I'm in the market for a mig welder. Something around $700 or less. In my search I noticed a good number of welders are multi processor. Wich the idea is a good one, but as long as all options can perform. I've looked at hobart 140, yeswelder, weld pro. Forney. Something that can produce nice clean weld with minimal splatter
my interest for a welder are for body work, exhaust (tig) and bracket and fabricating. Probably nothing more the 1/4" mild steel.
I have searched as well as veiwed some YouTube videos. I'd also like to get some thoughts from first hand users from here. Thank you!

 

I like Hobart and Forney both pretty good. You'll be happy with either one.

 

I use a Hobart MIG welder I got off Amazon. I used it to weld up a 3” stainless exhaust for my Camaro. It performed well, but the only thing I don’t like is that while you can fine tune the wire feed speed, you can’t fine tune the amperage. It’s just broken up into settings 1 through 5. Still gets the job done.

 

There is also the 135 that Eastwood sells. They offer a 3yr warranty. I noticed the hobart 140, forney 140 and Eastwood 135 are all 120v only. Will these still perform well ?

 

I noticed a lot of them are like that, that is a bit of let down. I suppose that's with all the welders of this price range?

 

I've got one of the green titanium welders from harbor freight, and its better than what im capable of. Im just now learning and teaching myself with YouTube videos and scrap pieces of metal, but I can fine tune wire speed and amperage and run 120 or 240. I think that would sit in your price range just fine.

 

Thank you for sharing that info, I thought about that brand as well. I wasn't of long-term durability with the brand.

 

The eastwood 135 is a plenty capable machine. My brother and I use one for body work, exhaust, and bracket work. It works great, consumables are easy to find and cheap, and lays down a good bead. You're not doing heavy duty production work where you need the amperage and duty cycle ability of a larger machine, a 120 volt machine for home/hobby use is really all you need.

 

I have a Lincoln 140 I've used for years and never had a problem with it. I'm also not a professional welder.

I've looked into that eastwood welder because it was cheaper, and the amperage adjuster isn't indexable like the lincoln

 

why did you go with the Lincoln and not Eastwood

 

Because at the time I could afford the difference and for the brand name.

If I were to get another one I would try a cheaper option

Edit:

Check out this thread from here

https://ls1tech.com/forums/tools-fab...-any-good.html

Looks like Eastwood is registered here. Not sure if they're still active or what

 

interesting read.. so am I understanding it correctly, the voltage **** is able to be 'fine tune' adjustment instead of fixed settings?

 

You can fine tune with wire feed speed, and travel speed, with a tapped welder. Infinite adjustable voltage is nice, but it's not going to make or break your welds.

 

oh ok good to know! I've never welded with these type of welders. I've used primarily miller tig welders. Dynasty 350 and their mig and aluminum welders.

 

I have a Hobart 140 and a small bottle of shield gas - works great. Zero spatter. Its very capable when dialed in for your application.

 

I bought a Harbor Freight PROTIG 200 about 3 years ago. I installed a 220 circuit to feed it and rented 3 "Q" sized 100% Argon bottles (1 to feed the welder, one for purging during stainless work and a back-up when one of the others runs out which *ALWAYS* happens on the weekends)..

Prior to that I'd stick welded back when dirt was invented and played around in the 90's with a flux core MIG(absolutely gruesome looking welds on my exhaust). I decided to pony up the $7xx for the PROTIG. I love it. I've welded up 2 complete hotsides and 3 cold sides for my PT7675 Turbo, Twin GT 35's and now a BW S480 clone (VSRacing). Of course I thought buying all the latest gizmos would make me at least a moderately good welder but I've come to realize, that what the pro's say is true. You need practice more than anything. A pro can make a barely adequate machine look good.

I watched a lot of videos and practice a lot. There's wonderful tips out there but you really need to get a machine and get to know it. Play around with the settings, tungstens, cups, Argon flow, Frequency and balance (for aluminum), finding that magic spot between heat, travel speed, arc length, torch angle, etc.

