Wanted advice on upgrading from my modified HF welder.

[Larry$]

I've got a 20 year old, 120 Volt only, Miller wire feed using argon gas. A very basic machine with limited cycle times. But it will lay a nice bead. Obviously I can't weld very thick material but decent penetration up to 3/16". Years ago I had a big Lincoln wire feed that I could burn holes in what ever I was trying to weld. But it got stolen and costs too much, for my current needs, to replace. I've looked @ the cheap TIG machines but am suspicious by nature. Some get good YouTube reviews, again suspicious. I grew up using an old Lincoln tomb stone and an Onan gasoline powered stick. The Onan would over heat on heavy welding.

 

[Zewnten]

My friend a very competent welder uses an inverter welder for small jobs were he only has a 120v 15A plug. He bought it on amazon after a bit of research on what brand is better at the time he bought it. That would be my suggestion.

 

[7milesup]

I would go with @DavidR8's recommendation and buy a Primeweld. When one spends the money and effort on upgrading subpar equipment, good equipment becomes cheap.

Shop MIG Welders for Sale Online | PrimeWeld

MIG welders offer a range of uses from home projects to heavy-duty manufacturing jobs. Shop our selection of MIG welding machines for sale online.

primeweld.com

 

[FOMOGO]

What is the size of the main breaker, and are there any open spaces for additional breakers? If you are truly stuck with 120V I would keep an eye out for a Hobart 140 used on FBMP or similar, great little machine. I use it in the shop for .023 wire so I don't have to change wire over in one of the bigger machines. Gas will definitely make a huge difference, and woodchucker above is correct on neg. polarity for flux core. Mike

 

[G-ManBart]

I really doubt that no-name $110 4-in-One welder will be any kind of upgrade over your current HF welder.

Are you using your 12v solenoid to actually run a shielding gas with your HF welder? REAL MIG (metal INERT GAS) shielded welding is a massive improvement over flux core wire in my experience. Save the money on another cheap welder and put the money towards a bottle of CO2-AR mix!

I have found the spools I buy at the welding store lay down a better weld for me than the spools I used to buy at HF and they only demand a very small price premium over the HF spools. This is nothing close to the improvement that shielding gas made over flux core for me though.

This is one welders argue over all the time. Most of what people call MIG, Metal Inert Gas is absolutely not Metal Inert Gas at all, because Co2 is an active gas. Many argue it's really MAG...Metal Active Gas. That's part of why the industry has largely changed to calling the wire-feed process GMAW, Gas Metal Arc Welding to be more accurate and not contradict what's really being used.

The only process where it's truly MIG would be on aluminum with 100% Argon as a shielding gas.

 

[G-ManBart]

I would go with @DavidR8's recommendation and buy a Primeweld. When one spends the money and effort on upgrading subpar equipment, good equipment becomes cheap.

Shop MIG Welders for Sale Online | PrimeWeld

MIG welders offer a range of uses from home projects to heavy-duty manufacturing jobs. Shop our selection of MIG welding machines for sale online.

primeweld.com

Another vote for a Primeweld. I'd also point out that while they specify a 50A breaker, that is far more than what's needed. I've run half a dozen different 300 amp machines on a 40A breaker so I'm confident the Primeweld would run fine on a 30A circuit. Off the top of my head they've been Millermatic 250, 250X, 251, 252 and Lincoln PowerMig 255C, 255XT and 260...none ever tripped the breaker. I went up to a 50A circuit for my Millermatic 350P which is a 400 amp machine and that's never tripped once either.

 

[Red96]

A typical 110V powered MIG welder will only put out a maximum of around 85-95 Amps, with a terribly disappointing duty cycle when ran at higher outputs. A decent 220V machine would have around 150-180A output, with a much more friendly duty cycle.

Without understanding what you want your welder to be capable of, it is very difficult for the group to steer you to an appropriate machine.

My personal favorite MIG in the smallish range for steel (up to ~16ga) is the Miller 211 Auto-set. They are dual voltage, but still only 90A output on 110V power. On 220V power, I believe they are rated at 150A @ 40% duty cycle. Retail around $2300, but can be found for $2K if you hunt around. (no affiliation)

You will hard pressed to find any welder that puts out more than 90A with 110V input power. Claims of 140 or 160A outputs on 110V machines is marketing BS. You might get that much amperage out of it for a split second, but not long enough to actually weld anything. Duty cycle ratings are what you should pay attention to; much more grounded in reality...

Also keep in mind that product 'reviews' on YT are highly biased - the 'reviewer' commonly gets rewarded for glowing reviews with free product.

 

[Gnpenning]

I might have missed it, do you have a electric dryer?? If so you can most likely use that circuit for a welder.