110 or 220 wire welder?

[jgrieve]

I would like to buy a small mig welder. are the 110 volt ones worth buying? im sure 220 is better, I have to run a 220 extension cord to my garage which is a pain. Which brand is best?

 

[Mattlt]

FWIW, this is what I did. I picked up a small 110 Mig, and a Lincoln tombstone buzz-box 220 welder. Both used, probably $200 stuck into both of them. I use the Mig for small stuff and to tack bigger stuff together, then use the Lincoln to finish the job.

Also, given that you have to run a 220 extension cord, I think I'd stick with the 110 until you can get the garage wired a little heavier.

I'm not a fan of extension cords. My brother built a shop a few years ago, still doesn't have it wired. Extension cords laying all over the place. Says he doesn't have the $$$ to get it wired properly. He's going to get zapped one of these days. Extension cords are not made for this kind of "semi-permanent" use.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[Butters]

The new MM211 will run on both voltages.

 

[GT2]

220v, don't limit your self

 

[yankeerider]

It depends on what you want to weld. If just light sheetmetal, a 110 machine will do just fine. Few of us though, are content with only modest tool capability, and find ourselves wanting to do something a bit bigger.

Tell us how thick you want to weld, and we can provide better guidance. You can't go wrong with 220v capability, but you might with 110.

 

[EastTexFrank]

I went the same route as Mattlt. I got a 110v mig for a start and it worked well on the thin stuff and to tack thicker stuff. I also got a 220v stick for the bigger projects but I have to run an extension cord from the shop to use it outside but that's not too often. The 110 migs are good pieces of equipment but they are what they are, if you know what I mean. If your main use is going to be repairing broken farm equipment, like mine, they are a little light but can be made to work with grinding, beveling and multiple passes. I have no experience with the MM221 but that may be something worth looking at.

 

[David Devuono]

I started with a 230 amp ac welder (stick). It requires excellent ventilation or a respirator when welding in a garage. Takes almost 4 times longer to master, as opposed to a MIG welder. With a mig welder you don't have to chip slag, almost no smoke. I use a lincoln SP125 welder. It still requires a 25amp 110 Volt outlet, though I never popped a 20 amp breaker. You need to clean off the rust and paint with a mig welder whereas a stick welder will break through the rust. Move around a stick welder requires you make up a cable to plug into your buddies electric stove and run it out the kitchen window. You have to double or triple the cost to set up with a mig welder, gas bottle, cart, regular that will weld 1/4 inch.

 

[easygo]

I started with a 110v mig and after a year or so ended up buying a 220v stick welder. I guess for my needs that(!) mig was too small. Stick welder was much cheaper even with the 60' of extension cord. I also realized that the thinnest metal I would want weld/use is about 1/8" and that is easy with the stick welder. My vote is: go with the 220v mig or stick it is much more versatile.

 

[2manyrocks]

You need to check on the Hobart and Miller welder sponsored forums. I had a el cheapo 110 mig, and the duty cycle was so limited that it was "weld and wait, wait and weld....."

220v gets a higher duty cycle and the capacity to weld thicker material. 110v is more convenient.

A little caution about welding thin material. The machine itself may be capable of welding thin material, but probably not with flux core wire. Don't expect to weld up body panels with flux core wire. Flux core wire is more useful for welding thicker material, outdoors, when welding gas is not available.

If I were doing it again, I'd bypass the el cheapo MIGs and save my money towards a Lincoln. Miller or Hobart.

 

[Bill_C]

I've got a 110 volt Lincoln Weld-Pak 100 which I run flux-cored wire, and I've got a Lincoln AC/DC 225 "Tombstone" stick welder.

What are your needs/expectations? If you want to weld lighter stuff, like mower decks, or thinner structural stuff up to 1/4 inch, the wire feed is outstanding. I've only had the thermal breaker trip twice in the dozen or so years that I've had the wire feed, and that was after many minutes of welding very thick stuff. So IMHO the concern over duty cycle is exaggerated. Most welding (around my place at least) involves a minute or less of actual welding, followed by fitment, figuring, cutting, etc....And the 110 volt operation is extremely convenient--for example, the mailbox needed welding, and it's anchored into the ground with cement. Kinda hard to move it into the shop. But no problem with the wire feed, run a 12 gauge extension cord out to the mailbox and weld 'er up.

Now if you want to weld lots of 3/8 stuff, then I can see going to the 220 volt model-- but that's what my stick welder's for.

I'm not going to weld a thin-gauge mower deck with my stick welder. (However, at least with the wire feed--regardless of whether its 110V or 220V-- you can turn the current way down and have more control than with a stick, again IMHO)

But before I got the stick welder, I welded up lots of stuff with the 110 volt wire-feed. Like an engine hoist, various brackets, bearing pullers, etc. Clean the steel to bare steel and it can do surprisingly well.

 

[Sherweld]

What he said.

Can only add a couple of thoughts.

