WTB a decent 175/180 or so welder?

[Damn True]

Starting to look for a welder. Looking for the bewst place to buy. Not finding anything to speak of on craigslist.

Found this site: www.weldingmart.com

and this rig: http://www.weldingmart.com/Qstore/p002302.htm

Fair price, or can I do better than that elsewhere?

[MrQuick]

try airgas in SJ, you'd be suprised on the deals they push sometimes...might get price matching too.

[boodlefoof]

There is a seller on Ebay who has pretty good prices, plus free shipping to the continental US. I've heard some good customer reviews.

I bought locally though, through a Robert's Oxygen store. They matched the Ebay price for me. Price was a bit lower than on the website you posted.

[David Pozzi]

The local autoshopper in the Salinas area has a mig welder for sale $750 OBO.
It's a Lincoln Wire-Matic, 250 amps, with bottle.
I'm not familliar with this model but the price sounds good for a welder that large.
The same guy has a Torch set, Air Compressor and may have other stuff. A local welding shop went out of business, - Dale Welding, this may be the same guy, I don't know.

The Lincoln 175 you are looking at would be a good size welder as far as capacity. The larger model would have more duty cycle and probably has a better wire feed system.
If your shop space is limited the smaller one would be a good choice. Check out Fresno Oxygen Supply, they allways have a sale during the farm show in Tulare, the show is coming up the Second week of Feb, tue wed thu. You can get the sale price by calling them and they could probably ship the welder to you.

831-206-3842
http://www.autoshoppernetwork.com

[Damn True]

Wow, Fresno has some nice prices. $650-750 for Lincoln or Miller 175's delivered.

[David Pozzi]

I bought my Miller 250 from them. I got an additional "farm show" discount, went over for the show at Tulare and picked it up. Actually, I've bought two of them, one for me, one for our farm shop. They have a full demo tent set up with all the welders, plasma, all kinds of stuff and you can try it right there. If they don't happen to have the welder you want there, they can send you over to their store in Tulare or Fresno to pick it up, or ship it to you.
Compare duty cycles on the welders you are interested in.

[David Pozzi]

I like the miller a little more, it has a 30% duty cycle at 130 amps, which means you can weld 3 out of every 10 minutes at 130A, at 175A you can weld 1.5 minutes. The Lincoln is 20% at 130 and the voltage selector is a series of taps not a variable selector like the Miller. This means you have fiewer volt selections on the Lincoln.

The funny thing about MIG welders is, you can't select amps directly, you select volts, and match a wire feed speed to work with that voltage, the resulting pairing of volts and wire feed speed will change the working amps of the machine. More volts, + faster wire speed = more amps/heat.

[Matt@RFR]

Wire speed directly controls amperage, voltage directly controls arc length, and the two are completely seperate from each other. That's why, with too little voltage or too much wire, you get the pops, and if it's bad enough, you can feel the wire touching the base metal.

On subject, my advise is to pay more if need be, and buy locally. You get local support that way.

I assume this is for just personal use. If so, look at the Hobart 180. Excellent machine for the price, and Miller-esque support.

[Damn True]

Matt,
Yeah, this is just for me to use, no commercial stuff at all.

I plan to do my mini-tubs, finish the welds on my subframe, SFC's and perhaps the Lat-D 3-link install myself (though I may try to bribe Vince or one of you guys to come help, my fiance will keep you well fed). The cage will be done by a pro race fab shop up this way.

[David Pozzi]

Talked to my local welding supply. They sell the Miller for around $725, they perfer it over the Lincoln MIG. They sell the Lincoln too but it has plastic parts in the feed system where the Miller has aluminum, also they said Miller was a little better in supply of parts/service.

[PT Dave]

Used Weldingmart.com with great results.
Bought a Plasma unit from them.
Excellent service and price.

[Damn True]

Ok, stupid question.

My room mate has a compressor that plugs into the same outlet as the clothes dryer. Is that a 230v outlet?

If so, will a 230v welder work off of that?

[Matt@RFR]

Yes and Yes. Just check the machine you buy for max input amps and make sure the breaker on the dryer circuit is at or above that number.

[Damn True]

Thought I ought to let ya'all know.
I purchased a Millermatic 175 today from Fresno Oxygen Supply. They had some kind of special event sale going on this week. I paid $668 for the whole shebang. Not shipped, they are going to send it to their Stockton Store on the weekly distribution run and I will pick it up there.

The dude on the phone was very helpful. I called pretty much set on a Hobart 175. He got me into the Miller for only $50 more than the Hobart. The Hobart is a really nice set according to Matt, but the Miller offers quite a bit more....and I didn't have to pay a huge premium for it.

I'd recomend buying from them if you are in Nor-Cal. A very nice buying experience.

[DRJDVM's '69]

I just sent you a PM.... I'n right near Stockton and have been shopping for a Miller 175......

[John Monnin]

Just curious, I am not familiar with welding but if you are going to pay $800 for a MIG welder would it be worth it to pay $1300 for a light duty TIG like this one

http://www.weldingmart.com/Qstore/p000072.htm

Or even $2800 to get the Jesse James signature series TIG welder;)
http://www.weldingmart.com/Qstore/p002875.htm

[stealth71]

It all depends on what you want to do with it. Steel or Aluminum and how thick? If you are looking at an $800 welder there is a little difference in price for the $2800 model. A 300 amp TIG will handle about anything. A water cooled torch is nice.

[John Monnin]

It all depends on what you want to do with it. Steel or Aluminum and how thick? If you are looking at an $800 welder there is a little difference in price for the $2800 model. A 300 amp TIG will handle about anything. A water cooled torch is nice.

Personally if I am going to learn to weld I want to weld aluminum. I design aluminum truck bodies (UPS FedEx style trucks) and its just what I am comfortable working with.

I paid a welder to weld up some cast aluminum part for me and he was just awesome to watch. Other welders I talked to didn't want to mess with welding used cast aluminum oil pans and valve cover's but he made it look so easy. I have been itching to weld ever since.