no 220 availible near my carport
anyone have any suggestions on single phase welders?
i highly doubt there are any single phase tigs but i'd really like a pedal to make my welds more consistent & pretty. Headers will be the heaviest gauge thing the welder will see so no need for 250 amps or anything.


oooohhh ooohhhhh

http://www.welders-direct.com/merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WD&Product_Code=903367

[Edited on July 21, 2007 at 4:24 PM. Reason : ]

7/21/2007 4:15:40 PM

hobart or miller 135 are going to be the best machines for the money, hands down.

the miller is a few bucks more, but you get infinite voltage/wire speed control and a metal roller/feed system. they're the exact same machine besides that, same company.

the machine in that link is 240v.

i bought all of my stuff from http://www.cyberweld.com , but that's been 5-6 years ago. someone else may have better pricing now.

7/21/2007 4:36:59 PM

i meant this one

http://www.welders-direct.com/merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WD&Product_Code=907135012
supposed to go from 1 to the other. FUCK ITS JUST DC.


the reason i want tig is cause our MAE shop had one and i became pretty damn good with it (layin dimes like a mofo) but stewart is one heck of a welder & showed me the ropes (does most of the welding for the sae car)

[Edited on July 21, 2007 at 4:47 PM. Reason : DAMNIT ]

7/21/2007 4:43:26 PM

car battery and jumper cables FTW

7/21/2007 6:52:00 PM

good luck TIG welding with that..

also, I'm looking for something similar, has to be 120v.. so let us know what you find.

[Edited on July 21, 2007 at 7:54 PM. Reason : asdf]

7/21/2007 7:48:38 PM

I used to have a miller 135 110v that did pretty well. I managed to weld brackets out of 1/4" plate without having lack of penetration.

7/21/2007 10:51:16 PM

I've got a hobart handler 140 and it's been great for light guage stuff.

7/22/2007 12:05:10 AM

pretty much all of those dual purpose/portable type machines are junk.

it doesn't sound like you really need a tig for anything other than you like the way the welds look. you can easily make gassed mig beads look just as nice. plus they're much more versatile/usefull machines for your average weekend warrior.

tig is nice if you're doing some really serious and critical fab, but it doesn't sound like it. mig is just fine for 99% of stuff a non professional does. not to mention more than half the price.

if you ever do get into stuff really needing a tig, you're much better off getting a dedicated tig machine or a nice stick and putting a gun on it.

7/22/2007 12:22:18 AM

yeah... i just want to make headers and cold side piping so penetration shouldn't be that big of an issue except with flanges. but i think i can do that... i just KNOW i can make an air tight weld with a tig.
i think the gas on the mig was funky when i was using it though cause it never seemed to work well either too hot or not hot enough...

7/22/2007 1:28:02 AM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=391924

This was a really good unit for the money

7/22/2007 12:09:11 PM

Yea i ended up with the handler 140 too. Pretty damn good unit, especially to be able to swap between MiG and flux core in a pinch.

7/22/2007 12:46:38 PM

my dad tig welds for a living and he bought a handler 135 for portability and due to its reasonable price

you can throw some nice welds with gas on that machine, and tig is probably a big waste of money for you

hell when I had my kia sephia it stayed in my trunk for about 6 months taking it back and forth places

7/22/2007 12:54:28 PM

Totally happy with my Handler 140. I just need to get a gas bottle for it.

You can't beat MIG for ease of use, even though TIG does produce some pretty welds.

We have about 30 TIG stations (maybe more) here at work.

7/22/2007 5:10:54 PM

i guess i'll get a mig just to start doing stuff again and if i ever start selling stuff i'll need a real garage anyway

7/22/2007 5:21:30 PM

The biggest thing I do NOT like about either MIG or conventional stick is the spatter. For really pretty stuff and excellent arc control, you really can't beat TIG, but you already know that.

The Handler 140 does a reasonably good job with accurate arc control, even though you only have 4 major heat settings. For that, the Miller is easily worth the extra hundred or two dollars. That, and as Ivan said, you get an all-metal feedroller assembly. All that said, the Hobart does actually internally vary output power somewhat with wire speed, but you can't manually fine tune it.