I have an upcoming cold side setup, having just finished my stainless and mild steel hotside components. I wanted to brush up on my 3.0" aluminum tubing welding so I got some scrap, wire brushed it, cleaned inside and out with Acetone, wiped down the tig rod and fired it up.
I'd just watched a few videos where Jody (Gent that has some great videos) was welding up a cold side. He had a machine that had many additional settings regarding wave form(triangular, sawtooth, square, etc) so his setup was using 125amps, 35%balance and freq of 250. Also using a 3/32 4043 rod and 3/32 Lanthenated Tungsten. Argon was set to flow 12-14 CFH (Cubic Feet per Hour). He also utilized a traditional #6 ceramic cup.

I set my machine up just like that with the exception of the triangle wave form since my machine doesn't have that to configure/define. I sawed across about half the width of my tube, then went to try to run a bead across a flat area, then the sawed gap.
The flat area went flat, no crown on the bead (too hot, methinks) and just burnt the crap out of the edges of the gapped portion. I tried dialing back the amps, same bad result. I started reducing the frequency, same result.

I FINALLY got it right (good penetration, great looking beads for me anyway) after I went to 55 amps, 65% balance, Frequency 60.

The amps and frequency on aluminum seem to have an inverse relationship. You want the amps set to the thickness of the metal pretty much but for sure, where you can get a puddle within a few seconds, avoiding both overheating the material (by keeping the torch in the same spot waiting for a puddle to form) and blowing a hole thru the material. Always experiment on some well prepped, clean scrap of the same dimensions as what you will actually be working on later. The frequency is something that will , or at least can, affect both penetration and bead width.
Run a bead, stop, look at the underside of bead (looking into the interior of the pipe). Did you get good penetration(ie: does it look unchanged or do you see the path you welded ?) If you don't see anything , drop your frequency a bit. Try your bead/penetration again, and again until you get penetration. The other aspect of this is that the lower the frequency setting, the wider your bead will likely be.

Keep in mind, ( a ) I'm as much as a novice as any one but I'm getting better. and ( b ) This is how *my* machine operates. I suspect each machine has it's own 'sweet spots'.

 

My Eastwood 175 mig was cheap and broke on my 3rd use, they did sent out a new drive motor but it's still has plenty of feed issues and I've tried all the tweaks I could find. It works fine if you get the gun line just right and weld only a few seconds at a time. I turn it up and use it more like a tig/stick, have to stop n go a lot to keep it happyish. Did come with a spool gun I've never used.

I learned to mig last on this crappy machine and if I didn't know how to gas, arc, and tig I prob would have gave up on it entirely. I really need to buy a nice mig and tig, as well as a million other things!

 

Hobart and Miller welders are the same. My preferred welders are Lincoln, Miller and Hobart (no particular order). Lincoln and Miller's industrial welders made me a lot of money for a very long time so I have bias towards them. Welders, compressors, and plasma cutters marketed for the big box stores (HD and Lowe's especially) have lesser internal components so they can be sold cheaper. Not all welders of the same make/model are equal, keep that in mind.

Eastwood has good products for certain things... I don't mess with their welders.

Main difference between 120V and 220/240V are going to be duty cycles and additional features. Residential 120V don't need the same features as industrial or commercial usage and don't need to lay beads for several hours at a time. Tacking stuff up for initial fitment, even a cracker jack flux core will work. Once you get the initial placement setup its time to pull out the good welder to stitch it together.

 

If you can stretch the budget a little bit I think the Hobart 210 MVP is worth looking into. Previously a 220 volt unit it appears they have gone multi voltage with it recently. This is a solid reliable machine that will last you a lifetime and also hold it’s value.

There’s probably quite a few parts inside from the old transformer based Miller 211. It has taps instead of infinite voltage control but I wouldn’t let that stop you from picking one up. Had this been available last year I would have got this instead of my nos transformer Miller 211 at over twice the price of the Hobart.

One thing that these little machines always need is a better ground cable and clamp. You will also want the heaviest, shortest cord you can get. I also recommend replacing the clear gas hose and clamps for regular hose and fittings.

 

I've been using a Lincoln 140 for many years and love it. I'm not a professional but I've been paid to do a lot of work. Mostly gym type equipment, weight trees etc. It does Flux core, solid core (my preference with argon gas) and you can use a spool gun with it too for tig.