school me on tiny welders

[Tacoma]

70 amp Campbell Hausfeld Arc Welder, for $70 at the local pawn shop. Worth a damn? As I am not a welder, would it be at all useful for say, sheet metal and tacking stuff so I can take it to a REAL welder? I need to do a fair amount of sheetmetal work in the coming months, fender modification and whatnot... and if that thing can tack thicker stuff I'm all for it.

school me!

 

[BCGPER]

Dont waste your money.... I've got a good old Hobart 110V that I love. The diodes are bad, so I picked up a Lincoln for what the price of a diode replacement would be...... I thought "score", since it weighed about half of the Hobart, and it's just for trail repairs.

They are rated at the same amperage, and all, but the Lincoln in a POS (right Shawn?).


Get the best you can afford, but stay away from CH!


Wanna deal on a Lincoln????

70 amp Campbell Hausfeld Arc Welder, for $70 at the local pawn shop. Worth a damn? As I am not a welder, would it be at all useful for say, sheet metal and tacking stuff so I can take it to a REAL welder? I need to do a fair amount of sheetmetal work in the coming months, fender modification and whatnot... and if that thing can tack thicker stuff I'm all for it.

school me!

 

[Tacoma]

I might just. I only need somethign for sheetmetal, really.. and tacking stuff together LOL

$50. :greg:

 

[BCGPER]

$50???? That'll buy a lot of super glue for tacking. If your're looking for a cheapy, plan on $200 for something in the range of junk. My hobart was close to $600.

I might just. I only need somethign for sheetmetal, really.. and tacking stuff together LOL

$50. :greg:

 

[Caleb]

take BC's advice, dont waste your money on the CH...I had a lincoln weldpak 100 and it was fine for what it was but you will out grow it so quickly its not even funny. It doesn't do sheet nearly as well as a larger machine will do it. Just cause the machine is smaller and weaker doens;t mean it will turn down lower than a big machine, infact for migs the ones that turn the lowest of any of them are the 350+ machines...save your pennies and buy a 175+ then if you find you have a need for something a little more portable then get a smaller machine.

 

[Rusted]

That little welder will only use flux core wire. To make flux work you need to get some good heat going, the problem is you can't get that kind of heat working with sheetmetal, it is too thin. A better welder that uses gas will give a much cleaner sheetmetal weld anyways. Keep saving the $$.

 

[Tacoma]

well that is about what I figured LOL


BCGPER, you asked if I wanted to deal! $50 was the foot in the door. Whaddya got? PM me. I'm interested.

 

[waynehartwig]

I bought a Lincoln Electric Weld Pak 3200HD Wire Feed MIG Welder at Home Depot for like $450. Very nice 135A 120v welder! It'l weld 1/4" plate nicely. Larger stuff you gotta work at a little bit. 3/8 was a little too much for it... It'l also do aluminum....3 year warranty also.... If I had to do over, I'd buy it again.....

 

[Rusted]

I bought a Lincoln Electric Weld Pak 3200HD Wire Feed MIG Welder at Home Depot for like $450. Very nice 135A 120v welder! It'l weld 1/4" plate nicely. Larger stuff you gotta work at a little bit. 3/8 was a little too much for it... It'l also do aluminum....3 year warranty also.... If I had to do over, I'd buy it again.....

Talk to TJJunkie, for not much more than that you can get the 175a 220v MIG that will eat up 1/4, 3/8 and can do aluminum as well.

 

[waynehartwig]

Talk to TJJunkie, for not much more than that you can get the 175a 220v MIG that will eat up 1/4, 3/8 and can do aluminum as well.

That is true.. I think it was only $75-100 more. But the only problem is it's 220 and I don't have a 220 outlet in my garage - yet!

 

[Rusted]

...the only problem is it's 220 and I don't have a 220 outlet in my garage - yet!

I saw an adapter online a few weeks ago, I will try to find a photo and better description of it. I just can't remember where I saw it at. But it was a simply idea. The adapter had two legs, one leg pluged into the 120V in your garage, the other leg was 20-30 feet long and pluged into a 120V different circut in the house.

That is basically all a 220 circut is doing in your breaker box anyways. I am not sure why it would not. It would not be the ideal set up, but it could work. My concern is the service comes into the house on two different 120 legs. I think you would have to pick two circuts in your house that were fed off those different service legs.

This comment is pretty useless without photos, so when I get a minute I will search for it again.

 

[waynehartwig]

I saw an adapter online a few weeks ago, I will try to find a photo and better description of it. I just can't remember where I saw it at. But it was a simply idea. The adapter had two legs, one leg pluged into the 120V in your garage, the other leg was 20-30 feet long and pluged into a 120V different circut in the house.

That is basically all a 220 circut is doing in your breaker box anyways. I am not sure why it would not. It would not be the ideal set up, but it could work. My concern is the service comes into the house on two different 120 legs. I think you would have to pick two circuts in your house that were fed off those different service legs.

This comment is pretty useless without photos, so when I get a minute I will search for it again.

That will work for a 208v outlet, but not a 220. 220 is two phase.

The only thing you gain by plugging into another circuit is increased amperage because you are working with two circuit breakers rather than one. They are still electrically connected and use the same single phase wiring. You can do the same thing by using two hots and a nuetral, no ground, which will get you 208v.

I just looked up the Lincoln 5000HD welder, and it requires 208-230v single phase. So all of this talk about phasing is kind of off topic now.

So just go to your power box and run two hot leads and a nuetral to an outlet and make it 208v and that will run that welder. The cheater box you describe would frankly scare the he&& out of me and I wouldn't buy it!!

 

[waynehartwig]

Just want to clarify what I said...

If the two outlets were actually on different phases it would make 220 two phase. But there is no way of knowing which phase the outlets are on without figuring out your homes wiring. If you are intelligent enough to get that part, then you don't need the cheater box. If you aren't, the cheater box is dangerous.

All of the 220 in a normal house is single phase - dryer, stove, AC, etc..and technically it's 208. You can tell it's 208 because out of any of the three lines you push your test lead in will only read 120v, but you will have two 120v leads instead of one.

But all homes have l1, l2 and nuetral coming into the circuit box.

 

[Rusted]

I concure with waynehartwig on this. I think that if you know what you are doing then this "cheater box" idea will work, but it does open up issues. Such as what happens if one breaker pops? You could potentially be running on half power, and risk damage to the welder. I think the idea works, but is far from prefered. Probably much smarter to make an extension cord out of the proper guage wire and use the dryer outlet. The cheater box is an option (not a good option) for someone who knows what they are doing.


Thread Hijack - off

 

[Tacoma]

I used my dryer outlet, since I have a gas dryer and it was just sitting there. A lot cheaper/easier than wiring another box.

 

[anvil]

220V in a normal house is not single phase it is 2 phase. 110V in a normal house is single phase. (If you're house had 220V single phase you would need a transformer to get the wall outlets down to 110V). The adapter that rusted mentioned will work as he described, and could be a good option for Tacoma if he wants to get 220V in his garage. There is nothing scary about these adapters as long as you stay below their rated current.

 

[Tacoma]

Interesting. You're going to make me read the spec on the monster table saw that is running on that 220 outlet, aren't you? I could swear it was 2ph. LOL