opinion on AC arc welder

[toy]

I have the Lincoln 125 225 ac dc welder also and I like it real good.

 

[Soundguy]

One thing that would be nice on this tombstone is a finer selection of amps. The dial has a bunch of preset amp settings that are sometimes too far apart. The low setting doesn't allow the weld to lay down and the higher setting undercuts a little. Adjustments in arc length usually allow me to make one or the other work well though..

The hobart and (cough) CH unit both have a 'continous' dial that lets you select in 1 amp increments. that's about the only difference I can see int he two identical priced hobart/lincoln units..

Soundguy

 

[dbdartman]

I would stick with either Lincoln or Miller (& pay the premium for either) for the simple reason of parts support. With either machine, any part you need will be on the welding supply's shelf, or available in a day or 2. Can't say that about the off-brands.

My 2 cents worth...

 

[Soundguy]

You consider Hobart an off brand? Isn't it owned by a major brand.

Soundguy

 

[SkyPup]

Yeah, Miller.

 

[AlanB]

I would agree with Dbartman, I would stick to lincoln or miller myself, and yes, Hobart is now owned by miller, but it is being marketed more as their "low end" or Homeowner or whatever politically correct term they care to use.

We each have to decide where to lay down our money, but for me, the Lincoln and Miller have a very proven track record of good machines and great support. Go to the local welding shop and ask for parts for an old Hobart and see what is available, and ask the same about a lincoln or miller and see if the response is the same.

 

[willfick]

I bought a Lincoln 225 AC at Lowes for about $230, I think, a year or two ago. It was the brand (and same unit, I think) I was used to from a job I had years ago. I run it with a 12k generator amd have been entirely pleased with both how well it works and how quickly I've re-learned to strike an arc. The one most enormous improvement in welding is the auto darkening helmet. How'd I ever without?
Wm
Here's a shot of my welding shop-

 

[3RRL]

Nice shop willflick,
All you need is a benchgrinder, saw, angle grinder and air compressor and you can rent yourself out as Mr. Weldit. I bet you'd be busy all the time.

 

[Ford960]

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Tried posting this last night but there must have been a problem with servers as several of my favorite sites were down or painfully slow. Good thing that I composed it in Notepad so that I could cut and paste it now.
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Soundguy,
I gotta toss my hat into the Lincoln ring as I have a 225 ac/dc that my dad gave me several years ago. Actually we did a little horse trading that saw a 225 amp Sureweld that I bought for $50 go to my brother and the old 1948 Fourney 180 amp welder go to my dad. My dad and his dad bought the Fourney brand new in '48 and other than one of the capacitors blowing it still worked just fine but I'm not sure where it is since he died.
He wanted me to have his Lincoln since I was tigging aluminum with the Sureweld and a small high frequency unit and I could tig steel and stainless if I had DC.

When I was growing up we were always partial to Miller and had several Dial Arc 250 ac/dc machines and AEAD200 LE portable welders. Frankly I've used a lot of different welding machines in the past 40 years and quite a few processes. For your desire though I think that you can't go wrong with the Lincoln.

My favorite welder however is the ReadyWelderII 10000ADP,

http://www.readywelder.com/10000adp.htm

When I first looked at these on the internet in 2002 they were interesting but toy like. I had stick welded with a couple of batteries before and I fanally decided to buy one in Jan 2005 when I needed to do aluminum welding and didn't have access to 220v power for my tig setup.
I won't go into all that it can do since you can read about it on the website but I can say that everything that they say is true.
The best part is the portablilty, it travels in a small suitcase and I carry mine on a golf cart. When I get to the place that I need weld, I just flip up the seat and connect the clamps to 3 batteries in series (48 volt system). I can weld for hours like this and still ride the cart back home since I have 6 batteries and only use 3 at a time. The cart gets recharged overnight and is ready to go in the morning again.
This works especially well with flux cored steel wire as I don't have to carry any shielding gas. Also the wind will blow the shielding gas away and screw up the weld.

Buzz boxes have their place but they are limited, especially when requiring 220v power as wilfick pointed out with the 12kw generator to power his Lincoln. With the cost of the generator he has probably $1,400 invested so he can weld in the field, granted that the generator can be used for other things but it's still a pretty good outlay of money. I can do more work for the $390 that I paid and I don't have a duty cycle, the only limiting factor is the battery power and I have yet to exhaust that. I give out before they do. Then there is the weight of lugging around the Lincoln and generator, gasoline and upkeep. If I had to do all of that I'd be too tired to weld after getting it set up and running.

When I travel with my 5th wheel camper I throw the ReadyWelder in the front and power it off the 2 house batteries. Last year it paid for itself in Pa to weld one of my rear jacks back together.

Right now I have my bush hog laying on it's side in the driveway with 20' of angle waiting to get welded on. I plugged in the golf cart last night so it's ready, just got to drive it a little closer. My buzz box is sitting in the cargo trailer and the leads will reach but I'd have to change out the power and put the camper on 30 amps so I can plug into the 50 amp on my temp pole. Then lay out the leads, rods, ect... The ReadyWelder is much easier and it is cheaper since I'm not running up my electric bill.

 

[JoeJ]

Will,

Your shop looks just like mine, except I pull mine with an Allis 410S.

I found an Airco Wasp ll-E, it's an engine driven AC machine that should do me just fine.