Recommend me a welder

[Mike L]

Looking at smaller welders for the home shop. I have 110 and 220v In my shop. I’m looking for a smaller mig welder that also has the ability to add a spool gun for aluminum without breaking the bank for home projects.

 

[Pony]

I'm certainly no expert, but can usually glue stuff together.
I am mostly self taught and only had cheaper welders til I lashed out and recently bought a Kemppi Evo200. Main use is building steel cattle yards so size and portability was a big thing.
It is a really nice welder and even though expensive, after using it is certainly worth the money.
Don't know if my model can support spool gun, but I'm sure they will have one that does.
Very happy with Kemppi, however based on a sample size of one only.

 

[Vetech63]

I have a Miller180. My son-in-law is currently welding aluminum .063 thick with it and has the prettiest bead you will ever see. I've never struck an arc with it LOL

 

[Old Doug]

I bought a HTP back in the 80s it has been great. Its 110 i know when i got it i would be welding mainly sheet metal and welding thicker stuff with our 225 lincoln stick welder. If i ever buy a new welder agin i would look at there stuff first.

 

[Welder Dave]

Get a 230 volt welder. Aluminum needs a lot more amps for the same thickness than steel. The more you spend the better of spool gun you'll get. I'd look at Miller or Lincoln or even Hobart. Hobart is generally very similar to Miller but may lack some features. If you can afford a machine on wheels it will take 12 inch spools of wire which is much less per pound.

 

[Coaldust]

Following this thread for suggestions. Let’s hear some more.

 

[pumkinhead]

Hobart handler 210 is an affordable dual voltage machine(110/220) that can be paired with a spool gun but like welder Dave said aluminum needs a lot more amps than steel and also you'll need 100%argon for aluminum. if you have a welder on your service truck it might be worth looking into a suitcase that would work with it and and an cc/cv inverter for the garage

 

[1693TA]

Looking at smaller welders for the home shop. I have 110 and 220v In my shop. I’m looking for a smaller mig welder that also has the ability to add a spool gun for aluminum without breaking the bank for home projects.

If you plan to mig aluminum of any thickness get at least a 250A machine with a 60% duty cycle rating at a minimum. You will be marginal with 3/8" there but it will work if going slow. Aluminum takes a lot of heat and this easily taxes the smaller units. As suggested the smaller inverter types are a lot less weight but I've not much experience with them for durability myself.

Staying with mig, and single phase input power; I have an L-Tec Migmaster 225 and Cobramatic push pull feeder I use for aluminum. Many years of use with these repairing school bus body damage and aluminum castings. They both work well but are old technology. Don't try to push aluminum wire through a 15' mig gun as you'll have bird nesting galore as the wire binds and folds on itself.

 

[Mike L]

I run a miller bobcat 260 on my truck and that doesn’t have the ability to run a suitcase welder. I looked into that. I’m leaning towards a miller or Lincoln just because I have a dealer in town And no matter where you go there seems to be a dealer.

 

[1693TA]

I run a miller bobcat 260 on my truck and that doesn’t have the ability to run a suitcase welder. I looked into that. I’m leaning towards a miller or Lincoln just because I have a dealer in town And no matter where you go there seems to be a dealer.

There are feeders available that do not rely upon the welder other than output power. My Hobart feeder is this way in that you attach it's input leads to the output of the welder and everything is controlled at the feeder pertaining to start, stop, and wire feed. It has an internal contactor so the tip and wire are not live till you squeeze the mig gun trigger.

 

[pumkinhead]

should run a voltage sensing feeder/suitcase just fine(it will cost alot more than a cheap mig wleder but give you mobile mig and can be paired with a push pull gun for aluminum), miller and hobart are owned by the same parent company, the miller equivalent to the hobart would be a millermatic.

 

[Willie B]

I don't know how to answer. I used a Millermatic 200 a couple weeks in 1979. It was wonderful!
Since 1979 I have tried a dozen little ones without success.
2010 I bought a Millermatic 252, a great welder.
I upgraded to Millermatic 255 last year, even better!
A friend has a Millermatic 140 he's very happy with for very thin metal.

I don't recommend a small MIG if you hope to weld aluminum more than 16 gauge.

 

[56wrench]

Based on availability here, my preference is Miller, Esab, or Lincoln but the price has risen by almost double in the last 4 years

 

[Welder Dave]

Your Bobcat 260 is a CC/CV machine so will work with short circuit Mig but probably not very well with .023" wire because it only goes down to 17 volts. For people not familiar voltage sensing wire feeders on constant current (CC) machines do not work properly if you want to Mig weld in short circuit transfer. They work with flux core wire or solid wire if you run in globular or spray transfer starting around 25 volts. Below that forget it. You want a constant voltage (CV) machine if you want to run short circuit Mig. A CV machine will also run flux-core much better at higher volts. A spool gun is best for aluminum unless you have a push/pull gun. The manufacturers claim a short Mig gun and Teflon liner will work but everything has to be absolutely perfect. A spool gun is a much better option. Look for a mid line spool gun not the cheapest one you can find.

 

[Mike L]

I believe my salesman told me I was lacking a plug for a suitcase welder Or a spool gun. Can’t remember. I actually am looking for a machine to just plug into the wall. My bobcat is 3 years old and has 80 hours on it and most of them are for generator power. welders can be hired for half of my hourly rate so if I get asked to weld something it’s a quick job and only because I happen to be standing there.

 

[Truck Shop]

About two years ago I bought a new Hobart Ironman 240-$1,550. It's set up for spool gun.
For the money it's a real good welder. I've used allot of different brands through the years,
Linde I liked the best but Linde is no more.

 

[pumkinhead]

you can get a suit case that doesn't require a remote cable. it sounds like your going end up with a millermatic if you go miller or a powermig if you go lincoln(just stay away from the Lincoln homedepot models). also both company's offer multiprocess welders if you ever plan on wanting to stick or tig

 

[Mike L]

I’ve wondered about the Home Depot Lincoln’s but figured I’d stay away. If I need to stick weld I have the bobcat and don’t know anything about tig.

 

[Welder Dave]

Yes, it is best to buy a commercial Lincoln from a welding supply than a box store Lincoln. Your Bobcat already is a decent stick/scratch start Tig (steel, stainless steel) welder and a multi-process CC/CV so it shouldn't be hard to hook up a wire feeder to run on CV. You don't need a voltage sensing cable on CV because you set the voltage at the machine. Some wire feeders, with more advanced features, you can set the voltage at the feeder. I'm sure Miller wouldn't make a CV machine that wasn't easy to hook a wire feeder too. I'm just not familiar enough to know how the wire feeder hooks up to a Bobcat 260. It's likely in the manual what are compatible feeders and how to hook them up. I'd guess a 12VS feeder would be compatable if you wanted a suitcase feeder. Miller may have a seperate control box that can be used to hook up a spool gun. I know they used to offer these including a control box so you could use a spool gun on a CC (stick) machine. I think with the new Mig machines having direct hook up and better welding characteristics it was no longer cost effective to buy the control boxes to run spools guns. The control box could cost more than the spool gun and close to the cost of a Mig welder so why not just buy the Mig welder with direct hook up spool gun. Miller has excellent customer service if you call them for assistance on how to
hook up wire feeders and spool guns.

 

[Welder Dave]

About two years ago I bought a new Hobart Ironman 240-$1,550. It's set up for spool gun.
For the money it's a real good welder. I've used allot of different brands through the years,
Linde I liked the best but Linde is no more.

Linde were good machines and often had inductance control so you could fine tune the arc just how you wanted it.