer than a minute before shutting down & it was so frustrating with ugly cold weld & no penetration, I went out & bought the Lincoln 140 (also made in China) just to finish that job. The Lincoln did the job with decent penetration in about 5 minutes with a single 2 minute pause (by me NOT machine) 1/2 way through to avoid kicking in the thermal breaker. Maybe the higher end HF is better, but that experience put me off of them for stuff I expect to depend on to do the job at hand.

 

[greenerdreams]

have had multiple lincoln and miller welders. just sold a miller 211 after i had to replace the pcb and found how bad miller is at parts pricing. I saw a lot of info regarding yes welder and looked into that brand. i was leaning heavily to a hobart 240 ironman mig because they are transformers and last forever but i got the yes welder 250 pro mig on sale and at a 1/3 the price i couldn't justify the hobart. so far it is a pretty nice machine, almost to par with ease and weld quality of the miller 211. the yeswelder has autoset like the miller just not quite as simple.

 

[WranglerX]

FWIW ... my biggest complaint with the "cheap" welders (regardless of paint color, since they all tend to come from the same place at that price point -- by and large) is in the design specs and duty cycle. Paying a bit more for better components & specs lets me actually get some welding done instead of tacking then waiting for it to cool down. I wound up needing to do a quick trailer jack attachment on an old boat trailer while at my place in CA (where I don't keep my good tools). Figured let me try the cheap HF option since I have decent welders and a shop in FL & this is only going to be used when I'm in CA (rarer & rarer these days) for quick jobs when absolutely necessary, so the 110/125 wire feeder should be fine even if it takes a few passes. After grinding/prepping, what should have been about 5 minutes of welding became ... press trigger/strike arc/see puddle/start tying the two pieces together/progress 1/4 inch/thermal shutdown/stuck wire/clip wire/smoke 2 cigarettes/reset thermal switch/repeat. At Max it wouldn't go longer than a minute before shutting down & it was so frustrating with ugly cold weld & no penetration, I went out & bought the Lincoln 140 (also made in China) just to finish that job. The Lincoln did the job with decent penetration in about 5 minutes with a single 2 minute pause (by me NOT machine) 1/2 way through to avoid kicking in the thermal breaker. Maybe the higher end HF is better, but that experience put me off of them for stuff I expect to depend on to do the job at hand.

Really!.... I have never had duty cycle of my Hobart Handler 140 stop my work progress.....

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

Were you welding with .023" wire? It's hard to do. The Hobart 140 is really only about a 90A welder. The 140 is more theoretical. Duty cycle is usually around 20% @ 90A. With .023" wire, you are hard pressed to reach 90A.

 

[newbury]

FWIW ... my biggest complaint with the "cheap" welders (regardless of paint color, since they all tend to come from the same place at that price point -- by and large) is in the design specs and duty cycle.

I think that in this day and age one of the bigger things is quality control in the factory. Inexpensive welders can be found.

 

[rangerfredbob]

I have one of the older "Chicago Electric" flux core welders that's rated at 100A without a fan (newer ones don't have a live gun at all times and have a cooling fan so they rated them at 125A...), I've only hit the thermal overload once, albeit it welds like heck if you apply "normal" wire feed welding practices... the dumb thing won't weld with .030" wire only .035" wire then use the wire speed to control heat opposite of what you are supposed to do, faster speed to force you to move faster, slower speed to get more penetration... With the Titanium I can use normal practices and the recommended settings on the flap are pretty close... Sounds like alexpops got a bad example of the welder, but that's what Mark is getting at

 

[California]

I have one of the older "Chicago Electric" flux core welders that's rated at 100A without a fan... the dumb thing won't weld with .030" wire only .035" wire then use the wire speed to control heat opposite of what you are supposed to do, faster speed to force you to move faster, slower speed to get more penetration...

Is THAT the secret to work with one of those! I gave up and went back to using my elderly 230-AC monster stick welder for most everything.

Everything i repaired using the HF blue 'MIG-100' (94056) has stayed welded, but that's about all I can say for it. A real PIA to learn wire welding on!

Sold the HF to a neighbor for $25 and got a used Century 130 DC, that was a decent 110v welder, night/day better than the HF. And now the $149 dual voltage Amico 130, and its better than either of those and bonus, it's easily portable. I'm convinced dual voltage is worthwhile for a light casual-use welder.

 

[rangerfredbob]

Yeah, I spent many hours with that stupid thing and all I knew is what it took to get it to weld, once I figured out it welded decent with .035" wire I just stayed there and realized what it took to get decent welds, then once I played with actual good welders I realized it was backwards... I've always heard the HFT wire welders ran on the hot side so in my engineering mind I tried to figure out how to make it work... That thing is now at my brothers and he's managed to get it to work here and there and I use it to work on things when I'm there and am not thinking ahead enough to bring a better welder...

 

[Raul-02]

Pretty hard to distance yourself from China, even if you could.

The chinese took advantage of human greed and made themselves the world's workshop making everything for less than anyone else could because the Chinese government Owns the people. Chinese are not citizens they are mere property and they do what they are told. They were told to work for next to nothing and they did. Then they dumped metals and other materials on the domestic markets all around the world driving local suppliers under.
Now they have us all by the short hairs.
No one dares call them out no matter what horrors they have inflicted on the rest of the world. There's just too much money at stake.

 

[California]

Yeah, I spent many hours with that stupid thing [HF 'MIG-100' flux welder] and all I knew is what it took to get it to weld, once I figured out it welded decent with .035" wire I just stayed there and realized what it took to get decent welds, then once I played with actual good welders I realized it was backwards... That thing is now at my brothers and he's managed to get it to work here and there and I use it to work on things when I'm there and am not thinking ahead enough to bring a better welder...

Yeah. I did some useful work with mine after much frustrating trial & error. Example: Bracket for a lifting mechanism, to convert a drag-only spike harrow. I used the stick welder for anything larger than this.

But what I have now is far better.

 

[WranglerX]

Were you welding with .023" wire? It's hard to do. The Hobart 140 is really only about a 90A welder. The 140 is more theoretical. Duty cycle is usually around 20% @ 90A. With .023" wire, you are hard pressed to reach 90A.

IF that comment is pointed at me.... Well....
I use .030 wire exclusively and had to put in 30Amp circuit to keep amperage draw of welder from popping 20Amp breaker.... According to HOBART spec sheet it can draw up to 24.5 amp on AC input side, and that sort of makes me believe its capable of more than you 90Amp statement.... And yes, as state above .030 wire (ER70-S6 and C 25 shield gas) and have been successfully gotten good penetration on up to 1/4inch material.... And as with ALL MIG WELDING proper preparation of surfaces to weld is paramount....

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

No, that's about right for a transformer for 90A rating. And that is an "average" rating they give, not a max breaker rating for inrush. A transfomer capable of welding 140A at max output will trip a 30A breaker. Hobart's own data shows it's only a 9% duty cycle at 140A. That's less than 1 minute out of 10 of operation.