Home Mig Welder (110V vs. 220V)

[Matt@RFR]

Thanks for the reply, and welcome! Even though you may not have a ton of experience, your thoughts and opinions are allways welcome here.



On a seperate note, we like to have everybody put their real first name in their sig line, but it's totally up to you.

Again, welcome to our little car club!

[68LSS1]

I'm kicking myself in the butt now for buying the 110 and not saving a little more for the 220 as I thought I'd never need it. And Mr. Perfectionist Matt, you spelled welder "weldor" in your 2nd to last post.

[Matt@RFR]

Brian, it's not in any dictionary, but in the trade, particularly online forums:

Welder = machine

Weldor = person


It sidesteps much confusion when dealing with the written word.

You should have an email this afternoon, by the way.

[sanddan]

Matt,
As a side note, have you made any progress in training video's for learning Tig welding? A friend got me started with the basic's but I could still use all of the help I can get. Thanks
Dan

[KendallF]

I just got my new Lincoln Pro-Mig 175 back home and tested it for the first time last night. It welds 1/8" steel beautifully; I'm going to have to fiddle with it a bit to figure out how to weld thin stuff. I tried one butt weld on thin sheet metal and couldn't get consistent results.

For anyone who's considering buying a welder from Ebay, shop carefully. My brand new Lincoln arrived defective (dead short somewhere) and burst into smoke and flames within about 4 seconds of first pulling the trigger! The seller wouldn't respond to emails or phone calls initially and finally emailed me telling me to that it must've been damaged in shipping and I needed to file a claim with UPS. Doh..it arrived without a scratch. Fortunately Lincoln repaired it under warranty and I was able to take it in locally.

My "Pro" model was cheaper than the SP 175s and I discovered why when I looked at an SP in the local Praxair; the SP has continuously variable voltage and, despite the name, the Pro doesn't.

[Matt@RFR]

Dan, I haven't had any time to mess around with making any videos....and not having a camera doesn't help matters. Shoot me an email. [email protected]



Kendall, good advice. That's the reason I buy locally...support. I'm glad to hear you got it worked out, and that Lincoln honored their warranty! Flames coming out of welders is never good... I once watched a Miller Aerowave ($8000 w/ no accessories) burn to the ground. It was hard wired to a fuse box, and somehow the contacts in the box melted together, so noone could cut power to it in time.

Thin sheet can be tricky. Butt welds are obviously the worst. If this is 18ga or thinner, you have two choices: 1) go faster or 2) short stitch's to make up the weld. Also, going downhill will help a bunch, but speed is still a necessity!

[quarterstang86]

Thanks for the reply, and welcome! Even though you may not have a ton of experience, your thoughts and opinions are allways welcome here.

On a seperate note, we like to have everybody put their real first name in their sig line, but it's totally up to you.

Again, welcome to our little car club!

Thanks Matt!

I've actually been working with a close friend of mine out of his shop with several projects, it's amazing what you learn just from watching. I'm confident over time I'll be able to hold my own.

I've already put together a plan for my new house garage, think I'll be rolling with the Miller 175 as soon as I get the 220V's installed.

[CAMAROBOY69]

I have used my 110 for all the bodywork and exhaust work on my vehicles. Just FYI.

[DRJDVM's '69]

I'm really interested in this topic....

I'm looking for my first welding unit for home use, mostly for automotive work etc and possibly buiding some stuff around the house etc.

I'm not planning on welding anything real "hardcore" such as important suspension stuff or a roll cage etc ( I'm going to leave that up to someone quailified). I'm planning on using it for spot welds, sheetmetal welds (smooth firewall plate, filling in holes, minitub install, patch panels), exhaust work, home made brackets etc etc...

My questions......

(1) My garage has my washer, dryer etc so a 220 plug is near my work space, but was concerned that the welder might not reach to all the areas in my garage I may need to have it.... is there such a thing as an extention cord for 220 ??? I dont want to have to run more 220 outlets around the garage just to get it to reach.

(2) Is it possible for the 220 to be too big for most of the stuff I want to do ??? Most of the stuff I'm going to be welding is pretty thin, so I need to be sure its not too powerful for what I'm going to be using it for most of the time. I dont want to warp everything ot burn through it.

I would rather spend alittle more to get a tool that is capable of more than I will probably use it for but also dont want to buy a unit that is too big for the small stuff I want to do. I'd rather be over prepared for the job, than "just okay" for the job.... but I dont want to "use a 20 lb sledgehammer to drive a finnishing nail" either...

My budget is in the $600-700 range.....

[Matt@RFR]

You can build your own extension chords very easily. You can either hard wire it to the machine, or plug it into the existing power chord. For a 180 class 220v machine, I'd recommend 8ga wire in a grease, abrasion and UV resistant version. That stuff is killer, and will outlast YOU! For what it's worth, I had a 50 foot power chord (8ga) hard wired into my old Miller 180 TIG and it never once got warm to the touch.

Whatever machine you get, check the input load @ max amperage and make sure your dryer breaker is at that number or above.

Now, regarding having a machine too big to do a good job on thin sheetmetal: Look at the bottom end amp numbers on all these MIGs and all these power sources. My 251 welds 18ga like there's no tommorow WITH .035 WIRE. I'm sure it'd do an even better job if I felt it necessary to change to .023 wire. If nothing else, the bigger machines weld thin sheet BETTER than the smaller machines due to being more accurate and having more adjustability.

[69boo307]

I made 25 ft. extension cord for my Miller 175 when I bought it, so I could plug into the dryer outlet in my laundry room and reach nearly any point in the garage with it.

I bought 10 guage wire at Home Depot (big, heavy, expensive), and the appropriate plug ends that I needed to match my welder and outlet. For a longer cord, like 50', I'd use 8 guage. The hard part for me was figuring out how to correctly connect the wires, my first attempt was wrong and I was only getting 110 to the welder. The fan would run but it wouldn't weld.

The extension cord cost me about $50 to make, fwiw. Also, note what Matt said about the breaker . Most new dryer outlets should easily handle a 175amp welder, but check to make sure!

[Modo Innovations]

Hi all,
I thought I would never need a welder bigger than my Miller 130 when I bought it. Guess what, I wish I would have got a 220v instead. I could kick myself for not going bigger. Its kind of like horsepower, you have more control and you can never enough.
I have welded 3/8" angle to 14ga. sq. tube with my 130 for a roll around fixture that I made for my car when I had the subframe out of it. I did alot of grinding on the 3/8" angle so I would have a valley into the meat of it. Alot of weaving was involved though. Can you imagine the BUTT PUCKER that I had when I set the car on the fixture for the time.....It held up very well. Always get more than you think you will need, if finances will alow.

Shannon