FINOCJ
August 29th, 2020, 08:15 PM
I've been thinking of upgrading my welder for awhile now...In reality, the 110V Lincoln I had was probably good enough, but at a max of 88amps, it was sort of limited to no thicker than 1/8" (according to specs - probably more limited based on user skill). I've looked into a 220V in the garage, but there were complications with the circuit breaker box (no more slots to expand) and some of the needed mods were beyond my interest or budget to pay for....And, most of the 220V welders were out of my budget anyway. But, I decided if I could sell the Lincoln at a decent price, then that would allow for a bit more budget for a 110V upgrade....Well, I must have priced the Lincoln too low when I posted today, as I was flooded with responses and it sold within 2 hours. Anyway...shopping spree time:
https://beamingpix.com/images/2020/08/29/P_20200829_184332.jpg
A bigger 110V welder like this Hobart 140 should be well beyond most of what I need (welds up to 1/4"). It gets a lot of great reviews (including from a personal friend who has one) and uses a lot of Miller components. The drive system seems like it is much nicer/durable (less plasticky), and it comes with a drive wheel that can accommodate many more sizes of wire (both flux and solid) than the two sizes (1 solid and 1 flux) I had on the little Lincoln (no intent to bash Lincoln - the Lincoln 140 is probably a very equivalent machine). I set it straight up for use with solid wire and gas. Running small solid wire (.025) as that is what I had for the Lincoln, but might step up to .030 solid wire? I need to make a modification to the cart so the bottle and hose don't interfere as much - so get to play with it a bit.
https://beamingpix.com/images/2020/08/29/P_20200829_184332.jpg
A bigger 110V welder like this Hobart 140 should be well beyond most of what I need (welds up to 1/4"). It gets a lot of great reviews (including from a personal friend who has one) and uses a lot of Miller components. The drive system seems like it is much nicer/durable (less plasticky), and it comes with a drive wheel that can accommodate many more sizes of wire (both flux and solid) than the two sizes (1 solid and 1 flux) I had on the little Lincoln (no intent to bash Lincoln - the Lincoln 140 is probably a very equivalent machine). I set it straight up for use with solid wire and gas. Running small solid wire (.025) as that is what I had for the Lincoln, but might step up to .030 solid wire? I need to make a modification to the cart so the bottle and hose don't interfere as much - so get to play with it a bit.