MIG Welder for Beginner/Light Use

[snpower]

Great advice given by all - thanks!

 

[WranglerX]

Personally I prefer American made (or maybe assemble) HOBART welder, I have a Hobart Handler 140 .... It is a 120 Volt machine with 5 preset heats, and will run either shield gas (solid wire) or fluxcore wire..... Will weld up to 1/4 inch material at top heats with ease....The only thing I found is to use top heat the requirement ( by documentation) for a 20 amp circuit to be false, I did my home work and found that it require at about 25 amps to run at top heat, so to keep from tripping breaker I upped my welders AC supply circuit to a 30 AMP.... About 10 years now and don't remember how many rolls of wire through it and still happy with it....

 

[paulsharvey]

I bought the Vevor 270Amp 3 in 1; Mig/Tig/Stick, 220/110v set up and I'm pretty happy with it for mig/stick (well technicality, just Flux core and stick so far, gas bottles arent cheap). Maybe the advertiser it as a 4 in 1; Mig/Flux/Tig/Stick. I think I caught it on sale for like $249 or so.

Point being, if you can spring for a multi function, dual voltage machine, it opens up a lot more of a welding world than a dedicated 110v MiG machine only would.

 

[5030]

Personally I prefer American made (or maybe assemble) HOBART welder, I have a Hobart Handler 140 .... It is a 120 Volt machine with 5 preset heats, and will run either shield gas (solid wire) or fluxcore wire..... Will weld up to 1/4 inch material at top heats with ease....The only thing I found is to use top heat the requirement ( by documentation) for a 20 amp circuit to be false, I did my home work and found that it require at about 25 amps to run at top heat, so to keep from tripping breaker I upped my welders AC supply circuit to a 30 AMP.... About 10 years now and don't remember how many rolls of wire through it and still happy with it....


View attachment 860595

I actually have 2 Hobart Handlers, both on shielding gas and both mine are 210's Both are of course heavy because they are transformer machines and Hobart has also succumbed to the Chinese components and not just their welders but everything. Just bought a new Hobart electronic hood and it was Chinese as well.

The 210's will just barely do spray arc transfer. Gotta be wide open. Never found the circuit breaker on either of them and I tend to run them extremely hard

 

[California]

Word of caution from me... Don't buy any welder online, buy one from your local Harbor Freight. I weld professionally and I run HF almost exclusively. They have the best guarantee ... if it fails for any reason, you can return it within one year for a replacement plus you can extend that warranty up to 3 years.

You buy ANY welder online, and it pukes, you are screwed.
always buy local with welding machines. In the long run, if they fail, you can at least return it and get a new one (How HF handles their warranty).... You buy online, you are basically hosed.

Lots of good points in that post.

But as for warranty, Amazon offers replacement warranties right below the 'add to cart' box.

I phoned the warranty company before buying the Amico that 'old and slow' linked above. Their 4 year warranty on it is $33. They said they have surprisingly few claims on welders and they pay for a replacement, no hassle, if the vendor won't.

So - for a production shop, local service has value. For amateur puttering around where you might wait two weeks for the replacement, this might be a sufficient warranty. Works for me!

Again, in addition to the Amico that two of us here like, Project Farm has reviewed several cheap welders and I would choose something he liked. I don't see the point of buying expensive pro gear before you know what you are doing.

Added: My Amico is the fourth FC welder I've owned over the past 20 years. I like it best for its portability. It lives in a filing cabinet when not in use.

The HF MIG-180 that I get out occasionally for heavier work is transformer-based, so hardly portable. Previous FC welders were 110 volt and not really strong enough for farm repairs. Now I nearly never get out the larger stick welder.

 

[5030]

Why go through the hassle with Amazon when you can return it to a local HF? Makes no sense to me, how about you?

 

[5030]

I might add that I run the bags out of my Pro-Tig (why I upgraded to a water cooled torch) as well as the plasma cutters, especially the 65 amp machine on the plasma table and not even a hiccup from any of them. My buddy who is AWS certified nuclear (and works on Nuclear refits constantly, he's working at Fermi in Monroe presently and he's the guy who certifies me as well), cannot say enough good things about the Pro-Tig, in fact he has a Miller Tig machine and is considering selling it and getting the Pro-Tig for his own use. Understand the Pro-Tig is a focused machine (TIG and low hydrogen stick only), but for the price just under a grand, they are a helluva deal. My sold Lincoln Square Wave TIG didn't have all the features the Pro-Tig has standard and cost me upwards of 5 grand when I bought it new.

