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I'm thinking of buying a welder

The Monkey

The Monkey

"I See the Good in Every Shave"
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I have a chance to pick up a welder but I really don't know much about them. The welder is a 120/240 170amp mig/flux machine. I have to do a few welds on a truck frame but I think it would be great to have for other projects but I can't imagine anything beyond 1/4 inch steel. Will a 170 amp be ok?
I have done a little stick welding many years ago but basically starting from scratch. I know @ShawnF is a metal guy and I know a few others here have some mad skills as well.

Thanks for any input.
 
The Monkey said:
I have a chance to pick up a welder but I really don't know much about them. The welder is a 120/240 170amp mig/flux machine. I have to do a few welds on a truck frame but I think it would be great to have for other projects but I can't imagine anything beyond 1/4 inch steel. Will a 170 amp be ok?
I have done a little stick welding many years ago but basically starting from scratch. I know @ShawnF is a metal guy and I know a few others here have some mad skills as well.

Thanks for any input.
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I think this might be a question for either @ShawnF or @Bill in Oneida I think both of them have extensive knowledge with welding. If I see my father-in-law today I will ask as he was a welder for about 40 years.
 
I've done a lot of heavy welding with my 140 amp wire feed. At 120 volts you probably won't get 170 amps out of it, you will most likely need to wire it for 220 to reach that. My 140 amp is pushing what a 110 circuit will handle and it's on it's own 25 amp breaker.

Flux core wire will also burn a bit hotter than solid wire just because it is generally a larger wire. Fine for thicker stuff, but tricky on thin sheet metal.
Plus side to it is that you dont need a gas bottle and you wont be affected by wind blowing your shielding gas away making your weld pit.
 
ShawnF said:
I've done a lot of heavy welding with my 140 amp wire feed. At 120 volts you probably won't get 170 amps out of it, you will most likely need to wire it for 220 to reach that. My 140 amp is pushing what a 110 circuit will handle and it's on it's own 25 amp breaker.

Flux core wire will also burn a bit hotter than solid wire just because it is generally a larger wire. Fine for thicker stuff, but tricky on thin sheet metal.
Plus side to it is that you dont need a gas bottle and you wont be affected by wind blowing your shielding gas away making your weld pit.
Click to expand...
The welder is 220 capable and I was hoping to run it off my generator which is a 7000 watts/ 8500 peak. Is there a huge difference between a 200 amp and a 170 amp for what I'm doing?
 
We have a 250 amp machine at work. I never run it over 150 amps for anything that I do, and most if it is probably heavier welding than you will be doing.
1/8 inch stick rod at 125 amps, tig weld at 90 amps or less generally, and .043 mig wire at around 140 on average.

So I dont think you would notice a huge difference for something like welding on truck frames.
 
ShawnF said:
We have a 250 amp machine at work. I never run it over 150 amps for anything that I do, and most if it is probably heavier welding than you will be doing.
1/8 inch stick rod at 125 amps, tig weld at 90 amps or less generally, and .043 mig wire at around 140 on average.

So I dont think you would notice a huge difference for something like welding on truck frames.
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Great to hear. The price difference is about $300 between the machines.
 
I used to do it a lot, but am useless here, I only ever used industrial 220V machines. I actually designed plasma welding torches for a living for a number of years. Sorry for the useless post......
 
My father in law and I were going to do a lot of welding last fall...but just never got around to it. I know very little about it and feel like this is something I should learn...and since the FIL used to weld rail road cars and had been doing it all his life...what better teacher. This year I am determined to get learning!
 
My son wants/needs a better welder to do some work on his car (he has a habor freight welder) but a big part of his problem (aside from the fact the welder and wire are from harbor freight) is the work are is energized by a long run of extension cord rather than real electrical wiring. I have the ability to run true 110 on a dedicated 20amp breaker to the area he is working but our electrical service is pretty poor, I fear a long distance run wouldn't do much better than the heavy duty extension cord. He needs a generator like John is using!
 
CBLindsay said:
My son wants/needs a better welder to do some work on his car (he has a habor freight welder) but a big part of his problem (aside from the fact the welder and wire are from harbor freight) is the work are is energized by a long run of extension cord rather than real electrical wiring. I have the ability to run true 110 on a dedicated 20amp breaker to the area he is working but our electrical service is pretty poor, I fear a long distance run wouldn't do much better than the heavy duty extension cord. He needs a generator like John is using!
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I actually run my lincoln welder and my whole shop on a 100 foot 12-3 extension cord as a power line. I do have it on a dedicated 25 amp breaker though.
The problem I have noticed with the HF and a few of the other economy welders is that they have a low duty cycle. They dont like to run hard at all.
 
Well the welder I picked up was a HF welder but it is their new Titanium series which have been getting good reviews.
 
The Monkey said:
Well the welder I picked up was a HF welder but it is their new Titanium series which have been getting good reviews.
Click to expand...
The 220 will have a higher duty cycle than any 110 model. The reason some of the "homeowner/hobby" models have lower duty cycles is to keep people that dont know better from overloading their house circuts.

The only thing a lower duty cycle means is that you can only run 30 seconds continuously at max power instead of a minute 30 seconds. (Not actual times, but I think you'll get what I mean.)
 
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