What type welder would you recommend?

[Anonymous Poster]

If your going to buy a MIG welder, and you live close to a Tractor Supply Store, ect, buy the Hobart 175. I know the 135 is tempting and it only takes 110V, but you'll proably never wish you had bought a bigger welder, unlike the 135. Don't get me wrong the 135 is a perfect LITTLE welder, and you can do a lot with. One of my favorite things about the 135 is it's so portable. Just like in tractors, go bigger than you think you need. Kinda off the subject, but my local TSC gives 10% off your first purchase with them, if you sign up for a credit card. Which I did, so I got 10%off plus no sales tax on farm related equipment= 18.25%off, not a bad deal. When the first month's bill came, I paid off the balance and cancelled the bill, worked perfectly.

 

[gerard]

Just finsished a 5 week boces class on welding because I wanted to know what to buy before I did. Well worth it cause I got to use stick AC/DC, Mig (400amp outputs 100%duty cycle) and tig. Lots of things I couldn;t afford to buy. For my purposes and amount of use I just couldn't justify the expense of a MIG although that's what I would have bought if cost was less a factor. I wound up buying a lincoln ac235 ac welder for $269 from weldersmall.com. Why?

1. Most welding I COULD have done with a 110volt machine but for a little more $ I have the option of welding 1/2inch or greater material.

2. No moving parts/maintenance - migs have rollers/drive feed motors/gas/liners/tips etc.

3. With stick you can have a variety of different electrodes at a reasonable cost, a little harder to do with mig.

4. Stick is a little more forgiving with rusty/painted surfaces if you use 6011 rod, mig is a little more prep and you want cleaner surfaces

Anyhow for most home purposes you can do just fine with a stick BUT if I didn't mind spending more a MIG would be my preference!

 

[gerard]

Just realized how old the original post to this was /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Anyway here's a link to a welding forum which is pretty good if anyone has some welding questions that may fall ouit of the realm of the TBN experts (ok, that MAY not be possible!!/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif)
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.hobartwelders.com/talk/dboard.pl>http://www.hobartwelders.com/talk/dboard.pl</A>