110V Mig Welders

[Beeman]

Anyone have a 110V mig welder? I'm considering buying one for the portability and for light work. I've looked at Lincoln,Miller, and Hobart and would stick with one of these brands. I was wondering how they perform and what thickness steel you've welded with it?

[moopups]

I rescently sold my 'lunchbox' MIG, it did not do enough peneration depth to be usefull, the currant flow was too pulseing to follow with older eyes. I switched to 6022 rods on my arc welder to get the jobs done. Metal thickness was limited to very light such as lawn mower decks, or sheet metals.

[punkrockpilot]

One of the welders I have at work is a Lincoln 100HD I got at Home Depot and I use it to weld everything from key rings to keep people from taking the keys off to 1/4 plate. I have a larger mig welder - but love this one for its portability. The only draw back is the short duty cycle. After a few minutes of welding it shuts down to cool.

[Cosmic]

I got one of the Campbell Hausfeld 110 VAC MIG's set up to use flux core wire. Works OK, again poor duty cycle. You typically can only do useful welds on the higher settings. Can't weld much in terms of thickness. Lighter guage sheet metals.

Usually use in out of the way places where I must bring the welder to the work. Don't run any long beads, it eats up wire pretty good to do much in the way of serious welding.

I also have the stitcher from Eastman and prefer that for light work instead of the flux core wire. The rods are cheaper and you get better results. Again for sheet metals.

[cfabe]

I had the opportunity to use a lincoln 120v 100amp welder quite a bit on my school's mini-baja racing team. They're good for repairs in thin metal but you won't get a good weld on anything thicker than 1/8". You can weld 3/16-1/4 but you'll have to make multiple passes and it's just not ideal. At school we used a big TIG welder for thicker stuff, but that's way beyond the price range of any home user. The mig was great for field repairs though, that was the welder we brought to races to run off of a generator. If you're willing to give up some portability you might look into one of the 240v migs, I have a miller 175 and it's much more powerful than the 120v units.

[Ross]

I have a Clarke Turbo weld 100en which seems pretty typical of the type, short duty cycle and about 1/8 inch is the thickest weld you could trust to hold up in a strong breeze. I like it and its useful for what it is but for the serious stuff you need a bigger welder. My mechanic has a 110 Lincoln and it seems to run nicer beads and stronger welds.

[Pony]

DH says that Hobart is made by Miller; in his opinion, Lincoln's not all that great, but not really bad. It maxes out at 1/4".

Best value for the dollar (again, in DH's opinion) is Hobart.

Me, I don't weld. I just stand there in a red bustier, just like on those auto and truck magazines, wearing a fancy instant-darkening helmet and holding tools to hand to DH. (Sha -- RIGHT!!)

:haha:

Pony!

[Drizler]

ttp://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/



General rule is never mig anything your life depends on ect with a 110 volt mig. Probably 3/16 unless you really v it out and burn it in. Personally I nearly always use my Lincoln Tombsone AC DC 230 for anything but sheet metal.

[RedneckPete]

I second what everyone else said. The 110 volt migs are decent for sheet metal, but not for anything more.

An old style 220 volt stick welder will be far more useful. You can go to 1/16" or 3/32" rods and weld sheet metal with that too, but can turn up that amps, switch to a larger rod and weld half inch plate.

Pete

[Oilpatch197]

you want a Hobart 135 Mig welder, I got one, and is great with CO2

[oneditto]

I used a lincoln weld pac 100 with flux core .035 wire since 1992. It lasted about 4 years before it finally died. My fault for running it on way too long of an extension cord (12 ga 150 ft). Since then, I purchased an sp125 lincoln that has .030 wire in it and I use a 100ft 10 guage cord with absolutly no problems. I work doing wrought iron work mainly gates and fenceing. As for the thickness, 1/4 inch is max...but what i do is grind a v-shape into thicker steel and fill in the void. I have done dozens of automatic openers for gates that have 1/2 inch brackets and have yet to have one fail using this method. If you have a good power outlet at least 20 amp this welder will perform perfectly. I would highly recommend an sp125 lincoln!