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Small Stick Welder

Labparamour

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
732
Location
Washington
725C9AED-0093-4E1E-B78A-9E7D9C685B20.jpeg
Thankfully, all my stuff have this plug and I have one bought and one shop made extension cord with same make/female ends.
I guess I should look at making an adapter since there are a lot of the 4 blade 220v plugs out there.

Hope the Komatsu doesn’t give you too many fits.

Darryl
 

MinnesotaDave

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2018
Messages
61
Location
Bemidji, MN
I had the ESAB 161, worked excellent. I also put 2 in the high school I taught welding at - kids liked them and I did a lot of demonstrations using them for tig and stick.

My portable now is the Thermal Arc 161. Very nice machine.
I sometimes run it off a 100' cord from the miller bobcat 225nt.

I just make a short adapter for when I need a different plug -except for the Miller Bobcat. I bought a 15' extension cord that went from 4 prong to 3 prong.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I've got three different plugs for my house, shop and generator. I want the machine for doing small simple things in the field so probably decide on the generator first.

I've worked on this model of wheel loader for years so the biggest issue is cost and availability of parts. The worst issue is the rust stuck sheet metal bolts. I have to wear gloves because I bark off plenty of skin when a bolt breaks in a small area and my hands jamb into something hard and sharp.
 

Labparamour

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
732
Location
Washington
ESAB has some nice machines.
I’ve got a 40 year old Hobart MIG that is still running strong.
Picked up a Hobart 210 MVP recently.
I like the price. Simple machine but has worked well- 110/220, too.
It is heavy!

I like the weight specs of the Miller and Hobart 160A units (and again, the price of the Hobart).

Seems it doesn’t take much these days for me to tear off a chunk of skin...
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I have a Hobart Handler that is over twenty years old and like it very much. I'll keep it in the back of my mind till I finish with the wheel loader.
 

dirty4fun

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
1,188
Location
N. IL
While I have a couple arc, and a MIG welder the old Lincoln arc welder gets used the most, it is 65 years old. Looks pretty rough, and the switch is broken so you have to turn it off with a screwdriver, banging the switch down. Still welds better than the guy operating it!
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,273
Location
sw missouri
Welder I was working with this week had a small miller. Runs 110 and 220 with two different cords. He had a shoulder strap, and put it on his shoulder up a step ladder with a 4' lead. Says it works great with 6011/ 6013 to tack up the beams we were working with- 3/8" to 3/4" plate, for a tack together.

He was going to fire up his bobcat gas welder for the 7018 to fill it all out. He was just running the suitcase off the 110 jobsite power, from a heavy extension cord- maybe a 100' cord.

I asked him about how he likes it- he said its a lifesaver for little jobs, and saves stringing out a bunch of lead.


20200317_135642.jpg
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,257
Location
Canada
They are super handy. When I worked at West Edmonton Mall they had a hand held 220 welder. I had to weld on the top of the roller coaster and it was I think 273 steps up the stairs. It was way easier carrying the welder up than dragging 100's of feet of welding cable up. There was a power outlet part of the way up and we zip-tied a few long extension cords to the stairs. The video below shows the stairs starting at about 53 seconds. The original tires for pulling the cars up were discontinued and required regular changing. I think they were 12 or 14 ply and they had do some modifications to fit some other tires that didn't last as long as the original type.

 
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ajginger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2020
Messages
132
Location
Australia
I have one of these guys little stick welders.
It is a very good little peice of equipment. The thing will burn 3mm rods all day while plugged into a 30 metre extension cord.

It was sold to me by a guy who was an agent for them & also operated his own metal engineering workshop building double decker cattle crates ect... He used them in his workshop for most of the work. He swore by them.

I have used mine on everything from repairing light exhaust material right up to welding things onto dozer blade........cant fault it.

https://www.ceaweld.com/en/shop/products/arc-welding/mma-en/mma-inverter-en/project-2/
 
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Blocker in MS

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2019
Messages
781
Location
Mississippi
The first welder I ever bought personally would have been Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC. I was still carrying around schoolbooks at the time:) it has been a good machine for the twenty years hence....sitting less than 15’ from me right now. It is not my go to machine really, but it works when you want to work.
 

Blocker in MS

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2019
Messages
781
Location
Mississippi
Tinkerer, that is the exact machine as my Miller Thunderbolt. I am not sure if you have hot start or not. Mine does not. I am not entirely sure I like hot start anyway. I prefer a dry candle that will light like it is supposed to:)

My machine was purchased around 20 years ago. Never done anything but plug it in and run it (at several locations) until last year. I had a bunch of 14 gauge to weld. I did not have a MIG machine and had some really small 6013. The machine would not switch to AC. I had never tried. Dirt dobbers. After a half hour it was back together with a thuroigh cleaning and kept welding.

I know I have welded 1.5” with mine:)
 

Blocker in MS

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2019
Messages
781
Location
Mississippi
As far as I know Tinkerer, those are about the last of the all mechanical machines. They should be around for a while.

I was thought to weld with a 1952 GE AC welder that had a garden hose for insulation on the ground. It is still going. Very similar to the way these will be years for now.
 
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