hey the one for sale is a non comercial unit it is also great for body work you should check out the 180C from lincon itis a good welder but for frame work nothing less than a 185 220v is all i use.
If you want to buy a welder go to a welding store. The units that CTC and TSC sell are not the same that you get at welding store. If you want to buy a small welder to tack it together, then take it over to some or have them come over and finish welding it properly. Frames are not a good place to learn to weld on.
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Custom CNC plasma cutting. PM me for your custom parts.
Your welding supplier may deal with trade ins or off lease machines, check with them. Quite often they are reconditioned and sell with a year bottle contract. And being used they sell for a much more attractive price. And lastly, if they sell the brand that's the trade in/off lease, they have parts and tech support, if and when you need it.
Your best bet is to go to auctions and buy a good quality used welder made by Lincoln, Miller , ESAB etc... When it comes to welders, you get what you pay for. I wont even comment on the Chinese welders because this will end up in the "off-topics".
I bought an eastwood mig, comes with the spool gun for aluminum and cost me 571 dollars Canadian, it has a pretty decent drive unit and a good duty cycle. I think mine can do 220 amp at max, but I only use it for body metal or a job that I don't need to bet my life on. that machine for 600 on sale is worth about 200 dollars and the quality will reflect that.
A cheap 180 amp machine running 220v will weld 3/16 in a single pass. that being said using a cheap machine is just going to piss you off. The time spent messing around getting it to run right just isn't worth it. If you don't weld often id recommend the millermatic , set the wire size , select the thickness and pull the trigger the 180 is good to 5/16 the 211 is good to 3/8. I have a 211 and Ill guarantee it will do 1/2" without a problem .
I have the same welder, it's great. I got mine way cheaper tho. I was told mine was used once. But it wasn't. I had to hook it up. Just make sure the metals very clean.
I'm fortunate that if I have any serious welding ( on a frame) to do I borrow my neighbours and as a bonus he helps/checks it for me while I continue to learn and get better welding skills.
If its body work or other weird stuff I have to weld then I go it alone...... But not willing to chance it on major/important stuff.
I would have wasted good $ on poorer quality equipment just to have something. So if you can get someone else generous enough to share their time, ect that's is a good option.
(If you can wait until you can afford a better quality one and get experience with it before continuing on your frame work great.
If you don't want to wait, buy that one..... and then weld/practice on someone's frame you don't like)
Disclaimer! please read! It is late/I've been working 19hrs and I'm beat! So not sure if I will still think this last statement was a good idea when I read it in the morning
Not meant to offend, but from your posting your not really experienced with it.......No shame in that game. We are all here to learn something and there are lots of good experienced/opinions here that are always willing to help.
Take the info that works the best for you and file the rest for review at a later date
Save up your money and buy a robotic, production line, mig welder that your engineers can then program to exacting, repeatable specifications in your controlled environment.
Never fails here, a question gets asked, and it turns into a pissin match again.
Dave, if you like the Lincoln 180, buy it, There are thousands of those machines around , and there aren't thousands of them being taken back cause they were no good.
Thanks everyone for the info, and the d*&k measuring contest.
I do know how to weld ( mig, tig and stick ) its just that im not certain what welders will be safe on frames etc.
My 110v cdn tire Lincoln has worked flawlessly for over 10 years, with the odd hiccup only when I try the flux core wire, which I hate, along with stick....lol.
I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this specific unit, and if it was good enough for the important stuff.
If I can get the 180 on sale, and offset the cost by selling my current 110v, I think itd be a pretty sweet deal if I'm only in it for $400-500 .
I saw the eastwood units, but after reading reviews it seems that lots of the parts in them are plastic rather than steel/metal , and crap out as soon as you pull it out of the box.
I don't want to be a couple welds away from completing a project and have to wait for parts for 3 weeks to be delivered.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the info, comments etc.i'll do a bit more research here as well
on the contrary my eastwood has a steel wire feed with a gear reduced motor, so its pretty smooth and works well. i did the whole camaro panel job with it and had no problems. too look at the eastwood its no different then others ive seen, just labeled different. if i used it every day i would spring for a more expensive machine. a lincoln is a good enough unit for that kind of money. the nice thing about the eastwood is it has an infinite speed and voltage adjustment, so im not limited to a b c and d settings for heat. this is the main reason i bought it, it can go pretty low in temp and weld pretty thin sheet
Just for your information because they come on sale often is the hobart that Tsc sells are a rebranded miller without the newest bells and whistles. If you can live without the point and pull features This may be the way to go miller bought out hobart a few years back and as far as the smaller migs go the consumable parts interchange.
-- Edited by slim on Tuesday 1st of July 2014 08:50:53 PM
I have a 22 year old Lincoln Mig Pak 10 that I use for sheetmetal with .025 wire and CO2, and there is 15 year old Lincoln Power Mig 200 which I use with .035 wire and C02/Argon mix for structural welding. I have never had a single problem with either - knock on wood. The only replacement parts on either of them is a knob that got knocked off on the 10, and a new gun on the 200 after it wore out.
The machine you are looking at is much closer to the Mig Pak 10, then it is to the Power Mig 200, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it. it is a good welder and will do frames without a problem. I know of at least two race chassis shops who have the older Power Mig 140's which is the same type of unit as the 180. They have built many race car chassis with them, which all passed chassis cert, and have been racing for years without a problem. This includes 7.50 cert'd cars which is pretty much the limit for mild steel chassis.
I have one and it works great with gas. I tried the flux core wire but didn't like it. The thing is you just can't run them all day like a production shop would as the wire drive and duty cycle of the welders are probably not commercial grade. Would I buy one again ? The answer is yes.
Don't worry about the duty cycle. For automotive use, you will rarely be at max power, and the duty cycle goes up quite a bit as the power goes down. I have never had thermal cutout while welding.
