robertbartsch

I was thinking of a nice home unit for the garage; is 120 a waste of time?

Where should I look - Harbor Freight, JC Witney, ToolSource, other?

DARK AGE 53

I have both a stick and mig welder, I bought a Lincoln 125 but if I had it to do over again I'd would have bought the 175 ( I do plan on buying the 175 soon ). I would suggest you go with a Lincoln 175 or Millermatic 175 instead of a stick welder. JMO

Al

2002WS6_MN6

I think he meant wall service..

What do you plan on welding with it? A decent stick welder can be converted to a TIG welder down the road if you decided you want to get into TIG welding. With that said, 240V would be better suited for TIG.

It's recommend you bite the bullet and run 240V in your garage.. Makes it easier for you to get that 240V compressor..

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

A cheap stick welder, though, will only be a sine wave
AC box and not very convertable. Definitely you should
run the 240. Probably plenty of empty rack slots in the
main panel; a 50A dual breaker, 10-gauge wire in hard
conduit, and dryer receptacles every 10 feet should do
it for you and come in under a hundred bucks DIY.

Then go get a crusty old 200A pawn shop AC/DC box
that will let you run 100% duty cycle on 100A and you
can weld 1/4" steel all day long. I converted everything
I have to dryer plug (compressors, buzz box, MIG).

DARK AGE 53

Damn, I guess I didn't understand the question.

robertbartsch

...what about a gas set; they sell them at JCW for about 300? Aren't the gas sets more versitle?

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

Each has its place, collect 'em all!

If I had only one welder it would be an O/A set.
But that's not much good for panel work, or as
fast / easy as arc for heavy structural, etc.
And refills are a nuisance compared to the monthly
electric bill.

todds87ss

if you decide MIG, there's no substitue for being able to pack the 110v model anywhere, plug it in and get to weldin'. they can even be run on a portable generator.