Have you taken a look at Miller's portable TIG inverter boxes? That's something to think about. Not exactly cheap, though.

Oh. I just clicked on your link. Sorry. What's so bad about just DC? I can't really think of one thing AC is really superior for except maybe for burning dirty mild steel.

[Edited on July 23, 2007 at 8:49 AM. Reason : Miller...]

7/23/2007 8:40:59 AM

we have a Handler 140 where I work

it's nothing special, but it gets the job done pretty much any time we need it

7/23/2007 9:38:57 PM

dude, tell me about the car in your pics

7/23/2007 9:56:10 PM

koeiingseegginsieeineiggggg

CC8 ?

sexiest use of a ford based motor ever.

7/23/2007 9:58:42 PM

Those pictures are probably over 2 years old. I made a thread about them a while back. Anyways, a friend of mine from Lincolnton dated a girl at Liberty U. whose dad imported the car. It was one of the first ones in the U.S. and he kept having to send it to Florida to get it set up to where he was able to drive it over here. He took those pictures when he went to her house one time and got to ride in it. We had a trip planned to go up to where the guy lives in Ohio, and I was going to get to ride in it, but he since broke up with her and has married a different girl.

7/24/2007 10:14:37 PM

is there a way to put a spool gun on a Hobart Hanlder 140? I want to do some aluminum, I have trimix on there now. Is that ok for AL or should i go to something else?

7/29/2007 9:19:23 PM

it'll work fine for aluminum as is. you'll definitely want to get 100% argon on it though, and of course aluminum wire. i would also reccomend pre heating a bit if you're doing anything more than thin sheetmetal.

couple of additional tips if you plan on doing aluminum work with any regularity:

-get different rollers. the factory ones are V shaped iirc, and can deform the wire. they sell U shaped rollers. the U's will still work find with steel wire.

-you might have problems with it sticking in your normal tips. aluminum expands more than steel, and if you're throwing a lot of heat to something it can cause the wire to seize up in a normal steel tip. stepping up to a tip slightly larger than the wire will fix that. or, just let the wire cool down between passes.

-plastic liner for the wire feed. factory metal one will shave the wire and make a mess of the inside of your case and the gun internals.

7/29/2007 9:33:35 PM

Thank you, I never new you could do that.

7/29/2007 10:16:57 PM

yup. i mean, it's not the optimal setup of course... but more than adequate for occasional use and stuff ~1/8" or less.

7/29/2007 10:20:29 PM

im going to make a beer keg into a hydraulic tank and fix a saddle tank from a truck that got hit with some debris.

7/29/2007 10:26:39 PM

welding aluminum is tricky, its hard to explain it till you try it, you dont lay a semisolid bead, you push around a molten pool

7/29/2007 10:29:35 PM

Don't forget that aluminum has to be SPOTLESSLY CLEAN before welding. Some folks use an etching cleaner prior to welding. Key is oxidation...the surface of aluminum oxidizes very quickly, and aluminum oxide is some seriously tough stuff. One reason why it's used as an abrasive.

^and like Keith said, it's tricky...one reason is that it really doesn't have a transitional phase where it gets softer and then flows slowly. One second it's solid, the next liquid. Really easy to blast holes in it or have it fall out if you stay in one place too long.

[Edited on July 30, 2007 at 12:16 PM. Reason : blahblahblahblah]

7/30/2007 12:08:23 PM

bttt per request

5/8/2008 5:32:53 PM

Still thinking about this... i know there are some 120v welders that claim to be able to weld 1/4" metal but i was wondering if they actually do it well or if i should get a 220 volt and only use it at my sister's/ parent's place?

[Edited on May 8, 2008 at 6:11 PM. Reason : .]