The Pro-Tig is all digital, 2 knobs set all the parameters, has post flow, pre flow, HF start does pulsed TIG and even remembers the last settings when you turn it on and like most modern machines, it has fan on demand as well. Very easy to use and will weld anything that conducts electricity (with the proper filler rod of course and you can throttle it down below 10 amps so you can weld very thin gage material and finally, the foot pedal amperage control is light years better than my Lincoln was.

Like I said, best part was the under a grand price OTD.

The stock torch sorta sucks but not a deal breaker for me. I much prefer the CK Worldwide Super Flex torch as it's easier to manipulate and it's a flex head torch as well and it's rated well in the excess of what the Pro-Tig can deliver amp wise.

All the HF welders with the exception of the cheapo Chicago Electric one's use the industry standard DINSE quick 1/4 turn connectors as well.

I did increase the ground clamp cable to 4 gage and extended it to 25 feet as well as mu torch has 25 foot leads on it as well. I like keeping the machine in the front shop and weld in the back shop if possible because the cooling fan can blow away my gas envelope and having the machine away from my work eliminates that issue.

Yesterday I TIG welded my broken tape measure, too cheap to buy a new one...

TIG is most certainly a weld discipline that requires a lot of hands on practice to achieve quality welds no matter who you are. It's a 2 handed process that requires coordination and dexterity to yield good results where as MIG really requires little to no practice to achieve a quality weld, why I call them the 'glue gun' of welding. If I'm pressed for time or if I'm doing something that requires repetitive welding on steel or alloys, I use the MIG, quicker and achieves the same end result but it's limited in scope. TIG results in an aesthetically pleasing weld but takes time and skill.

I cut my teeth decades ago on O/A welding which is very similar to TIG as it's also a 2 handed method. Instead of a tungsten tipped torch (TIG), you have a OA torch and you don't have to keep the filler rod in the gas envelope either. Over the years, I've welded tons of steel and cast with an OA setup and used metal coat hangers for filler rod.

To bad today, all you can get are plastic coat hangers and they don't make good filler rod.

 

[California]

Why go through the hassle with Amazon when you can return it to a local HF? Makes no sense to me, how about you?

UPS shipping office is nearby (for a return) and a replacement would come directly to me. While HF is a half hour away and might not have a replacement on the shelf.

My analysis at the time (November 2022) was the HF Titanium 125 was $60 more than the Amico and HF said they expected theirs to be back in stock 'by next June'. So I went looking for alternatives.

Amico was a gamble - that turned out better than I had hoped. Its dual voltage is a significant advantage. It has taken the place of the HF MIG-180 for most of what I need. I see they are now $139.00 with free shipping, on Amazon.

 

[paulsharvey]

Dollar for Dollar, I feel HF machines really aren't the steal they used to be. Their Cheap cheap ones are extremely primitive, their middle of the road ones aren't cheap but offer less features (without increasing quality) over the better cheap ones of Amazon/Vevor. The Vulcan line up are pretty dang expensive for what they are. I kinda see it, if you need (are willing to pay for) Vulcan, then get Hobart/Miller/Lincoln. If you don't need that level, the direct importers are the way to go.

The exchange part mentioned by 5030 is the only advantage I see with mid tier HF, and the bottom tier, I would avoid. I have a Cichago Eletroc blue, 150amp (maybe 180 amp?), AC/DC transformer, and although it works, the sliding bar current setting, non-dinse connectors, ect, very very primitive.

 

[California]

Agree HF's old Chicago Electric welders aren't comparable to what's available today.

Even buying used, and cheap, likely isn't worth it. I paid $25 for my HF MIG-180 from someone who ran out of patience with it. He had put on a longer stinger and cable then discovered wire won't feed unless the cable is nearly straight, not coiled. I'm cheap, its usable if the welder is 10 ft from the work, but $25 was about right for the value I received.