110 MIG very versatile. I've used it with extension cords, generators, several widely different locations for little jobs (transports fairly easily). A Lincoln 135 Plus, does 90% of my welding up to a quarter inch or so.

220 AC/DC stick for heavier stuff.

Stay with a good brand for service, reliability, resale.

You can't go wrong with Hobart/Miller (same company), or Lincoln. Suggest looking for used, there's a lot of them around. You might consider a brand that a nearby dealer features in case service is needed.

Best regards
Sherweld

 

[JoelD]

I started with a 110v buz box.

I ended up with a Miller BlueStar 180 amp DC stick.

For me works great, can weld anything I'd come accross.

I would think for thin metal a mig would be great. Nothing like DC stick for the big stuff for a novice like me.

Joel

 

[LetsRoll]

I have a Lincoln Pro 100 mig welder that I've used on thin sheet metal (quarter panels for a hot rod for example) and I've welded up to 3/4 inch steel (building a hitch). I built a few things that have some thick metal on them. The links below are a few things that I've built using my 100 amp mig welder. I'd like to have a 220v unit but my 110v units does everything that I have asked of it. My shop is wired for 220v, so that is not a issue. And if it wasn't, I've wired a dedicated 220v plug for it (all it takes is two 110v lines...simple).

Road Grader

Building a waste oil burning stove for my shop

 

[Tom_Veatch]

... My shop is wired for 220v, so that is not a issue. And if it wasn't, I've wired a dedicated 220v plug for it (all it takes is two 110v lines...simple).
...

That statement scares me a little. Would you care to expand on it?

 

[bigdad]

As long as you use one of each "Leg" of the 220. I'm sure that's what Tom meant.

I paralleled my electric stove breaker for my Miller stick welder. I just have to make sure and check with Mother that she doesn't intend to use the stove. Not much chance of that anymore. Ha!

 

[David Devuono]

Perhaps I will attempt to simplify on the statement. With modern electrical panels (not sure about fuse panels) in residential homes, they are fed with 220 volts. 220volts is achieved by an alternating between + and - 110 volts. Coming into your house would be to black wires (hot) a white common wire. Between the common wire and one black wire is 110 volts, between the two black wires is 220 volts. In Canada kitchen counter outlets are split duplex. You really have 220Volts at each counter outlet as each upper and lower recepticle is fed from a different (Hot) side of the electrical panel. Its not as simple as taking 2 110 volt lines, but it is as simple as taking a 110volt line from each side of the panel to achieve 220 volt. To make all this easier, every other electrical panel breaker position is feed from the opposite side of the "HOT bus". Those double breakers for the Stove, kitchen outlets and perhaps clothes dryer get fed from each side of the two incoming Hot wires. Please call an electrician.

 

[LetsRoll]

That statement scares me a little. Would you care to expand on it?

What I should have stated, my shop is wired for 150 amp service. The wires from the house sub-panel to my shops sub-panel can handle 150 amps via a 150 amp double pole breaker. Pull/turn the 150 amp double pull breaker off. To make 220v for a 220v welder, you will need a 30 amp double pull breaker. That breaker has to have two 110v legs to get 220v. By code here in Kentucky, you have to mark both 110v legs with red tape to show you are using two 110v legs to make a 220v plug. I've wired a 5 hp 2 stage compressor (50 amp double poll breaker) and a 10,000 pound rotary vehicle lift (30 amp double poll breaker) in my sub-panel. It's not a hard job, just takes a little time to run and pull the wires. Like I said, simple job.

 

[Tom_Veatch]

.... It's not a hard job, just takes a little time to run and pull the wires. Like I said, simple job.

Ok, Whew!!

When I first read your description, I envisioned you tapping into two existing 120 circuits (on opposite legs) to get a 240 outlet. I'm glad I read that wrong.

Technically, that approach would work and provide 240v to the outlet. In effect, each leg of the 240v outlet would be supplied by different 120v circuits with different single pole breakers. I don't think any local code authority would approve such an installation. There's a reason the NEC requires both hot legs in a 240v circuit be protected by a double pole, common trip breaker.

Now if you took two existing, adjacent 120v circuits and replaced their breakers with a 240v common trip, you would wind up with a single 240v, 4 wire circuit with 120v taps. You could put a 240v outlet across those two legs, and be compliant. My workshop has a couple of sets of circuits that were installed like that by licensed electricians and approved by the inspector. The purpose was to provide both 240 and 120 volt service at each receptacle location.

 

[dfkrug]

The only thing I miss about my old 120V Clarke MIG welder is the portability.
It worked fine with gas, though I never spent the time to learn how to
make good welds with flux-core wire. Limited to 3/16" steel max, IMO.

Since I like to do light guage steel framing, I could have used this welder on
an extension cord away from my workshop. But I replaced it years ago with
my Hobart IronMan 210. I have no decent 220V extension cords. BTW this
220V MIG does the light guage stuff better than the 120V machine. Better
current control, maybe? It handles up to 3/8" no problem. Even 1/2" as
the work piece heats up. Generally I use the DC stick for 1/2", however.