5/8/2008 6:10:55 PM

you can weld 1/4" just fine, but usually not in a single pass unless you bevel the joint or otherwise can get a good root in it. any time i've welded 1/4" on a 120v machine, i cut the wire speed down and crank the heat way up for the first past. then, make a second pass with the wire speed at a "normal" level and the heat on max. i haven't personally, but i've seen and heard of people welding even thicker stuff using multiple passes and grinding the filler out some in between.

honestly, if i had to do it over again i probably would have bought a miller or hobart 140 instead of my miller 175. the versatility of a 120v machine is just so nice to be able to take it where ever you want, no house wiring upgrades/changes, not deal with a ridiculously big extension cord to move it around the garage, easily carry it by yourself, etc. i love my machine, but very rarely do i use the capabilities of it. i can probably count on one hand the number of things i've really NEEDED a 240v machine for.

[Edited on May 8, 2008 at 7:23 PM. Reason : .]

5/8/2008 7:22:21 PM

Quote :

"not deal with a ridiculously big extension cord to move it around the garage"

you hatin on my 10-4 75' cord?

5/8/2008 7:44:43 PM

OK, well i looked this up after reading the original post, that said nothing thicker than headers, and was gonna suggest this unit.

http://store.cyberweld.com/mitigwema150.html

The guys in the field for my company use one of these to weld stainless ductwork, and i couldnt beleive how small and light they were the first time i saw one in use. Definitely would be nice if you are short on storage area. There is no pedal though, and i dont know if they have the capability of having one or not. Scratch start, but they weld sheetmetal wonderfully.


I guess now if you are trying to weld 1/4", all this goes out the window though.

5/8/2008 8:05:00 PM

Well i decided i'd like to do some suspension work with it too....
and i'm not even sure if 1/4" is going to be thick enough for what i want to do with it.. but maybe

5/8/2008 8:49:38 PM

^^^nah, i'm hatin on my own cord.

^^$1k? no thanks. maybe if having something ultra portable is paramount to your job, but i don't see any recreational welder needing that. you can't even do aluminum with it either.

^wtf are you building that 1/4" isn't suitable for? a monster truck? the only "normal" stuff that you'd need anything thicker for would be lower links for rock crawling or brackets in single sheer. even then, the weld penetration isn't as critical as the material thickness/strength itself and proper gusseting.

[Edited on May 8, 2008 at 9:08 PM. Reason : .]

5/8/2008 9:04:16 PM

Converting the front end over to the radius arm setup commonly called a long arm suspension (even though i only consider long arms to be triangulated 4 link but thats me)





[Edited on May 11, 2008 at 11:33 AM. Reason : psi]

5/8/2008 9:10:27 PM

all debates about the downfall of a radius arm suspension aside, where do you need the ability to penetrate anything thicker than 1/4" there? a 120v machine will build that just fine. if your welds are decent, you'll break a bolt or trash a joint before anything else.

5/8/2008 9:38:39 PM

( i know they wheel hop like a mahh fucker and don't do a great job centering the axle... i guess if i build it myself i could do a triangulated long arm... ) haha i kinda forgot

i was just wondering how thick the long arms would need to be due to the stress of the "upper" arm being connected to them about half way down

5/8/2008 9:51:55 PM

I have been happy with the Hobart 140 I bought from Noen

5/9/2008 1:18:15 PM

http://greensboro.craigslist.org/tls/661259729.html

5/11/2008 2:32:22 PM

^^^really depends on how hard you'd be beating them. even if you need say 0.5" or thicker ones, you can still easily burn tube adapters to the end of that with a 120v. drill holes for plug welds if you're really worried about it. for the upper arm bracket, you wouldn't be using anything thicker than 0.25" at the most. hitting arms on things is what kills them, not so much power.

triangulated 4 link is nice off road, but isn't too great on the street. a parallel 4 link or even a 3 link is the best mix of durability, flex, and street manners.

5/11/2008 9:32:07 PM

hobart 140 here... works great for everything I need it for

5/11/2008 11:14:33 PM

How does this compare to the Miller 135 and the Hobart 140?

http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Catalog/equipmentdatasheet.aspx?P=42420

I've never done any welding but I'd like to learn. What would be a good machine for a beginner that's also good enough to grow into?

I'd probably only weld things for my car (sheet metal, sub-frame connectors, etc.).

[Edited on May 14, 2008 at 10:53 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2008 10:49:56 PM